The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-08-01

to work in the sanguine belief that by
some marvellous faculty they could per-
form jobs that men, of much greater
strength and years of experience, had
done. Foreman spent whole weeks in
training female recruits for work to
which they were obviously unsuited.
Large quantities of valuable material
were wasted. Then and only then did
the manufacturers come to see the err
or of their ways.
Now, in most factories, women are
employed only after careful examina-
ton. An employment manager ex-
amines them as to their mental quail
fications, and they are given physical
examination by the factory medical in
spector. After which they are not
escorted up to machine and told to go
to work, but they are sent to school.
The factory training school is prac-
tically product of this war. Great
Britain is supposed to have discovered
it after trying various other methods of
training prospective workers. At any
rate, the so-called "vestibule" school is
now in vogue in every British munition
factory, and it is gradually being in
stalled by American concerns. 1t is
merely room set aside in one part of
the factory where the beginner may
practice her job, underline supervision
of a trained foreman until she becomes
perfect. This takes, as a rule, any,
where from three to ten days, during
which time she works on old material
of little value. A Buffalo factory is
now training about 80 men and women
day in its ''vestibule" school.
Every manufacturer you meet these
days has his own ideas about the en-
ployment of women. Some assert that
there is very little difference between
the sexes, while others are apt TO ex-
aggerate their contrasting character
istics. One employer recently declar-
ed that the contentment of a woman
employe depended one third on the
amount of her wage, one-third on her
living conditions and one-third on her
opportunities for amusement. Amuse-
ments facilities, he believes, are one
of the chief factors in solving the prob
lem OF labor turnover. Women will
stay where they can have good time
outside their hours of work and you
can't make them leave, even for high
er wages.
Thus, such amusements as bowling,
tennis and dancing should be stimulated
in factory towns, this manufacturer be-
lieves; card clubs should be encouraged
among the women and moving pictures
provided Care must be taken not to
NEEDLE with the class distinctions
raised by the women or to supervise
their amusements in any way. Neither
must they be offered as a charity Wo-
men like to paw for what they get, like
to be independent and hate to be dis
turbed in the formation of their own
cliques or social sets
Another manufacturer believes that
attractive living accommodations will
hold women with greater surety than
anything else. Give women comfort
able clean homes, with day nurseries in
the case Of married women with child
rem and opportunities for securing good
food and you need not worry about them
developing the wanderlust.
One other problem that still remains
to be settled in employing women in the
places of men is that of her suitability
to the task. Are women suited to run
street cars, to work in railroad yards,
to lift heavy pieces of machinery and
to endure night work? Miss Van Kleek
and Miss Anderson answer these ques-
tions with the counter questions: Are
these occupations altogether desirable
for men either, and could they not be
made suitable and desirable for BOTH"