WOMEN CLERKS AT WASHINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 918, 3 July 1869, Page 5

WOMEN CLERKS AT WASHINGTON.

Only three of the seven Executive Departments of the United States Gorwrntnent at Washington employ -women clerks. Six thousand clerks, paid about 9,000,000 dol. per annum, are attached to the seven departments, and of this large number only six hundred are women. L In the Treasury Department over 3000 clerks are employed, 500 of whom are females. The clerkships of the men are divided into four classes. The lowest class, styled tho first, receive 1200 dols. per annum ; the second, 1400 dols. ; the third, 1600 dols.; the fourth, 1800 dols ; while the salary of a chief clerk is 2000 dols. and upwards. The women, however, only re* ceive 900 dols. per annum, the salary being fixed at one-half the average compensation paid to male clerks, and complaints having been made that the pay is not sufficient, a short time ago a resolution was passed by the House of Representatives declaring that women in the departments who perform the same work as men should receive the same pay. Soon after the passage of this resolution, it is reported that about 50 of the 100 women clerks who were discharged some months ago for want of work were reinstated and detailed for duty in the Third Auditor's Office, in the Quartermaster's Division, wher they were employed on Quartermaster's accounts. The Patent Office of the Interior Department, at irregular intervals, employs about fifty women, sending the work to their homes by messengers. These women are employed principally in copying drafts of patents, for which they are paid at the rate of ten cents per hundred words. This work ia required to be performed with the greatest accuracy, and many , of these copyists are reported to be very skilful with the pen, and to execute the work in a superior stylo. Tho Post Office Department employs fifty women in the Dead Letter Office in re-directing tho letters, wluch are first opened by men, who for this merely mechanical work receive salaries of the first, and some oven of the second grade. The letters, it is alleged, must bo opened by men, because the contents ore frequently improper to be read, by females. TJic Way Dopartruent employs only about thirty women, widows of soldiers, in copying accounts, the same grade of work which is performed by ft majority of tb.o men clerks in all the departments. In addition to tho female clerks there arc. about three hundred women engaged in the Government Printing Office in work of various kinds. Forty-five are employed in managing the. small presses whioh print blanks and other fenns. Tho others are engaged in folding, trimming, stitching, and similar processes. They ure, most of them, paid according to the amount of work thejy perform, being allowed 40 per cent, more than is paid to women in similar eatftblislmionts. A great presswo is exercised upon tho Government printing qffico to furnish employment to meritorious but poor females. No women, however, ure employed in tho typo-setting department ; but the sus nerintendent has expressed his reudfnesa to employ them in this work ivtt fast as any good women typo- Betters shall apply, »nd has, it la said, announced that he would pay tlwm the same for a thousand cms that ho pays tho men who now «lo tho work» An opportunity, it is stated, will thereby ho afforded good workwxtmon to make- 24 uols. per week. Tho superintendent it is reported, declare! that he will en^pby women in preference to men as fast as tUoy apply,— rhiheklphia jpubliir