New-York tribune., 1919-09-25
lane Addams Tells
Doctors of Needs
Of Women Workers
Some Intellectual Stimuli Is
Essential, She Contends:
Over-Fatigue Declared to
Act as Moral Depressant

Miss Jane Adams was the chief fig
rre of the day at the International Con-
t.rence of Women Doctors, at the
Young Women's Christian Association
yesterday. The foreign doctors broke
INTO applause when announcement was
made that she would speak.
Her talk was brief, but touched on
.wo of the most perpleNing questions
IN regard to women in industry. night
work. and lack Of intellectual stimu-
lus in factory work.
"For thirty years" said Miss Adams,
II have lived in an industrial neigh
5orhood in Chicago, and l have had
unusual opportunity to observe the re-
lation Of industrial work to the lives
Of women, and the effect of legislation
On these conditions. When we first
vent to Hull House there was no pro-
lection for women working at night.
There was plant which employed 1,500
women at night, and we would sec
them coming home at and G o'clock
in the morning, physically depleted.
Moral Effect Emphasized
The moral wreckage among these
girls was great. 1t became known that
they were on the streets at that lonely
horr, and men lay in wait for them.
More serious than that, however, was
he problem of the lowering of moral
resistance under conditions of great
fatigue. This is question which will
oesr q great deal of study from doc
ors and psychologists of the future.
ut will be profitable. too, TO compare
me state of the overworked mother in
The home with the factory worker The
mother at least has a great incentive,
and her work is made lighter by the
love and JOY that go into it; yet We
know that even with this spiritual re-
ward the mother often becomes irrita-
bic and oyerworked.
ut is unnatural for women to work
without some intellectual and affec-
tional stimulus, and when they have it
they do better work. | think the ex-
panation OF the increased output OF
women workers in munitions factories
les in this fact, that at last they had
found a work to do which gave them
a spiritual reward"
Heavy Tasks Too Wearing
Dr.. Frederic S. Lee explained the
avs OF fatigue as they affect indus
-rlal workers 1T is a field which must
ne studied further before we are able
% speak with conviction,' he said. "but
Investigations made by woman doctor
among $500 English women employed
on mems work in factories during the
var showed that 42 per cent of the
women were suffering from over
fatigue and Ill health. The problem
:or women, 1t seems TO me. is to find
and what particular tasks she Is fitted
ioy"
Robert B. Wolf. Of Edmunston. New
Brunswick, followed up Miss Addams's
suggestion about the necessity for in
-e.lectual rewards in industry, with
description of how he had taught men
II New Hampshire pulp factory to
,ake an interest in the factory welfare.
The underlying reason for the labor
unrest of to-day he said lies in the
iact that the industrial system has
'rea,ed man as machine and not as
creative force. The recognition of :
he Individual is the underlying motive
o. the labor movement"
Industrial Health Discussed
Dr Louis Harris, formerly connected
With the New York City Department of
Health, spoke on his speciality, indus
.rial health
Physicians have been treating indi-
vidual cases Of rheumatism. tubercu-
iosls and skin disease when they should
have given their attention to the in
qustrlal conditions bringing about the
disease" ne said.
he then enumerated many diseases
nat have their origin in faulty indus
rial conditions-such as the lead collie
Of painters, the pneumonia OF miners,
me appendicitis developed by the fac
,.ory girl from over use of her right +
'oot, the tubercucols the stone /
cutter gets from marble dust and the
pneumonia contracted by factory girls
who work near open doors and win
COWS. Women ticket choppers in the
subway, whore they are exposed to
crafts are due for a siege of illness,
ne warned.