The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-02-20

, IS the fdct the employers pay less to women than to men for the same
 work, and they use a woman's usu- ally helpless condition to club down wages of both sexes. Take any industry at random and compare the relative rate of wages 1 paid men and women, and this fact stands out with startling distinction. l Thus in nut, bolt ana screw manu- l facture where many women are em- 1 ployed. the proportion of men gett- l ing under four dollars a week is
 4.2, of women 17.3 under six dol i lars a week men 10.S, women 61.1. l Under eight dollars week men
 2S.6, women 92.1, under ten dollars
 a week men 68.3, women 99.5 per cent. Nor is it correct to claim
 that a comparison of the sexes is Of
 little value because the worK they
 do varies widely The fact remains
 that taking a general average of
 women workers throughout the
 ! |
 tenth reaches or passed ten dollars
 per week"
 The per cenrage of women em-
 ployed in the industries of the
 United States is not on the whole
 very large. But it is rapidly in-
 creasing. Every day, every week
 and every year it increases by leaps
 and bounds, There are entire she
 towns in the east where the men are so few that in industrial oceu-
 pations they are negligible. Elm : .ployers have been fortunate iii this : country in having an almost unii- ! miteG immigration to draw for la bcr supply. Since the war began this , field had become more or less re ; stricted, and hence they are resort , ing more and more to female labor, f Since the enormous increase ill mu- ? uitionist exports, the increase in . female labor within year has been . almost incredible, and it now ap- ! pears that the War Department is . anxious to tap this illimitable field. In doing so, il will be remark . ed that the antiquated slogans ? (which have placed motherhood on ? the altar Of idealism, and made the , home a temple of sanctity are being ruthlessly cast aside. It is very l difficult to put over these very ele- = vating sentiments on the people
 when the mothers come from the I machine shops and factories covered . with dusty sweat-streaked faces, : greasy hair and blackened garments, V Nor is any one of the up-lifters who ? usually starts some kinG of wild : streak when socialism is mentioned - tearing things loose because of this r increase in female labor. It is { quite as interesting as remarkable
 that the anti-suffragettes have C never yet so far been very loud Ill l denouncing the degradation may com to women by reason of laborious 2 toil They will overlook the fact . too. that female operatives die . much younger than non-operatives f A very careful Investigation Of in l fant mortality in a manufacturing , town showed that the per centage S of infant martality whose mothers S went to work and of those who dlc n not was as so to 1! The appalling - infant death rate in some manu a facturing centers where mothers r labor is simply astounding, anC C points unerringly to the fact that tho T price of this labor is not alone tt f be reckoned in under payment ant n early decease of the female opera s tive herself. but the cruel undoin3
 of the infant lives which never hat e even a chance of prolongation.
 T. The desperate malignity oT tn Q employment of women at low wage s and under insanitary conditions i r. one whose foul social poison cal l. never be adequately overcome. Ant n if the country is to tolerate sucl n conditions for any lengthy period ,e it will have to endure also the pen ,f alty in a degenerate race and ,d nerveless people. Must everythin ,t that is worth while be sacrificed t F. the sateless cruelty of the God o h Private Profit? Indeed it looks as at to spread the glory of America m trade afar, the American peopl of are to pawn everything worth while