A CLERKG' UNION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 275, 13 August 1908, Page 4

A CLERKG' UNION.

Sir,— Having been a clerk myself, I sjm infllll sympathy with t!)P abovo; at tho'.ssjnip timo I must take xij> my pel} jn the defoncis ■of the In'dy olerliS'.whß'm your correspondent "Petty Oash" wishes to pijßt from their very suitable positions. It is tho very-class of clerks, whom "Petty Cash" ■tlip class that takes up clerkship" as' fi; permanent career, in spite of its knowii disabilities, simply because it is easy and en•tails 110 responsibility, and a life in town— that the manly man regards with scant sympathy when their desiro to think hard work brings its own miserablo result?. No man Worthy of the name should deliberately chooso this' effeminate calling which has' been ably demonstrated to bo carried out as well or better by women. Even from a physical point of view it is moro suited to them than men, for'whilj t)io sedentary life of tho desk means degeneration for the male owing to big requirement of physical oxerciso, it has 110' such objection for 'the female, Moreover, while to nien tho thousand and one pa)!ii?g of tlio wliolo world, are "open, clerical work or teaching is the only • alter' native for educated women, who naturally cannot cngago in tho servile rolo of tho domestic. Males should only engage in clerical! ■work temporarily; for tho purpose of learning the business, or as a stepping-stone to tho work Naturo intended for them—work that women _ cannot, do, entailing individual responsibility. The male cleric as a olerk- puro and simple is no good to the community, and is better out of tho way, He is too poor to marry, or if ho does his wifo and children load a life of misery, Ho has no time, and his mind is too uart'ow to ./take part in publio affairs; he produoos nothing nnd does, nothing, in short, ho- is a moro automaton in tho hands of his employers, l'ho very best thing that can happon to him is for tho women to save him f»'nin himself, and forco him to uso. his muscles. Everything points to tho conclusion that in tho next hundred years at'tho outsido, women will bo exclusively. filling tho olerionl roles as a permanent career, and rightly so. Wo may then expect moro production from tho land, more marriages as a natural scquoiico, fowor pqverty-striokoh h°n>es, deoreasod cost of diving, and malo weaklings .reduced to a minimum, The .female clerk lias come to stay, and when sho doos it will mark another important stop forwnrd in progression.—l am, etc., M; LAVINGTON GLYDE, L.S.W. Auckland, August 0, 1008, f