The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-09-07
STUDYING ABOUT
WORKING WOMEN
SHE NO LONGER KNITS SOCKS OR
DOES WEAVING AT HOME, BUT
IN SHOPS AND FACTORIES
EIGHT MILLION WOMEN WORK
Majority of Women Who Work Have
Some One Dependent Upon Them.
They Labor Under Different Cir
cumstances and Many Motives.

cumstances and Many Motives.
The activities Of the women's di-
vision of labor statistics of the de-
partment of labor have been kept
somewhat in the background of pub
lie attention, and few people know
that such a division exists, much less
of the splendid work which it has
done in bringing about the ameliora-
ton of conditions which a woman
must face who goes out int the world
of industry to fight for living.
OF necessity the pioneers of the
division had to work silently and I'M
obtrusively, for they met considera-
BILE opposition. But now the work
has justified itself. Employers use
it's reports as authentic reference,
The judgments of its investigators
are taken without question as the
basis for remedial legislation, and
Miss NJ. K Conyngton, who has just
succeeded Miss Marie Obenauer as
the head of the division, discusses
each phase of this unique activity.
Between 10000 900 and 100000
women have followed the work once
done in the home into shop and fac
tory" says Miss Conyngton. Instead
of knitting her socks at home the wo-
man today does it behind machines
in large mills; instead of spinning
and weaving in front of her own fire.
side she keeps the shuttle whirring
on big, noisy machines, along with
dozens of other women who are do
ing the same thing. She bakes, cans
and preserves not in her own kitchen
but in huge factories where these
housewifely, old-fashioned things are
done in a wholesale way.
''It isn't because women do more
work nowadays than they did for
merly that there has arisen this need
for a government bureau dealing
with their labor, but because they
work under radically different condi-
lions from those of the past. The
industrial revolution has brought
with it the need of the trained and
impartial investigator, who will keep,
in way, a check upon the employer,
and counterbalance as far as possible
| the ruthlessness and Indifference of
big business.
Il am not saying that it would not
be within the province of the labor
bureau to keep a check upon women
in the home as we'll as the sO-called
wage-earner. Though she may not
draw regular pay the mother of the
| family works as valiantly as the Wo-
man in the cannery, and in many
cases under as adverse conditions,
An investigation along this line
would bring out surprising facts, l
warrant you. However, IS much as
we would like to help the individual
! householder it is quite impossible
with only 100000 a year for the
whole bureau to cover more tnan the
women who work in groups, the en-
ployes of stores, smelters, mills and
the like. The department of agricult-
ure, through it's studies of farm wo-
men. and the census bureau partly
cover the work of the woman in the
home"
The Woman Worker.
When Miss ConyngtOn was asked
to draw some generalization as to
the woman worker as a whole she
replied
Women work under such different
circumstances and for such a variety
of motives that it is impossible to
draw any close generalization. If
you care to take this as generaliza-
ton the majority of women who work
have some one dependent upon
them
This may sound startling to the
unsophisticated investigator, who
shares the prevalent notion that girls
who go out to work do so for pin
money. In every branch Of industry
which we have studied we find quite
the contrary to be true. Not more
than per cent of the wage-earning
girls are ribbon earners.
IurHlDS 10 Ole Oh the IL NOlUILI5fi
which form a complete reference IL
brary for this woman statistician she
ran her finger through a maze of fig
ures and culled out these state
ments:
of girls and boys over IS years
of age contributing to the family in
come the girls contribute only one
per cent less than the boys, although
their average income is 800 year
less. Again, while the father gen
orally bears the brunt of the family
budget 1873 per cent comes from the
wage-earning daughter. This table
relates specifically to the cotton tex
tile industry, but it holds true of the
glass industry as well, and the silk
and garment factories of New York,
Philadelphia and Boston.
In answer to the query as to Wheth-
er she had ben able to discern wheth-
er the girl looked upon her work in
as serious a light as the boy who
would eventually have the response
biIity of a family on his hands she
said
Il cannot say that the girl who
earns her own living-not profess
sional workers, as l know nothing Of
them-has any less defined aim than
the boy who labors. Both are actu-
ated by such a variety of considera-
tiOns that one simply is at a loss TO