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Show I WOMi TO START ON WORK . jj IN LOCAL YARDS OF THE I SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY I The necessity of employing women on an extensive scale as a war measure meas-ure has at last made Itself felt in Og-den, Og-den, the Southern Pacific railroad being be-ing the first big corporation to adopt such measures, duo to a lack of men. Women will Btart work on Monday, . under supervision of the division storekeeper, store-keeper, E. H. Polk, in the local shop yards. Their work will consist in sorting sort-ing tho small iron of the scrap piles. The shortage of male labor, duo to the draft and regular army inroads on the supply of able-bodied men and the general conditions of industry and high rato production throughout the country, have so effected the labor conditions of the local railroad shops that men are lacking and none are available. This has led to the necessity neces-sity of turning to female" labor for some of the smaller jobs about the roundhouses and yards. Mr. Polk has advertised for ten women to report for work on Monday. Mon-day. The wages will be paid at the same rate as the men formerly doing tho work were paid and the women will be accorded all the privileges enjoyed en-joyed by the men. k The idea will be tried locally as an experiment first, only about twelve women being used for several days, until It is found to be successful or- the reverse. If they can perform the work successfully the force will bo enlarged and the scope of the work considerably consider-ably expanded. On Monday the women will be started start-ed on the scrap pile, sorting small bits of cast-off metal. This metal is salable sal-able only if assorted, the cast separat- ed from the malleable, and the steel and wrought iron taken out. Nuts, bolts, screws, washers and other small pieces will havo to be handled by the women. If they prove adapted to this work and demonstrate that they can do the general work about tho yards and shops, they will be put to sweeping and cleaning cars and other minor duties. This will relieve men from those positions so they can bo used in other jobs where heavier labor is demanded. Mr. Polk recently returned from a business trip to California points on the Southern Pacific. He saw the experiment ex-periment of women working at Oakland Oak-land and Sacramento and stated that It was being found entirely satisfactory. satisfac-tory. A largo force of women is employed em-ployed in these places and the women do much of the work formerly done by men. Fifty are employed about tho shops at Sacramento. Thoy have been used for several months at these two places. As a measure of safety, tho women will be requested to wear overalls when they work. This will not be required, as the railroad does not propose pro-pose to subject them to any restrictions restric-tions of which thoy are not in favor. Skirts, It Is thought, will be found to be clumsy and bothersome while tho women are working and liable to catch on the pieces of scrap they handle or tho machinery. Several women havo been employed in the shops at Pocatello for lighter work and tho experiment has proved an entire success, as they perform the work with care and correctness. |