Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-10
BUREAU PICKS VOCATION
TO FIT GIRL APPLICANT
Women Are Questioned by L. ).
Employment Director and
Classified According to Talent

Born with a cotton string instead of a
backbone gentle and helpless parents dead
and the income passed out with them"
THAT was the way Miss Vera Bailey. No-
cational director Of the United states En-
ployment Bureau for Women. at 1871 Ar"h
street. described one of the girls who applied
to her today for Just any kind of work.
Like a blessing in disguise the war gave
the girl immediate employment in a mnnI-
ton plant. Last week she was released.
Knowing herself uncducated and unframed
she was imbued with the idea that she
couldn't learn and that nobody wanted her.
She wished the war had continued. for she
Lad such u good, steady job in munitions.
Then Miss Bailey proceeded to starch and
iron that cotton string existing where the
backbone should have been. Skillfully she
sought to change the mental a'tltuoc II nc
girl.
Are your hands injured asked Miss
Bailey.
why. no." the girl answered, surprised,
Then whatever others have done with
their hands. you can do with yours u you
applied for a job with the feeling that You
didn't know whether YOU could learn or not
the employer would al once decide YOU
couldn't and wouldn't bother with you. II
some one showed YOU, YOU could learn To use
your hands. couldn't you?'
"Why. yes, but who would take the
trouble
81 will. FOR one replied the employment
expert. IF YOU will change your helpless
outlook and approach a job with the deter
minatiou to learn and apply yourself. YOU
can soon acquire skill and knowledge in "A
trade that VIZ assure your fn'u ror i osrm
them; be grateful for the pay and the OPP
portunity to have some one teach you
r,un l,nura a fter Miss Bailey had sent her
TO learn a shoe trade, the girl returned to
say she had been accepted, And. IN ADDITION
TO a job, she had won confidence in herself
and inspiration 10 carry her through future
efforts.
That is Just one example of the hundreds
Of cases given attention at the local employ
ment office. Dozens of unframed women and
girls each day apply for work. Many or
them haven't the faintest idea what they
want to do or what they could do; others
aspire TO be stenographers, actresses or a
dozen other things they are totally united
for. For the benefit of such applicants
experts spend their time t~actfully obtaining
from the applicants enough of their past
histories and future aspirations to ascertain
just what they are capable OF. Then just
as adroitly, the examiner persuadeS the girl
to take up the type of work she could best do
While Miss Bailey interviews all the appli-
cants who don't know what they want to do,
Miss Esther Broughton, head of the bureau
Of equalization of supply and demand, inter
views the girls who apply for clerical work
and who are seemingly untitled for such
positions.
There are a hundred things to consider
in examining an applicant declared Miss
Broughton. "You see the child over there
in short skirts and pink stockings, with her
cheeks rouged and her mouth full of gum?
She wants to do clerical work. She hasn't
had any training. She has never had a
serious thought in her mead because she
isn't capable OF serious thinking, She
couldn't intelligently file letters to save her
life. But she is crazy about pretty clothes
and she says she has sewed a little. I
have told her how overcrowded the clerical
field Is today and ] have emphasized how
splendid it Is u be able TO sew. I believe
she will go to the free trade school for
girls, Eleventh and Pine streets and learn
machine sewing That is what she could
do hest and where she would be happiest.
."The young woman sitting next her (and
isn't she good-lookingD Is equally untitled
for clerical work. despite a good education.
She is an athlete. used to outdoor life, She
would 60 wild penned up in an office all
day. We are going TO find her a place as
recreatlonal director or something OF the
sort"
Even in their conversation the examiners
adapt themselves TO the plane of the appli-
cant. II 1t is a girl from the tenement dis
trict, only the simplest words and expressions
are used. And the examiner always controls
the conversation. Sometimes the girls want
to tell their family histories: others won't
talk at all. 10 is up to the Xamine TO
discover what the girl can best do. then
present this thing to the girl in interesting
manner. because often II is fartherest from
the job the applicant has asked for. Hun
dreds. of women are cared for at this one
bureau each week, They vary from the
women of comfortable means who never
worked, but want TO try something just "be-
cause II Is being done these days. to young
girls of soiled hands, whitened noses and
unframed minds. Each Is turned toward
the path she can best travel. insofar as the
employment examiner can ascertain.