The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-24

A woman writes me letter in
which she asks this question::
DO you think that I have been
wrong in letting my daughters, who
are in business, keep half of their
wages? My youngest daughter start
ed to work when she was 8 years old
and received SIS week salary, and out
of that 1 gave her back s2.75. AS she
increased in efficiency she received
more pay, but 1 always have let her
keep for herself half that she made.
as thought that it made her feel in
dependent and taught her how to ham
die money.
"Out of her wages she has clothed
herself, and has almost paid for
$3.50 piano in addition to having also
taken music lessons. Besides this she
has helped me out with small sums
of money when they were needed
about the house.
my other two daughters who are
now married did equally well, and are
good economists about their house
hold. My husband and 1 have had
many quarrels about this subject, he
contending that the girls should give
everything they make to me, and that
1 should buy their clothes, and give
them a lew cents spending money d
week, while 1 hold that my plan is
the right one. What do you say about
the NATTER"
Certainly the person who earns the
money has a right to it, whether that
one is a bank president, or a little
working girl. The man who thinks
that his daughter should turn over her
pay envelope to somebody else, and be
given a small rake-off out of 1t, would
be highly indignant if anybody should
confiscate the proceeds of his week
labor in that high-handed manner.
Yet what's the difference?
The girl has given her time and
service for those few dollars just as
much as any man has given his. And
she's got just as much a right to the
money she has toiled for as any man
has to his.
There is no other more glazing in
stance of sex injustice in the world
than the difference of the way in
which parents treat their boys and
girls who work. Nobody, for instance,
ever dreams of such thing as a son
turning over the whole of his salary
every week for the family expense,
and being satisfied to have his mother
dole out to him a quarter or a half
dollar to spend on himself.
On the contrary, when a mother
has a son who gives her what would
be fair board if he lived with Strang
ers, she goes about Dragging about
what a kind, good, generous, consid
crate son she has got, and if, beside
this, he occasionally buys her a new
pair of gloves, or a bit of furniture for
the house, she finds no words loud
enough in which to sing his praises,
and he acquires reputation of being
a model son among his neighbors.
But when daughter goes to work, in
ninety-nine cases out Of hundred,
I -tr%~ 11z r-r1rr1 rre~
without even so much as a thank
you" The girl is self supporting in
that she earns her own money, but she
is still dependent in reality, because
she has to go to her mother for every
cent she spends just as much as if it
were mothers money and not her own
that she was asking for. She never
has that joy, that is one of the choicest
pleasures on earth, of having the mon
ey that she Las made herself in her
own individual pocket book, and feel
ing that she can spend it exactly as
she pleases without giving an account
to anybody.
Moreover, mothers are often cruelty
unjust to their daughters, and make
veritable slaves of a girl who has an
ability to earn money for the sake of
the balance of the family. oh, the
Marthas are not all dead yet-only
they toll now in stores or offices in
stead of the kitchen,
1 know of one case in which a moth
er broke off a most desirable match
between her daughter and fine young
man because, if Martha married and
her salary was taken out of the family
eXchequer, they would have to move to
a cheaper flat. And I know of an
other case in which a frail, delicate
young girl was forced by her mother
to support a great, husky loafing
brother. The girl rebelled time and
again at this injustice, but her mother
would bring her into submission by
her tears and reproaches, and calling
her an undutiful daughter and an un-
natural sister.
Nor is the money question the only
instance of parental unfairneSS that
the working girl has to put up with
Nobody expects the young man who
has been hard at work all day to come
home and help with the houseworlx
His dinner is smoking hot on the table
when he returns, and after he eats it
he doesn't have to wash the dishes, or
run the sewing machine, or take care
of the younger children.
But when poor Martha gets home
n hundred times more tired than her
brother from her days work, mother
has saved up a lot of jobs for her
She has to help get the dinner and
clear away the able, and put in a
pleasant evening doing the family
sewing.
And that's the main reason why so
many girls break down in business.
| They are forced to do the work of
men outside OF their homes, and the
work of women in them. And nobody
has got the constitution to stand both
As a matter of fact, the generosity
! of working girls to their families
passes belief. Without murmur they
turn over the bulk of their earnings
for the common use, and wherever
you find a family of girls in business
| you will find the house well furnish
! ed, and the family well clothed. But
it's time that these parasitic families
rec ognized this for the liberality it is
and not as their right.
When girl goes to work and SUD-
| ports herself she becomes thereby an
| Independent woman. She should nav
! her mother a far board as a matter
| of Justice. All the balance of her