Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-02-18
WOMEN REPLACING MEN IN ENGLISH
 BUSINESS WORK
Nearly a Million Members of "Weaker Sex" Are Max
 ing Good in Mems Jobs.

Correspondence Associated Press) women-exactly 9SS, ,5O0-haye enter ed all kinds of positions held by men before tho war began, and of this number nearly all--eXactly 933,00O- were actually substituted for men called to the front or diverted to other war activities.
 This is shown in a survey of the whole movement toward woman labor since the outbreak of the war, made officially by the labor department, with data down to the last two months. It shows 3.231 ,000 women now em- plOyed in all branches of industry and commerce, or about a million moro than when the war began. It is this new million of women workers one sees at every turn, on the tramways and motorhuses taking fares, in the government offices taking the place of the men clerks, in the hotels and restaurants as walters and cashiers, in banks and business houses and running cinemas, theaters, public houses and the whole range of busi ness activities.
 Just how far this has gono the gov ernment has now figured out to a nicety. In banking and finance, for instance, there were only $500 women employed before the war; now the number has increased fOur-iold to 46, 800. In government departments, also, the women workers have in creased from 66,O0O to 133,G00, dis placing men in all but 5000 cases In industrial trades the increase of women has been greatest, reaching 393 ,OOO, of which 314,000 replaced men, Another very large increase of wom- en is in the government ammunition works, where there were 2,@00 before the war and 117,000 now. The gov ernment figures give the entire ll7,0o0 as directly replacing men.
 Tn commercial occupations, clerks in stores, offices, etc., the increase of women is 5000, of which 264,000 re- placed men. In professional occupa- tions. connected with the law, medi- cine. magazine and newspaper work, etc., the increase of women is lo,o0o, of which all have replaced men. A curious fact is that each woman has replaced about two men in hotels, public houses, cinemas, theaters. etc, the increase of women being l6,OOo and the displacement of men 3000o. On buses, trans and various kinds of transport service the women have increased 41,00O, the entire number replacing that number of men. Men teachers are also largely replaced; :; also men on municipal transport work the total increase of women In this line being 34,00O of which 31 ,Ooo replaced men. In farm work many men have been drawn eff for the war, but few women have replaced them. The men on farms rep aced by women is given at 10000 while the number of women farm workers is S0,000, and the increase since the war only 800. Women nurses have irh reased 34,00o since the war.
 Summing up the. substitution of women for men, the government statement says there has been an in- crease of 15O,000 since last July in the number of women directly replac- ing men. This shows slight check in the rate of replacement. In some trades, like clothing and textiles, wo- men workers have decreased, prop- ably because they were able to get better wage sin the many new fields now opening to them. In October 40 per cent of the textile firms reported they were unable to get all the wo- men they requird so that while the supply of women workers has in' creased. inc demand is also increas-