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    154: MEETINGS AT GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH,

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    ,. ,, * The Of Social Annual Science Mee...

    of what had been stated with-regard . to tlie health of compositors , that he was tlie son of a father who was forty years employed in

    that _vexy process as a journeyman conrpositor , and that he liyed a very ( Applause healthf . ) ul life , and died at the mature age of •¦ eig hty - six ¦ .:. *

    , A discussion then ensued as to the danger of the movement , if successful , lowering "wages . The gist of one side of the argument

    was in plain English this—all trades and professions are already overstocked— -there are more workmen than there is work for them

    in the . world—we won't have women coming among us as com- _, petitors ( if we can help it ) if any are to starve , let them starve , or ;

    , , Ibecorne burdens upon the parish . - ., as heretofore . Now , setting' aside for the moment all political economical reasons _,,

    and granting that these opponents of the movement are right ,, we women do not-mean any longer to starve if we can get work , or to

    swell the army of our able-bodied sisters in the workhouses ofj . Englandwhose number at the present moment far exceeds 25 , 000 .

    , But we do not grant the position thus assumed , and for reasons to which we heartily invite the attention alike of friends and adversaries . '

    There is a book , but little known in comparison to its incalculable value ,: —the _" Industrial and Social Condition of Women _"—in one

    _chapter of which this very subject is disposed of , and the writer ' s views and opinions endorsed by John Stuart Mill . We wished the .

    book had been with us at Edinburgh / but it was not _, and we can only endeavor to promulgate now a chapter so important to all who

    either employm advocate ents . or oppose the introduction of women ¦ into industrial .

    " Laws of Political Economy in their bearing on the increased Employment of Women . ' *

    profits branches . " § 1 . and — - of It emoluments industry may be obj will . ected , b In y increasing that answer the to introduction this competition objection of , inj , women let uriousl it be into y considered tend the to hi lower gher in

    the be but first small place . , that In the the number lower orders added women to the hav ranks e alread of indu a strial lace labor in indus will - y p , trial branches emp will loyment just , and relieve ' such by of as these much as will the be pressure enabled of to competition rise to its hi in gher the

    numb rank they er of have the wom hitherto en of occup the middl ied . e r On anks the in other a position hand , to as enter statistics on industry show , the — - thoug and will h of always sufficient be small magnitude when to compared exercise a with beneficial the numb influence er of on the society other — sex is

    position already engaged of a few there will be ; , and instrumental though , as in we elevating have said the , a statu chang s and e in culture the social of be the but whole littl , the e felt increase andfrom of competition the circumstances in the sup women erior ranks are at of present industry placed will

    in , " will But be , secondl operated ; y , very the , dreaded gradually increase . of competition will labor be of a arket kind

    arising essentiall from y different ordinary from causes . increase In the common of competition case , such in increase the arises m from

    the either an the addition case cap throug ital contemp available to h , births the lated number or , for there throug the will of support h laborers immi be no gration of actual — the to ; laboring the increase or it popul arises to population ation the from number of a decrease a . country But of , the in in ,

    154: Meetings At Glasgow And Edinburgh,

    154 : MEETINGS AT GLASGOW AND _EDINBURGH ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 154, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/10/