The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-04-05
OF Activity in Germany, No
Matter How Difficult, to Do
Their Part in War.

women are now at one Kind Of work
or another in Berlin. They have
swarmed into almost every field OF
activity, no matter how difficult; they
are earning more money than thty
ever had before: many have lost
their own bread winners and are for
al time dependent upon their own ef.
forts. The probable unwillingness
OF women to go back to their homes
after the war Is being more and
more anticipated by the labor lead
ers who say the women must go in
favor Of the men when the time
comes.
BY far the largest proportion Of
the women now employed in Berlin
are unskilled neutrality-suspicious.
100000 Of the 100000. or the
remaining 100000 skilled workers,
only small part as customarily 80
employed. They have done wonder
fully well, evn In such difficult and
strenuous occupations as metal work,
but they are not, BECAUSE OF physi-
cal handicaps. the equal Of their
male predecessors.
Puzzling Question.
just how large will be the num-
Der of widows. or Of women left with
crippled husbands, after the war, the
labor leaders do not attempt as yet
to estimate. These, on the one hand
constitute, however. but part of the
problem. Fully as puzzling is tho
question of what to do with those
women who. though they later will
have other means of support, are ex-
pected deliberately to balk at retir-
Ing to non-productive life again.
The employer who Is able to hire
women more cheaply than men, will
be loath to change to the old meth
cd, and for u time is not going to be
able to afford 1t. A not inconsider-
able degree Of diplomacy combined
with n judicial use OF compulsion Is
going to be necessary, labor leaders
feel, before the problem can be adj
justed.
There is hardly an occupation into
which women have not crowded dur
ing the last year. The employment
OF women as street car conductors Is
already an old and familiar condi-
ton. and women "motormen" have
become more or less familiar sights
even in the busy downtown streets OF
Berlin.
The first woman taxicab chaut-
feur was noted early last summer,
and she has multiplied somewhat
since then. The construction COM
pany building the new tube under
the Friedrich Strasse connecting the
and southern sections Of tho
city has for months employed femi-
nine "huskies," young and old, in
out the sandy underpin-
ming OF the street.
Coal Carried by Women.
Two years ago the streets OF the
itary age. Their places were taken
by boys. and now women are being
introduced as fast, as the youths
grow up to military age and enter
the army. 1t is common sight on
any street to see coal being carried
into residences from teams by wom-
en- instead of men.
The underground railway compa-
MES of Berlin months ago installed
women as ticket choppers, and then
introduced them MS guards. When it
was found that their dresses fire.
got caught in doors, the COM
panies did not go back to male help
but ordered the women to don
boomers. and today there are more
OF them to be seen than men.
Even Germans. accustomed to
seeing women performing heavy
duties, gasped a little when they
heard that the steam railroads. IN
addition to installing women at the
stations for minor duties. had put
them in rs track walkers. switch
tenders and track layers. Yet the
Prussian railways today have large
Of women now in their EN-
ploy.
It is almost universally admitted
that the women do not adequately
for the men. Women con-
ductors, for instance, are said to be
about fifty per cent as efficient as
their male predecessors. and only
about half OF those who go to work
as conductors are able to stand the
strain. There has been notable in
crease in certain women's diseases
resulting diretcly from this work.
Few of the trades are harder or
more strenuous than metal work,
work, which Just now, OF course, is
booming because Of the need OF am
munition. VT there are thousands