Page:Olive Malmberg Johnson - Woman and the Socialist Movement (1908).djvu/25

 Rh one reason why girls are very anxious to learn a trade or office work, because "no one knows but it may come in handy sometime." "Something may happen to father," or if she expects to get married the day may yet come when she may have to support herself and her children. This uncertainty, too, makes marriage less attractive. It far from furnishes a girl a safe and sure asylum for the future. On the other hand, it mirages the prospect of a family for which she may have to care.

With continual disquietude about the future, who can wonder that a perfect mania for work takes possession of man, woman and child in civilized society?

Employment is to-day the rule for women. Marriage is incidental. Old maids and old bachelors have grown apace during the last fifty years. In the factory districts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut there are whole "she towns." In the mining, lumber and railroad camps of Pennsylvania, Ohio and the far West are whole "he towns." "Everybody works but father," sing the songsters of a New England textile town.

There are those who hail with joy the freedom and independence of the industrial woman worker. That is almost to add insult to injury. Capitalism has torn the home asunder: has broken all the ties of family relationship; has made tramps out of thousands of men; has created arduous toil for the women; has taken the children from the home, the school and the playground; has thrown each into competition with all and ground their brains, bones, and sinews into profits. Wage slavery spells the very opposite of freedom and independence. Of what brand is the freedom of the thousands of girls who go to the factory of a morning for a long day's toil? Those hours mean misery, slavery, and degradation to them. The atmosphere is unhealthy, mentally, morally and physically. Though the work is simplified and easy its continual sameness is wearisome and hard. LondLong [sic] standing on