From all accounts a mill room and factory are among the few places where work and mirth go together for Lancashire people say that their country is full of Gracie Fields, and that a mill is a real home of humour of an original kind. Many mill hands are married too, so even married life has failed to dampen the native fun of these people.
It is a curious thing though that so soon as a married woman puts her hand to the commercial plough she is accused of working only for pocket money for extras such as dress and ornaments. If that is so, and she does not give value in service for her salary it is a sad reflection upon the perspicacity of the male employers—those Big Business Magnates who are supposed to know something of getting their money's worth. As for this "pin-money" argument, whose business is it what the worker does with her money once she has earned it? If she spends it on ornaments, well, it is no worse than spending it on football sweeps, drinks, or gaming, and some men have been known to waste their substance upon such.
"Ah, but men," our friends say, "must be paid to keep s and children, and the family together" True, O King, but unfortunately a man is not paid according to the number of wives and families he may have on his hands. It would be pleasant if an employer. in fixing salaries would say, "Well, Mr. Robinson, since you have ten children your salary must be three times that of Mr. Brown who has no children." Things do not work out that way. If they did then the many Miss Smiths would be paid sufficient to ensure comfort in their old age, and to enable them to heer mothers, brothers and sisters and other relatives in comfort too.
But, it is high time the argument about women taking men's jobs ceased. It seems only reasonable to believe that the best person, man or woman, married or single, should hold down any job offered, but if the woman takes it I would aver that her salary should be the same as that offered to a male applicant. That would make' competition more fair and the best subject would win, man or woman. I admit that the men ought to have some compensations for having been born mere males, but I don't think the advantages should extend to unfair competition in business,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.