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Show 1 ; lm Went on. q trme I 11 ' ""' tSMBiS MIHIIIIhl IIIIIHIIIIIII I NIIIIIIIIININIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll IHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Illl lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll)lllllllllllllllllll t i J. I If 8.000,000 self-supporting women j 'J if Vont on strike in this country "what 1 f h would happen? I ft I? Babies would go unwashed, un- I 16 clthed, unhushed and unfed that I 11 is a cortainty-. School children ill! ould go untaught Orphans he turn- j u out upon the street. The doors of I W Public and parochial schools would III cloBc. numberless institutions for WM the destitute and helpless would If W avo to e emncti an hundreds of J3 ' thousands of janitors, engineers, 111 ll caretakers, gardeners and other malo H I, employes of such centers would bo II K; turned jobless on the streets. Hi fi One public school system, tho sec-t sec-t I ond greatest in the United States, H m would be without its leader. The HI correction system in tho greatest I; city in America would automatical-Ill automatical-Ill 91 y 080 its chiof, as sho is a self-BlrU self-BlrU supporting woman, One cabinet of-Bw of-Bw flee that of tho head of the chilli chil-li Hf drcn's bureau would bo without its HKi head. DH HOW W051E5 H Si HAT FIGHT. M I There wouldn't bo any grand op- II K era. Theatora would have to close. B Tho moyles would have to discon- II r tinuo business. Tho vast depart- Ill ment store business of tho United Pf I States would bo paralyzed. V llffj Such a contingency scarcoly HI tt!l III i threatens, but it is not outside the vale of possibility. A national strike has been advocated by some of the foremost leaders of tho suffragist movement in New York, prominent among these being Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse. The methods of a woman's strike, if It ever goes into effect, will bo unique. It will not be fought out with sticks and stones and struggles in tho streets; with gatherings in halls and addresses by tho loudest-voiced, tho most articulate of tho strikers, or with money assessed in times of Industrial peace, as in the case of tho average strike. This striko will take the opposition opposi-tion at its word. It will be a demonstration, dem-onstration, without display of force, of the truth or falsity of the opposition's opposi-tion's claims. It will try out tho opposition's op-position's proposed modus operandi, and it will last but a day. Tho opposition says, and ha3 been saying, shouting, whispering, pleading, plead-ing, begging, cajoling or commanding command-ing women for years to boliovo that woman's placo is -in the home. . "Very well," say tho leaders of this new woman's program. ""We will try what you advocate for ono day. Wo will all remain at home." According to tho United States census reports there are 8,000,000 women, In round numbers, employed in industry In the United States. If 8,000,000 of our people, and those adults and women folks, went on a striko, even for one day, what would happen? It's a cinch most of us wouldn't get our breakfast that day. Mrs. Portly Antl sho who .talks tho lpudest about woman's placo being be-ing In the home, but who does not always distinctly outline whose home sho means would be among tho first to feel hunger's pangs and tho demoralization that comes of being be-ing untrained to help yourself, wien you havo to help yourself. There would bo no restaurants open on that day, it's safe to aver. Or, if thero were, service in them would bo so disorganized because of the absence of checkers and cashiers cash-iers and bookkeepers, to say nothing noth-ing of cooks and waitresses and i managers, that tho difficulty of getting get-ting food would bo as great ad at home. Shopping would bo obviously impossible. im-possible. "Women clerks would bo nil. The handful of men standing around would bo useless for coping with tho now conditions. Buyers, clerks, checkers, bundlo girls, bookkeepers, women ad. wri-ers, wri-ers, waiting-room attendants not a marcelled wave of ono of, them would' bo in view. 3LR. rORTLY A3JTI EMBARRASSED. Should our preacher of tho proper prop-er placo of woman wish to tell her husband of her woe sho must call upon him in person. Tho telephone would be as dead as a door nail. Tho thousands of managers of exchanges, switchboard chicftainesses and telephono operators opera-tors would bo at homo testing what a day of perfect rest in the placo whero thoy "belong" is like. Mr. Portly Anti would be having his own troubles. No matter what hiB "business in tho city," woman's seeking her rlght- i . r ' ful place and staying there for just one day would-discommode hinuhor-ribly. hinuhor-ribly. He arrives at a dusty, uncleaned office. The scrubwoman or scrubwomen, scrub-women, depending on how large a place he has, havo gone to their places, regardless of his feelings. No switchboard clicks in his offices that day, and if it did it wouldn't do any good, as thoro is no "Contral" to tell anything to. Cashiers, bookkeepers, office girls, file girls, etc, are misBlng. Suppose Mr. Portly Anti is a manufacturer man-ufacturer of electrical machinery. Tho larger his concern tho worse off he is. If you don't believe it consult the census. One-half of the electrical electric-al supplies of this country are mad by women. He owns a cotton mill, perhaps. One-half of his employes then are on strike. Women compose one-half the textile operators of the United States. Ho cannot escape discomfort, monoy Iobs and disorganization if he is an employing printer or "publish- er. 2,000,000 WOMEff FARMERS. Fully one-half of the employes of-printing of-printing and publishing houses of this country are women. Women i Figures Showing Woman's- Activity I i How tho work of S.000,000 self- Of 427 occupations described In ; j' supporting women is divided: the census report women ara en- Domestics, waitresses, &c.2,530,000 gaged in from 418 to 423. Schoolteachers... In New York State alone are ', 432,730 to 114,559 men 32,465 washerwomen, 25,215 cooks, ; Stenographers 263,315 16,0(T0 chambermaids, 5,476 wait- ; Midwives and assistants... 117,117 resscB. i; Telephone operators.... Scrub women in of flee buildings, ;! f- 88,262 to 9,631 men 26,839 to 7,195 men. o Trained nurses.76,508 to 5.S19 men One-half of the textile "workers j; I Linotypers and printers. . 14,051 are women. ! i Bakeries 11,000 One-fifth of the tailors are wo- !; Doctors and surgeons.... 9,015 men. ;! j Telegraph operators S.219 One-third of the shoe factory !; Railroad "laborers" 7,000 employes are women. In slaughter-houses 4,000 Almost one-half of the electrical ; Ammunition factories.... 3,000 supplies are made by women. Telephono and telegraph One-half of the employes in j exchange managers. . . . 1,400 printing and publishing trades are Farm employes 2,000,000 women. - j .i iitiip tu mawe mo duuks, uuukiklu, catalogues, filing indexes, and heaven heav-en knows what elso that in printed book, sheet or card that contributes to tho dally systematlzation of business busi-ness and making advertising pay. Mr. Portly Anti need not think to escape by way of the cotton, sIU: or woolen industries. The majority of the workers in those industries two-thirds, by tho census reports aro women. It will not do him any good to make him a farmer on this distressful distress-ful morning.' A farmer with Irishwomen folk on a strike is almost unthinkable, but think we must, on this morning of mornings, of what it might mean, so we turn again to the census of tho United States, and find what? That 2,000,000 women aro working work-ing for wages on the farms of this country. . Let thoso women striko, even for a day, and the march of tho nation woud loso step, shippers and receivers receiv-ers and consumers would suffer and babes in arms die. TROUBLE I2T EHERGESCi:. Tlieso 2,000,000 obviously cannot be wives and daughters. Getting wages in your own homo doesD't happen to many women, and tho government doesn't count thoso wives and daughters as wage-earners in tho proper senso if thoy are working in their own homes. Meanwhile, Mrs. Portly Anti, who believes that woman's place is in the home, roturns to her house, where James tho butler, husband of Annie, the former cook, tells her before handing in his resignation that little Johnny Portly Anti has como down with a fover. James is going because his wife has gone. Samo thing happens with Luke tho chauffeur, whoso wife was tho Portly Port-ly Antis, parlor maid. Ho goes where wife goes. Mrs. Portly Antl orders James to telephono for a nurse at once. James cannot telephone, because uu uuo answers, nu is ioiu 10 run to the corner and telegraph- No one is in the telegraph office to take the j message. Tho telegrapher happened , to be a woman. He is told to take a ; taxi nnd go to the nurse's address. : Miss G., the Portly Antis' family nurse, flatly refuses to come. With the 76,262 women-trained nurses in the United States she is on strike. I Mrs. Portly Anti must nurse her e Johnnie herself or depend on one of the 5,819 men trained nurBes in the ( United States, which she could not think; of doing. ! Mrs. Portly Anti finds there is no fresh linen in the house. ' She inquires the reason and i ' j told that of the 2,530,846 women cm ployea of laundries, kitchens, te- j taurants, etc., in this country 25 constitute tho washing and ironing force of tho laundry she patronize!, and that they are at home, where they belong, m ' J; Mrs. Portly Antl would go to a ho- fi tel, which is her frequent practice when the domestic machinery gol too badly out of order in the Port-, ly Anti mansion. She geta no en- couragement to change her abode to J any caravansary in the city. I They are having their own trou- 5 bles. jv Why pursue this phase of the f quostion any longer? Jj Has it not been sufficiently dem- onstrated that Portly Anti pere and Portly Anti mere have been suffl- i ciently discommoded, and the little Portly Antis are in danger, intellec- I , tually and physically, of starving to death. If the working women agree not : to strike you should givo them a ' chance to say something about the conditions under which tney work, ! ; Pleads tho suffragist. Give them ;j the samo chance as you have, Mr. Portly Anti, and you, Mrs. Portly I Anti. Let them mako their environ- ment tho best it can bo made. In- terpose no artificial barriers. In a nutshell givo them tho vote f says the Empire State strike com- f mittec. Ii Copyrigbt,l$15. 1 Hi |
