It must be remembered that employers of labor do not pay for men and women, but for results. Samuel Gompers, an ardent suffragist, says women get less because they ask for less. That is true in part. Women do ask for less. One reason for this is that they look upon the job as something temporary. Another reason is, very frequently, that they are not entirely dependent on their own earnings, but are partly supported in their parents' home. But in the majority of cases, the industrial woman gets less than the industrial man because she is worth less, being not only less experienced, but physically unable to compete with him on a basis of absolute equality.
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of woman suffrage is in its operation; and, when we find that it has failed to fulfill its promises where longest tried, it is hard to listen patiently to pleas for its further extension. The vote has never raised the wages or shortened the hours of men. It has never done it and can never do it for women. The industrial woman can gain nothing by it. She will lose much, as will other women.
III
A BUSINESS WOMAN'S VIEW OF SUFFRAGE
EDITH MELVIN
Miss Edith Melvin, educated in the public and private schools of Concord and by her father, James Melvin, who, by reason of service in the Civil War was a totally helpless invalid confined to his bed for many years before his death, when he left a widow and an only child dependent upon themselves for support. After three months as assistant to the advertising manager of a large medicine producing company, she entered the law office of Judge Prescott Keyes without business training other than in stenography and typewriting. In this law office has had more than twenty years practical business and legal experience, a position of ever increasing responsibilities requiring steady and efficient study and thought. Not a member of the Bar, never having applied for admission because not believing in women becoming lawyers. Has served as President of the Guild of the First Parish (Concord) and Secretary of the South Middlesex Federation of Young People's Religious Unions. Is an experienced public speaker. Has been an officer and active member of Old Concord Chapter, D. A. R. For many years a householder and taxpayer.
J. A. H.