Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

It may be said that the occupations in which women are now engaged in the Departments, where their duties range from those involving mere manual labor to skilled professional service, represent many of the lines in which women are now so active everywhere. The salaries vary from $240 to $1,800 per annum.

It is believed that the citation of a few examples of the high positions of importance and responsibility now held by women, compiled for the information of the board of lady managers, may be a source of encouragement to others by showing what natural ability, backed with determination and industry, may accomplish. The following memoranda has been taken at random from but four of the Departments:

Department of State.—Miss —— went into the service in 1893, and was detailed to assist the Secretary of State, who was engaged in negotiating reciprocity treaties. She served in the capacity of confidential clerk to four Secretaries and one Assistant Secretary of State. Served as stenographer and typewriter in the Consular Bureau of the Department of State, and was later confidential stenographer to the Third Assistant Secretary of State, and assisted in the preparation of the correspondence with the Alaska boundary question.

Another was appointed as a temporary clerk for the purpose of introducing the book typewriter for recording the correspondence of the Department which formerly had been done by hand. After installing the book typewriter and bringing the Diplomatic Notes and Instructions up to date, she was detailed as stenographer and typewriter to the Chief Clerk of the Department. Her duties in the office of the Chief Clerk required her to be familiar with the work of the bureaus of the Department and the many intricate questions constantly presented to the Chief Clerk's office. She was required to have expert knowledge of the cipher used in the Department, and a considerable part of her time was employed in enciphering and deciphering telegrams sent from and received by the Department.

One young woman was detailed for three months to serve as stenographer and typewriter to the American Commission at The Hague in the arbitration between the United States and Mexico, where she assisted in taking stenographic report of the sessions before the arbitral court.

Miss ——, appointed under the civil service rules, was in the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, where her duties required her to prepare the consular reports for publication, translate extracts from foreign commercial newspapers, etc.

A clerk was appointed in the recorder of deeds' office, but resigned to accept an appointment in the Department of State. Her work at first was in the Diplomatic Bureau, where she was engaged in preparing papers for signature, translating French, Italian, and Spanish; engrossing treaties, proclamations, drafting maps, pen and ink sketches, etc. Later she was detailed to the Bureau of Indexes and Archives, where she was employed in recording the Diplomatic Notes and Instructions of the Department on the book typewriter.

Department of the Interior.—Mrs. —— held a law desk in the General Land Office and decided many of the difficult problems connected with the deeds and patents of land on the frontier. Was first appointed in the Government Printing Office at $48 per month, and later appointed in the Pension Office at an increased salary, where her duties were copying pension certificates and notifying pensioners of the allowance of their pensions. Upon her second promotion, the work and pay being unsatisfactory to her, she was, at her own request, transferred to the railroad division of the General Land Office. Her duties were to copy railroad decisions, and the work being merely routine clerical work, she took up typewriting, hoping to advance herself thereby. This caused her to be transferred to the contest division, and later she was assigned to a desk requiring original work, and her duties were to promulgate decisions of the Department. From this time on the grade of her work was raised until she was promoted to $1,400, by which time she had become familiar with the entire work of the division. She soon found that a knowledge of the law of Congress disposing of the public domain and familiarity with the rules of practice and decisions of the General Land Office and of the Department alone were not sufficient to enable her to perform her work in a manner satisfactory to herself, however satisfactory to the Department, and she therefore took up a regular four years' law course and graduated with credit to herself and her college.

How satisfactorily she does her work is shown by the fact that out of sixty appeals from her decisions rendered during a period of six months, decisions involving thousands of dollars, only one was reversed and one modified, and this because of new matter being filed after the decisions were rendered by her.

Mrs. —— also enjoys the distinction of holding a law desk in the General Land Office, having been transferred to it from the Census Office, where she had been dealing with mathematical problems. It was found that a $1,600 clerk was back in his work with 300 cases which it was necessary to have adjudicated. The bringing this work up to date was assigned to her. Prior to this she had written a few decisions. She was at first appalled at the decree, but went bravely to work with a determination to succeed. How well she succeeded can be ascertained by the records of the office. Later she was transferred at her own request from the public land division to the contest or law division. Her experience gained in the Land Office taught her how to adjudicate contest cases, and she was often required to bring up work of the principal law examiners when in arrears.