OCR Text |
Show ECONOMIC PREPAREDNESS ) When Women Do Men's Work In Europe We Shall Need Protection Thcro nro more proponents of n reasonably high Tariff In this coun try today than there were fo'ir years ago. Many of tho so called Freo Traders, now realize that domestic Industry was temporarily saved by tho European wnr and that sharp competition will begin ngaln Just aa soon ns the strugsle In Europe ends. Wo need economic preparedness quite as much as wo do military pre-pnrediics pre-pnrediics and this can como about to a largo extent by the restoration of the full degree ot Protection thnt American Industry enjoyed before tho passage of the Underwood Tariff. . Otherwise even n higher degree of efficiency In mnchlno production will not bo able to offset tho lower in-bor in-bor costs which prevail In Europe. Europe will need tho money ns ' never beforo and may bo confidently confident-ly cxpoctcd to Bell at small profits for somo tlmo. Cheap labor and a disposition to accept a comparatively comparative-ly small return should soon glvo the foreign manufacturers nn ndvnntago In American markets and our much coveted gold will bo tho prlzo. Dut someone says, thoro will bo no longer cltenp, labor In Europo ns tho war has already and Is still killing kill-ing off men by tho millions. Tho loss of men will be felt of course but what of conditions during dur-ing the past year when tho armies havo been In the field? Factories have not been closed down and in fnct tho manufacture of war munitions muni-tions hns keyed up many plants to top notch efficiency. Whllo men havo been at tho front In tho war, women In all tho countries coun-tries of Europe havo bqen crowding Into places thus left vacant. Gorm-any Gorm-any especially reports hundreds ot thousands of women employed slnco tho war began. In many factories and machlno shops to which they havo been admitted, ad-mitted, tho havo proved deft and capable showing a greater unit production pro-duction thnn that of tho mascullno workers they replaced. Tho longer tho war laBta the greater great-er the los8 of men, but tho greater tho employment of women. When peaco comes somo women will, of. courso resume their former sphcrot of labor, but the majority, being widows or having crippled husbands, or hnvlng enjoyed much larger wag' cs than formerly, will bo very loath to rotlro from tho list of wage earners, earn-ers, or to chango to work yielding lower wages, unless absolutely driven driv-en to do so. Experience shows under ordinary conditions .that tho percentage of fo-malo fo-malo labor Is rapidly increasing In nil civilized countries. Moreover, whero women have secured a foothold foot-hold In any branch of work they nov-or nov-or havo been driven out, but In many cases havo succeeded In supplanting tho mon almost entirely, Witness what hns happened with reared to stcnogrnphors pnd clerks in dry gends stores and deportment stores. It is moro than probablo In fact that many manufacturing plants In Europo formorly operated entirely by men but which hnvo been obliged since tho war begnn to fill vacancies with women will not only keep the J latter employes but ndd to their num. 1 ber. j . .Necessity is the mother of ways jniid means and tho war has quickened quick-ened all tho peoples concerned to a fuller realization of their capacities than any agency of peaco over could hnvo. Alro much of tho economic wasto always present In ordlnnry times, becnuso of tho relatively big number of men who cither will not or think they can't, earn a proper livelihood, will bo removed by tho war. Tho heroic deeds of endur-nnco endur-nnco and Ingenuity as well ns bravery brav-ery colled forth by war makes for a regenerated manhood for many. Tho argument that Europo will bo unnble to competo with us after the wnr becnuso of scarcity of labor nnd high wages should fool no one, least of all tho manufacturer who ha8 becu ! bidding for foreign trade fiurlng tho i past year. Boston Commercial. Al |