436 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



of so novel a state of things — 1st, to ensure the 

 most perfect state of propriety of manners and 

 moral habits in the several private establishments 

 where female apprentices were admitted — and 

 2ndly, to engage the strong influence of parental 

 feeling in sustaining the respectability and good 

 reputation of these establishments. 



But though such measures, judiciously execu- 

 ted, would engage in this good work many trades- 

 men by the strong tie of self-interest, and the pros- 

 pects oi pecuniary gain, still there might be others 

 who would oppose and obstruct the reformation 

 — either from short-sighted and mistaken views of 

 their own future profits — or because (as in the 

 case of the tailors,) they would be deprived of the 

 unrighteous harvest which they now derive from 

 the degraded and wretched state of female labor- 

 ers. To guard against either or both these causes 

 of opposition, and possible failure, the association 

 might use another and stilt more efficient means. 

 This would consist in establishing (in conjunction 

 with individual undertakers, or otherwise,) work- 

 shops to carry on the whole business of any par- 

 ticular branches of trade, that might be consider- 

 ed the most suitable for female labor, or which 

 embraced the smallest portions for which male 

 labor was indispensable. These more public es- 

 tablishments should be, of course, under the gen- 

 eral direction and control of the association, and 

 so organized that every proper care could be taken 

 to maintain the purity and correct conduct of the 

 inmates — and that a portion of the time of the ap- 

 prentices should be given to mental and moral in- 

 struction, and to the performance of those house- 

 hold duties which all women should be acquainted 

 with. 



The most suitable business first to be underta- 

 ken in such an establishment, of course would be 

 that of the tailors — who may be considered as the 

 natural enemies and oppressors of laboring fe- 

 males. Even now, women actually perform a 

 large part of the work for which tailors are em- 

 ployed and paid — and for a mere pittance of the 

 price obtained by their employers — and women 

 are now well prepared, and sufficiently skilled, to 

 execute the whole of this work, with no other 

 loss to the community than that our coats would 

 not at first fit so well as to satisfy the practised eye 

 and exquisite taste of a dandy. But even this 

 trivial objection could be easily removed. One 

 male measurer and cutter of men's clothes would 

 be sufficient for an establishment of more than 

 twenty female tailors — and there is no reason why 

 such an assistant might not be employed by the 

 female head of the shop. Even if this one branch 

 of the business should necessarily remain in male 

 hands, it would compel nine-tenths of all the fu- 

 ture race of male tailors to seek more manly em- 

 ployments — and would double the present small 

 demand for, and miserable compensation of wo- 

 men. If this change bore hard on the present race 

 of the knights of the thimble, it would be the 

 only case — and there is no class, the members of 

 which would so well deserve to bear some of the 

 privations which they have so long inflicted on 

 others. It would be well if public opinion could 

 entirely root out this business, so unworthy of men 

 — and as exercised by men, so injurious to wo- 

 men. 



Another mechanical employment which seems 

 well suited to females, is printing. Women could 



make more skilful compositors than men, and 

 would be able to do more of that kind of work in 

 the same time. This principal part of the labor 

 requires not strength — but quickness of move- 

 ment and delicacy of touch. This part of the bu- 

 siness too might be conducted in an apartment 

 quite separated from the other parts of a printing 

 establishment, and therefore there would be no 

 need of bringing together different sexes, or dif- 

 ferent classes. But even this seclusion would be 

 unnecessary — as one master printer, as head of 

 the establishment, and one pressman, would be as 

 many males as would be needed in an office in 

 which eight or ten hands might be employed. 

 Greater or less facilities lor employing females in 

 a maimer altogether unobjectionable, may be 

 found in various other kinds of business: but these 

 examples will be enough to mention here. 



Of course many male laborers and mechanics 

 (in the spirit of "trades' unions" and of "strikes,") 

 would cry out against every effort of this kind, as 

 calculated to deprive them of employment. But 

 this clamor would be groundless. Except in the 

 tailors' trade — to which many women have alrea- 

 dy served a long and laborious apprenticeship, and 

 are fully competent to earn journeymen's wages, 

 without having yet been permitted to do so — 

 there would beno immediate loss of employment 

 to any males — nor any future loss, unless it was 

 their own fault. In most or all other pursuits than 

 that of using the needle, females could only be 

 received as apprentices, and of course no more 

 girls would be taken, than would be required by 

 the demands of trade, and whose places would 

 (without this scheme) have been filled by just so 

 many boys. The difference of sex in apprentices 

 hereafter to be received, could in no way affect the 

 demand for, and employment of the present race 

 of journeymen mechanics, even if they continued 

 as journeymen, and unmarried. But every sober, 

 industrious and capable journeyman, in 7 or 8 

 years will probably be either a master workman, 

 or a married man, or both — and in either condi- 

 tion, he will be benefited by the success of the 

 scheme of employing women. As a hirer of 

 their labor, he would be better and more cheaply 

 served — and he would have a sure resource to save 

 his young daughters from the danger of future 

 want and misery. Girls would generally be 

 more valuable as apprentices than boys, because 

 the latter are more likely to be disobedient, vi- 

 cious, and unprofitable laborers. As independent 

 laborers, after serving through their apprentice- 

 ship, females still (at least for years to come,) 

 would be hired at less wages than males — and 

 the difference would be a great profit to their em- 

 ployers and to the public, while even at that re- 

 duced rate, they would earn four-fold what is now 

 obtained by them, in their only employment of 

 sewing. 



It may be said that if so much advantage and 

 profit are promised by employing female appren- 

 tices, why may not the plan be safely left to indi- 

 viduals to adopt and execute? It is because no 

 one individual could give sufficient assurance of 

 the stability of his purpose, and permanency of 

 his plans, to induce parents to confide their daugh- 

 ters to his charge, and to risk the prosperity of their 

 lives on the issue of an untried, and therefore ex- 

 Iremely doubtful experiment. Ilence the necessi- 

 ty of the support and guaranty of an association 



