New-York tribune., 1919-01-23
Women on the Railroads


The most detailed and interesting
analysis of womens war work in in
dustry yet published is that contained in
Mr.. McAdoo's railroad report. A wom-
ems service section, created TO see that
the women working en- railroads enjoyed
proper working conditions and received
equal pay with men, provides the facts.
Here is the list of occupations outside of
clerical, semi-clerical and common labor
ing positions:
Turntable operators
Packers of journal boxes.
Attendants in toolrooms and store
rooms.
Tclegraphers and telephoncrs in block
signal work (includng intorlocking
switches)
Lever women in signal towers.
Checkers in freight houses.
Csr clerks
Operators on bolt-threadlng machines.
Operators on nut-tapping machines.
Operators car bearing machines.
Operators turret iathes.
Operators on angle-cock grinders.
Hammer operators.
Crane operators.
Arbrakc cleaners, reparcrs and testers
Electric weders
Oxyacetylene cutters and welders
Core makers.
Of course these positions we're a small
minority. Out of the 101 900 total of
women employed 72,2S5 were clerical or
semi-clerical. Women have successfully
entered into the field Of ticket agents on
q considerable scale, for instance. The
supposedly more masculine jobs are the
especial points OF interest, however
What are the conclusions drawn as to
ability and fitness? Only a few classes
of work were definitely rated unsuitable.
Work as section laborers was one Of
these, both because it is heavy work and
also because it involves working in gangs
with men long distances from houses.
Work as truckers in depots and ware
houses was also disapproved by the in
vestigators, because of the excessive
physical exertion. Finally, objection was
made to the use Of women in towers re-
mote from towns or houses.
We come, then, to The other work. AS
turntable operators women have done eX-
cecdingly we'll. One operator, in par
ticular, was rated by her foreman as far
superior to any man he had ever been
able to obtain. She was alert and gen
orally intelligent. The district superin-
tendent remarked that for the first time
in the history of the road the engines
were going out exactly on time OF
another turntable operator the superin-
tendent said: "She's right on the job
when she's needed, pleasant to everybody
and instead of standing in d muck of
dirt and tobacco, she's got the place
cleaned and trim and tidy" Cleaning,
repairing and testing airbrakcs disclose
similar testimony. One shop foreman
said he would be willing to match the
three girls n his shop against any three
men in the country. The tester he cen
sldered the most skilful in the division.
The failures were wholly in the field
OF unskilled labor. This seems surpris-
T ing at first sight but the explanation
apparently was that for these jobs only
old and Inefficient labor came forward.
The skilled jobs, On the other hand,
brought out the best type Of woman
worker VIII these trained workers stick
now that the war need is over? No pre-
action IS made, and we shall have to
wait to see. The one thing established
mere is that already generally reported:
mat women can and do make exceedingly
skiiful machine laborers, fully equal to
tne best men machnists. Their list of
occupations is limited only by their lack
of physical strength.