74 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



{November 1, 1913. 



Women do not take the coolly practical view of work that men 

 do, but in addition to wages they are swayed a great deal by per- 

 sonal relations. Has not many a woman toiled long years 

 without pay for a worthless husband "because she loved him"? 

 You cannot with women get the best work by appealing to wage 

 alone. An employment manager, a foreman and a forelady who 

 beam kindness and good nature and friendly interest have their 

 influence upon production quite the same as the Saturday check. 

 The end of the first day at last arrived; I had earned fifteen 

 cents. The second day's work was better; I earned twenty-five 

 cents. This small compensation in my case, however, gave no 

 trouble. My main interest was not in earnings but in knowledge 

 of factory life for girls. I had long been interested in occupa- 

 tions for women and after deciding to write a book on this sub- 

 ject to be used as a text in high schools it seemed to me the 

 only practical thing to do was to work in a factory. This was 

 ■one of the lines in which I had not yet had experience at first 

 hand. So, no matter what my salary was, my real compensation 

 was in experience. And in that my rewards were ample. 



There is much said today of "woman's sphere," and some 

 good, old-fashioned jieople say women are "unsexing" them- 

 selves by their new demands. But the so-called woman's move- 

 ment is not due so much to the will of woman as to certain sig- 

 nificant changes taking place in industry. The women of our 

 great-grandmothers' time spun and wove and canned and sewed. 

 They were all factory workers. It is true they worked in their 

 home, but the home was a workshop, the only factory there then 

 was. One by one these activities were transferred from home to 

 central places of extensive production — the "factory." In the 

 home of today how few are left of the multiform activities of 

 our great-grandmothers ! 



What were the women to do? What are they to do, for this 

 moving of industries from home to factory is still going on? 

 Women always have worked and they always will. Every sin- 

 cere woman wants to feel she is good for something, that in this 

 great, throbbing world she fills a place. When industry leaves 

 the home and threatens to make of her a parasite, she follows 

 her work to its new location. 



■ The change of workhig place to a position outside the home, 

 however, has revolutionized woman's world and presented some 

 'serious social problems. Just recently there has been consider- 

 able attention focussed on the minimum wage question, especially 

 in its relation to the riiorality of female employes. This is a 

 question of importance for which space will not permit any care- 

 ful consideration here. But to those who look upon factories as 

 places where girls are menaced it should be plainly stated that 

 reliable investigation has proved that the question is most serious 

 inot with factory employes but with domestics. While all should 

 be interested in making factory conditions wholesome, it should 

 not be forgotten that it is no solution whatever to recommend 

 domestic employment. 



But the change to work outside the home, in the main, is bene- 

 ficial. It has meant opportunities never before possessed, oppor- 

 tunities for education, for freedom, for development. One of 

 the most noticeable effects is the liberating of the latent energies 

 of women in the world of business and industry. Some radically 

 demand immediate equality with men in all things. Others cling 

 to old notions and prejudices concerning "the proper sphere for 

 women." Both must realize that the question will not be settled 

 by endless quibbling, but by whatever economic vahie their ef- 

 forts prove to be to society. 



Here arises the practical question. What kind of work is to be 

 undertaken by the young girl during the average seven years be- 

 tween leaving school and marriage, by the women to whom 

 marriage never comes, and by the thousands of dependent wid- 

 ows? The majority of girls in the elementary and high schools 

 have no idea of what they are going to do; they are ignorant of 

 the desirable vocations and how to prepare for them. Many, 



consequently, do nothing. They look for a man instead, and it 

 is because of this inefficient type that men are becoming wary. 

 Those who do get positions, drift into them usually by chance 

 and are poorly trained. As a result there are many misfits, many 

 unhappy lives, and much loss to society in the form of talent and 

 ability unused. 



Tliis state of affairs can l)e remedied. Since such a large 

 number of girls must do something to support themselves, and 

 since it is well for all girls to know how to support themselves 

 if necessary, it is desirable for the public schools to interest 

 themselves in vocational matters. Such courses might be given in 

 both elementary and high schools, and should embrace vocational 

 information and practical training. 



When this is done, people will be less surprised when they hear 

 of a person like myself working in a factory. There are now 

 over one million five hundred thousand women and girls doing 

 factory work in the United States. It is really no compliment 

 to the intelligence and public interest of numerous friends of 

 mine — some of them whose business it is as teachers to prepare 

 young women for effective lives in this year 1913 — to say : "How 

 did you ever dare do it?" "How would you ever stand the cruel 

 work?" "Did the foreman make you work, too, like those other 

 poor creatures?" "Wasn't it a dreadful place?" Such remarks, 

 and many others like them, do not harmonize well with the spirit 

 of .'\merican democracy. What one million five hundred thou- 

 sand women are daily doing should claim the intelligent interest 

 of all people. 



While I would have everybody know something of factory 

 work, there is another point which it seems to me managers of 

 rubber factories might carry out somewhat along this same line, 

 and that is to have each employe appreciate how his work influ- 

 ences society at large. I knew a little about the rubber business 

 before commencing my work in this factory. While finishing a 

 shoe, my mind ran over the interesting history of rubber, how 

 Goodyear experimented, how hard it was to get rubber made that 

 wasn't sticky — of the workman, for instance, who thought that by 

 dipping his overalls in a barrel of gum he would have some 

 waterproof, never-wear-out trousers, but who had to be cut out 

 of them at noon. And then there is the interesting story of how 

 rubber is made, a really marvelous account of how, from the juice 

 of a tree, our rubber shoes, coats, and tires are step by step 

 prepared. And there is, too, the history of the factory in which 

 one works ; it is often something of which one has a right to 

 feel as proud as of direct descent from some Saxon robber baron. 

 If this information were given in some talks by the superintend- 

 ent, or perhaps written up in a little pamphlet which was given to 

 each employe and to every beginner when she first applied for a 

 position, it would give dignity to the work which was done. 

 Every worker ought to feel ihe great importance of rubber in 

 the daily life of society. In this way the task before each humble 

 worker will be lifted up as she sees herself exerting an influence 

 which penetrates to the uttermost parts of the earth. 



DRINKING ON THE FLY. 



Aviation is serious business and is likely, as a rule, to 

 require the aviator's entire attention. His two hands are 

 needed, most of the time, at least, for the wheel, if he is to 

 steer clear of the many dangers that beset his calling. But 

 by the aid of a rubber tube he can console himself from time 

 to time with hot coffee or any other drink. The liquid is 

 placed in a metal tank with double walls which is suspended 

 over the aviator's head, the contents of the tank being kept 

 hot by water from the engine, which plays between the walls. 

 A rubber tube with a suitable mouthpiece conveys it to the 

 aeroplanist who sits below. 



Replete with information for rubber manufacturers — Mr. 

 Pearson's "Crude Rubber and Compounding Ingredients." 



