Newspaper Page Text
, -.
paid work to boot is as bad for Jill
asit is for Jack, and it makes life dull
and dreary.- Every moral instinct is
shut out by labor andjjoverty. Some
times' food, insufficient- quantify
and of 'poor quality, is all that can be
gotten, ' and. sometimes, too, the
poison of fatigue affects the health.
Let this go for months or years r
is it hot natural that a girl should
become discouraged? When dis
couragement is kept up too long and
the' normal instincts of youth are
crushed continually, Is there not
danger that the discouragement shall
become despair and, once in the state
of despair; is" a glittering temptation,
perhaps a-devil disguised as an angel
of 'light, easier or harder to meet?
Leave the actual figures out of con
sideration for a moment; is there not
danger in anything that keeps 'Work
ing people men or. women con
stantly distressed?
Take the case of a girl who can
find' no normal outlet for that within
her which cries out for expression,
who wants all of the normal things a
young girl OUGHT totwant, and yet
canno get them. Is 'it not a fact
that an abnormal means of expres
sion, first regarded with shrinking,
may in, time become less repulsive;
"and, in the end, through mere exter
nal pressure, be accepted?
Qne. must distinguish between dir
rect and' indirect causes, or between
causes which are real and conditions
which make it possible for ill causes
to succeed. Low wages is not THE
GAUSE in this instance. Yet some
times" low wages .are coincident with
conditions which give bad causes a
chance to do evil work.
Every man and Woman knows that,
so to speak, there are impulses in
him, or her, some of which tend to
lift-tip, some to drag down.
Now the difference between $5
weekly ,and $50 weekly 'does not
make these impulses, b'ut certain of
them get a chance on the $50 Weekly
basis,.: and .certain ..othe,rs.geJtk. a
chancer "too,: on the' $5'basisj 'What
we Want to do is to create, conditions,
partly by .wages and. partly by other
things, to strengthen the environ
ments which, let the forces which nit
up have play and to destroy the Con
dition under which the forces which
drag, down have. play.
It does not alter.tKe facts to say
that -many girls under hard condi
tions,resist the downward drag. That
doesthe girl, honor because it shows
her character is stronger than the
drag. But the drag is there just the
same, and it may" injure or destroy
a weaker sister by providing, the con
ditions for her fall. What we want to
do is-take away the drag.
.Partly this may be accomplished
by giving our boys and girls some
thingjto do. - Too many go but into
life" and find it a blind alley. '
A young woman came to me for
employment a few days ago. I asked
her what she could do, and she an
swered "nothing." 'There was a place
where the downward drag had a good '
chance. Neither her brains nor her
hands ever, had been taught to' do
practical work.
Training -in some vocational work
has a' distinct moral and mental
value. It takes away the conditions
under which the downward drag gets
its best hold. There are many
fathers .and mothers whose lives
would be happier Jf their children
would, find education, in some definite
work in life so they could not only
assist their parents, ,but could keep
their own bodies and souls together
in decency.
' 'Jtfany.a mother who. .knows- the
path pf .danger she herself trod would
like to have the path made' safer for
her boys antf-girlsJ Employers,, here
and there, are recognizing, the prin
ciple pf a minimum wage for women
and men. ..They gain thereby a: se
lected force, which-makes ,their busi
ness -highly .profitable -yeti. were'fhe
principle of the .minimum wage to
be extended to universal!practicalap
pcajop; hyy nteny of our boys, and
gh-k:aretramed in any class of wo'rkj
