Page:Olive Malmberg Johnson - Woman and the Socialist Movement (1908).djvu/23

 Rh etc. What is entirely needed in some branches are nimble fingers, close application to work, patience and submission.

The first result of the introduction of machinery was the increased competition among men for jobs. That lowered wages. Then machinery simplified the labor process. That opened the field for women and children, which threw still more workers into the field of competition for jobs. That lessened the chance for marriage and the raising of families. To-day, it takes the combined effort of the adult members of a family—and often even of the children—to keep the family alive. When they succeed in more than merely keeping "the wolf from the door" the demand of civilization is ever for better things and tastes are cultivated, To satisfy these tastes, the workers are perfectly willing to work. Especially is that true of the younger generation that would almost rather never have been born than not to be "up to the times."

The capitalist class is ever after profits. Therefore, they are ever after cheap and easily exploited labor. Therefore do they joyfully employ women and children whenever possible. That women are cheaper than men there can be no denying. Why it should be so even when they perform the same work ought not in the least to cause any wonder. There is almost a world's history behind that. Traditionally they are not the bread winners. Even to-day thousands of them work only to help the family eke out, or to earn for themselves clothes and pin-money. They have never been the fighters of the world and are therefore more easily subdued and imposed upon by their bosses. They have never moved en masse and are therefore unused to organization and generally remain unorganized.

There is one phenomenon peculiar to modern society which perhaps more than actual starvation is responsible for driving all the members of the family into the nets of capitalist exploitation. That is the uncertainty of things. The sceptre of want is as dreadful as want itself. The introduction of