WOMEN'S WORK AND PAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14947, 21 April 1914, Page 4

WOMEN'S WORK AND PAY.

to the sprroß or "the press."

gj rj Kindly permit mc to comment on y<mr article entitled "Equal Pay for Equal Work," which appeared this morning. 1 take issue first with your statement that "Society cannot get rid of tno liabilities it has created for itself." What is society but an organisation of units for mutual protection ? And what is progress but tho continuous effort of society to realise its portion and to correct its errors? Tho whole trend of modern thought and effort is to adjust more equally the unequal balances of justice in the social system; and it is surprising, to cay tne least, to find such a laisses-fnmr attitude'adopted as the only possible one. With regard to' your main argument, viz that women will bo paid as much as' thov insist on being paid and no more. "Surely this is the principle ot the sweating system very thinly disguised. The unfortunate preponderance of women in some parts of the labour market makes it possible for the choice to be given them of inadequate payment, or no employment, but tho lacs that this is so does not justify a system which takes advantage of lack of combination and physical weakness to »am its own ends. The fact that the vonian accepts tho wage offered, you will say, is a proot that it can bo lived on; but existence can be prolonged on much less than life can be decently lived upon. If it is to be assumed that an unmarried woman has no economic responsibilities, and that her wages are to l)e below a certaiu ec.ilo in consequence—a system whoso absence or is quite refreshing in. these practical days—ought not the unmarried man's unblessed state to be duly considered, and be be treated in the same way? The reply to this may be that if not an actual breadwinner, he is a potential one, and that therefore he is entitled to a wago which permits him to save. If the v.oman bo not a potential breadwinner (in a very large number of cases she is an actual one), she is a potential mother; and if in the years of her early maturity her body is starved for food and clothing, her nerves for leisure and her mind for freedom from anxiety, damage- is being done to the race which will only be realised Tvhgn it is far too'late tor anything to be done. Apart from the "psychological drivel" which this i argument is open to be called, is it logical that, the State, or tho private employer, should enquire into tho privato lifo of one section of their employees — themen —to Hie extent of ascertaining whether they have, or propose to have, an indefinite number of persons dependent oh them; and to assume without question that the other —the women — neither have, nor proposo to have, economic dependents? It may be advanced that a woman, sooner or later, will resign her economic responsibilities while a man's aro always with him, never. loss and always more —this is certainly the case, but there are some million more women in the world than mcn —;v fact which \s forced upon our notice in more nay.s than ouo at the present time —and these women havo a right to provide for their old age. Jt would bo woll when thinking of the weight cf the man's responsibilities to consider how many men .in penniless eld age. extravagant youth, or incapable middle life, r.re supported by women.

To ret;:rn to tho immediate .matter of your article: You say "'the value of anything at all, whether it be material or service, ie just what can bo got out of it," This is surely an uunocessarjlycynical view. The real value of work is its actual worth to'those for whom it is done: the worker is paid a perconlage of that worth—for obvious Tcaooris never receiving tho full vahio of his labour, which is practically unaeeertainable. "Why then, in Heaven's name, should the labourers bo differentiated between —all things. being equal? JJocauso tho wqmen boing many and their wants pressing, it is possible to force them into accepting a, low wage, it is no moral justification for so doing, and in this country men would not tolerate tho idea aa applied to themselves. Aβ to women and girls behu; thrown out of employment, should the? insist on equal pay for equal work.i tho system might for a time cau.so female unemployment to a certain oxteut, but women have made themselves so valuable in clerical work that it would be iound hard to roDlaco their instinctive rapidity of thought and action, and iv manual work it. has boon found (I do not. speak without authority) that women can bo relied upon to'stick to their work whero men of the same class are always an uncertain quantity. AVith apologies for the length of my plea for women.—Yours, etc., ll.M.Jtl.