Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/232

 public body anxious to cut down expenses is to be deplored, as all decreases in wages are to be deplored where none are very high; but looking at the thing broadly and without sex-bias, it is better that all should be paid moderately well than that some should have more than others for precisely the same work. A strong Trade Union or Professional Union might command for its workers any reasonable rate of pay it chose to demand, and the difficulty might be obviated in this way.

There appears to be no way satisfactory to the father of a family who rightly thinks he deserves more for the additional service he is rendering society; but if he will bear in mind this one great fact, he will probably become reconciled to his position. If the principle of equality of payment be established in every trade and industry in the country, a much greater number of men will probably find work than at present. The reason for the employment of women in such enormous numbers is not that their work is so much better than that of the men, but because they have been, and are, willing to work for less money. No business man with any common sense is going to employ a man at thirty shillings a week when he can get the work done nearly, if not quite, as well for fifteen shillings. Men have permitted women