Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/227

 doors to all married women, would be very unwise, from the point of view of the public. Each case is one to be taken on its merits, and the best thing in the circumstances should be done; at the same time, it is only fair to point out that, as regards this particular profession, there need be no dearth of posts for teachers. If the ratepayer could forget the amount of his rates in the contemplation of the common good, or if education could become a national charge, the enormous classes of most elementary schools might be reduced, in which case the supply of teachers would be considerably below the demand.

It is difficult, in writing on the question of wages, to advocate anything which may not react injuriously upon some other section of the workers. The largest factor, though by no means the only one, in the regulation of wages is supply and demand. The demand for weavers in the cotton industry is, at the moment of writing, greater than the supply, so prosperous is that particular industry. The case of the elementary school teachers is of the opposite sort: there the supply exceeds the demand. The wages of domestic servants are relatively high because the supply of trained domestics is much smaller than the demand. On the other hand, the appallingly low wages which women receive in a hundred sweated industries are the natural fruits of