The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-08-01
HASKIN'S LETTER
Government Establishes Bureau
For Women Engaged in
War Work.


of government machinery has been
created for the benefit of the American
working woman. 1t is known as the
Woman's Division of the Department
of Labor, and 1t came into being last
week when Miss Mary Van Kleeck and
Miss Mary Anderson moved from the
large wooden shack that houses the
Ordnance Division to the Labor De-
partment Building.
These two women have been running
the woman's branch of the industrial
division of the Ordnance Department
for the past year. and they were sue
cessful in settling many difficult prob
lens arising from the employment of
women in the governmental arsensls.
Now under the new woman's division
they will have sort of supervisory in
terest in every woman worker on a war
contract. They will investigate and
study her industrial life, her health, her
social diversions and her future, not
from any sentimental desire to help the
working woman herself, but from a
practical desire to help win the war.
Both Miss VanKleeck and Miss An
derson are particularly well fitted for
tits work. Before her appointment to
the Ordnance Department Miss Van
Klceck was with the Russell Sage Foun-
datlon. She is inclined to view the
whole labor situation with an unpre-
JUDGED eye. She says, for example,
that labor is never so blind as when it
opposes the introduction of labor-sav-
ing machinery has never failed to mean
an increase in iobs," she declares.
Machinery means the expansion of an
industry, and the expansion of an in
dustrY means the employment of more
workers"
Capital she regards as blind to it's
own interests when 1t opposes the pay
ment of wage that will insure healthy
living conditions for workers. For the
production of factory depends upon
the efficiency of it's employees, and the
efficiency of its employees depends upon
the state of their health, as Miss Van
Kleeck is ready to prove by an over
whelming amount of evidence.
Miss Anderson has gained her ex-
tensive knowledge of labor conditions
through tirst-hand experience. OF
Sw- dish birth, she came to this country
at an early age and entered a Chicago
shoe factory, where she stitched shoes
for Is years. The greatest part of this
time she was president of the local boot
and shoe workers union, in which ca
pacity she drifted into larger labor
circles and became familiar with in
dustrial conditions in all parts of the
country. Miss Anderson declares that
conditions in shoe factories are especial
ly good-that wages are high and the
worErooms pleasant-but she has not
the same to say for other industries.
The greatest problem the new wo-
mans division will have to deal with is
that of securing equal pay for equal
work by men and women" she says.
"In scores of factories women are now
doing mems work for less than men are
paid We must focus attention on such
things as this, and on the l0-hour shift
that prevails in some factories, both day
and night. For this reason Miss An
derson believes that the government s
labor standards should be written into
all government contracts.
AS the war progresses an amazing
number of women are being absorbed
into industries which formerly employ
ed only men. Thousands of women en-
ployed on war contracts. for many con-
Germs filling government orders have
made it special practice to advertise
for women workers, preferably women
with relatives at the front. This is
where the government 5 interest begins.
1t has been found that the employees in
certain factories are much more eff
cient, producing much greater guam
tity and higher quality of work than
those in other factories. A superficial
investigation indicates that factory con-
ditions, which vary greatly, are re-
sponsible for the difference in output
For example, factory in Cleveland,
which works its employees eight hours a
day for only five days week, is filling
its war orders with much greater ra-
pidity than other factories having much
lorger hours of work. The excellent
cafateria maintained in connection with
its workrooms and a recreation park
established for use during the noon
hour are also believed by experts to
have something to do with this factory s
tremendous efficiency.
Now if the conditions existing at this
Cleveland factory are those which bring
the greatest production, then the
government is interested in seeing those
conditions established in every factory
filling war orders. The government
cannot enforce such conditions. 1t can
only advocate them by persistent propa-