NEW YORK STATE LUMBER JACKS. ONE EMPLOYER SAID HE PREFERRED WOMEN TO MEN BECAUSE WOMEN ALWAYS

CARRIED TWO PLANKS AT ONCE IF THEY COULD POSSIBLY MANAGE IT.

HEALTH PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY."

Expert Inquiry in this Field Must Precede a Statement of the Case of the Woman in Industry.

Practically speaking, the entire program for the regulation of hours, wages, and conditions of work for women in industry is based upon the power of the State to protect health. It is the recognition by the courts of the special significance to general welfare of the health of women combined with the more serious effect upon women than upon men of long hours, low wages, and unhealthy working conditions, which has resulted in the upholding of laws regulating such conditions. With the legal sanction for such regulation once given, legislation of one sort or another affecting conditions under which women may be employed has been put on the statute books of every State in the Union New Menices These laws vary in opé the different States, of course, ranging all the way from a careful regulation of hours and wages and a very definite supervision and control of working conditions in States such as Oregon, California, and the District of Columbia, to the requirement simply of seats for women workers in certain occupations in Alabama, Florida, and West Virginia.

STANDARDIZATION IS ESSENTIAL.

In spite of the fact that the theory justifying the power of the State to make these regulations has been so generally accepted, the regulations enforced have varied to such an extent that no two States have established the same standards. For this reason one of the earliest tasks undertaken by the Women's Bureau when it was first organized was to formulate definite standards for the employment of women in industry, which could serve as a guide to the many different groups who were working for the better protection of wage-earning

women.

This article was prepared under the direction of Mary Anderson, Director Women's Bureau, United States Department of Labor, by Mary N. Winslow, editor of the Women's Bureau.

The standards thus formulated cover conditions only in a general way, but they are the fundamentals which apply to all industries and all occupations. Qualifications and elaborations may have to be instituted to meet special cases and peculiar conditions, but the fundamental standards necessary to insure health and efficiency will not be altered. Briefly stated, these standards for women in industry which constitute the program and the creed of the Women's Bureau are: The eight-hour day.

Saturday half holiday.
No nightwork.

AMERICA WILL BE AS STRONG AS HER WOMEN.

A living wage based on occupation and not on sex, with the minimum rate sufficient to cover the cost of living for dependents and not merely for the individual.

Good working conditions, including adequate washing facilities; adequate and sanitary toilet accommodations; dressing rooms, rest rooms, and lunch rooms; clean workrooms with carefully adjusted lighting, ventilation, and heating; plentiful and sanitary drinking

facilities; chairs, machines, and work tables adjusted so that the workers can either stand or sit at their work; carefully guarded machinery; elimination of the necessity for constant standing or other posture causing physical strain, repeated lifting of heavy weights or other abnormally fatiguing motions, and the operation of mechanical devices requiring undue strength; exposure to excessive cold, or to dust, fumes, or other occupational poisons without adequate safeguards against disease.

Prohibition of employment of women in occupations involving the use of poisons which are proved to be more injurious to women than

to men.

Prohibition of home work.

Establishment of systems of employment management.
Cooperation of workers in establishing standards.

In this group of standards there readily are found many recommendations which apply fully as strongly to men as to women. For instance, there is no indication that bad ventilation in a workshop is a more serious menace to women's health than to that of men, nor that it has any distinctive effect upon women. Insufficient ventilation will lower the efficiency and the ability to resist disease of both men and women, and it should be recognized as a problem for all employees in all industries under all conditions.

The prevention of glare by properly placing and shading lights is another working condition which is not particularly a woman's problem, but instead is a problem for all in industry.

SPECIALLY APPLIED TO WOMEN.

In fact, very few, if any, of these recommended standards can be said to apply only to women, and the Women's Bureau does not advocate that they should be considered as applying only to women. The important thing about them is that they apply especially to women. For all conditions in industry bear particularly heavily on women, and therefore good working conditions, hours, and wages have a more important relation to their health. Long hours in the factory are not as serious for the man, who is through work when he leaves his job at night, as they are for the woman who has often several hours of housework to do after she gets home. The married woman in industry, who is forced to work because of economic necessity, brought about by her husband's death, incapacity, or inability to earn an adequate wage for himself and his family, must usually take whatever job she can get, without too much question of wages or hours. But she is the one worker in all the group who most needs the protection of the law, for the care of her children and household will take many hours and much strength, and her health will suffer if hours of work are not limited.

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