Omaha daily bee., 1920-03-05
Equal Payment
For Equal Work
In England

problem which is now exercising
economists in every country. To
simple and justice-loving people il
presents no difficulties. The solu.
ton is easy. An enormous number
of women are dependent for theis
living upon their own earnings. Let
every occupation be thrown open to
them: provide equal opportunities
and equal pay for equal work. The
woman in industry will thus find her
true level; there will be no under.
cutting men, and all will be we'll.
Unfortunately nobody but the WON.
en- themselves and a minority Of
men believe in and are ready TO pus
this ideal into practice. And the op-
position is most adamant in the
quarters. where so much Is heard
about equality and the rights Of
/, democracy!
During the war the exigencies Of
the times made it imperative that
women should engage upon work
from which they had previously
been excluded. It is an indisputabls
fact that they proved their capacity
in practically every new field of Ia.
Dor. In England they excelled in
that peculiarly masculine" provinces
the engineering trade. Men havs
now stopped fighting each Others
but the war that is being wared
upon the women in industry is more
ruthless than ever. 1t can no longer
be said that women are unit for
MEMS trades" so other reasons are
urged for their exclusion. There is
not enough work to go>found, and
the men must have all that is going.
! Or: the presence of women would
be a danger to the solidarity of the
position built up by labor. OrRan.
ization coupled with equal pay for
equal work would, of course, rule
out of court the last contention. But
certain big unions will not admit
women at any price.
It was the Amalgamated Society
of Engineers that more than say
other body was so insistent upor
the equal pay rule being enforced
during the war. Indeed they en-.
tered into an informal alliance with
the National Federation of Wo.
men Workers and undertook to rs.
sist and support the women's union
in enforcing the demands jointly
agreed upon. They also joined the
women in deputation to the min
lister of munitions in order to put
before him certain specific pro-
posals relating to payment
1t has now been unmistakabiy
shown that the concern exhibited by
this great union was prompted en-.
tirely by self-interest. At the re.
| cent conference of delegates, which(
meets but once In FIVE years, II wae
decided by an enormous majority
not to admit women to their union,
Not all the pleadings and powerful
arguments put forward BY the rep
resentatives OF women in favor Of
their admission, could move them to
any other course. They thus accord
to women workers worse treatment
than that which they have de-
nouneed in unmeasu surcd terms wheh
applied to themselves in former
times. For by the pre-war practices
act women have been turned out
from light chemical work, glass
work, aircraft work and kindred in
dustries which were built up mainly
through their efforts.
There are some Unions that rea-
lie that it is in their own interests,
to organize and admit women on
the same terms as men. But they
would still re1egate the women to
inferior or semi-skilied work. The
National Union of Raiiwaymen
now accepts women members. The
London Society of Composrtors also
takes women who are paid the same
rates as men. The great Cotton
Weaving union was built up front
the beginning by women as we'll -
men, and equal ply has always OBJ
tanned in that trade.-Christian
Science Monitor.