THE GIRL CLERK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1774, 12 June 1913, Page 5

THE GIRL CLERK.

BUSINESS CAPABILITIES.

OPINIONS OF EMPLOYERS

DOES SHE BEAT THE BOY! (By Teleeraph,—flyeoial Correspondent.? Chrlstch'urch, Juno 11. When at a recent meeting of a suburbaa 1 local body ;i resolution was moved to tlio eilect that a typisto should bo engaged to assist tho cierk at a taYuy of 15s. per wtek, an interesting discussion was provoked. "A woman's place is in tho borne," said 0110 member. "A typisto will Jearu nothing in our office lo lit her for tho, domestic duties of wifehood and mother.' hood. Let us get a boy-for llio position Wo will be.training him for a career." "I would not Ihjvo a boy in my office," said another member of tho body; and all the rest agreed with him. "A boy will stay for a fow weeks, and will then leave for a position with a larger salary. Wo will merely be making our office n placo in which boys wnjr servo their apprenticeship to clerical work. For 15s. wo can get a girl who will bo of use to us." A "Star" reporter, who made inquiries of a few employers of boy and girl clerical labour, found that the samo opinion was expressed by the majority of those interested. The consensus-of opinion uppfwred to be that a gill of sixteen could bo obtained with comparative ease —a neat, legiblo writer, with a businesslike, methodical mind, and with adaptability and power of learning, wheixws (o obtain a boy of tho samo age, cf whom tlwi samo oould bo said,' was so extremely _ difficult as to appear in many cases impossible. 'There is a continual procession of girls passing from school through tho commercial colleges into the offices of the city," said the manager of a largo drapery firm. "Without them I do not know what tlie employers would do for clerical labour. They arc neat, careful, and intelligent, and are well trained in the work they aro required to do. They can earn their wages right from the start, but when I tako a boy into my office I have as a rule to teach him for a month or 60 before ho is of much use to me. I have to induce him to writo legibly, to avoid the more disfiguring blots and erasures, and; to refrain from wool-gathering and per-i forming such feats as adding three-fifths of a penny to tho Merivalo live-eiglitli6, as ono boy attempted to do."

"But do you not find that there aro ninny classes of work in which you cau employ boys, but not girls P" asked ttio reporter. "Practically none," said ttia manager. "Girls go to tho post, and collect debts, and sign cheques, and do all kinds of things for which it is tho popular delusion that niasculino firmness is nccessary. As a matter of fact, girls up to the ageof twenty or twenty-olio carry lar more weight and appear much more responsible beings than boys of tho same age. They grow up earlier."

In tho majority of tho offices it was the same. Most of them appeared to employ a largo number of girls, a few men. and a small proportion of boys, if any at all. ■ There were offices where there wero no girls at oil, but all. boys 1 and men wero at work* but everyone had a good word for the girl.; The boy generally received a bad hearing i everywhere.

"Well, who is to train up your menclerks, anyway?" asked the reporter iafc List. It was to a lawyer ho was speak-' ing. "Nono of you seem to employ boys if you can get girls." "Men will always bo wanted,!' eaid the lawyer. "Girls are suitublo for certain kinds of work, and for that tliev aro needed. Tho majority of them tako up offico work as a means of livelihood between school anil marriage. It is merely a etop-gap with them, and not career. l\>r positions where meticulous attention, to routino work is required for a small wage, givo mo tho girl every time, but beyond a certain stago they do not got. A boy, on tho contrary, is chiefly noticeable for tho absence of 6Uch! a thing as meticulous euro in his makeup, but for its absence ho atones by the possession of initiative and inspiration. He does small work badly, but big work well. Ido not beliovo ill tho old idea that tho boy who is going to do big tilings in tho wofld is tho boy who is intensely careful and neat. The best typo of "boy is that which has tho'Divmo Discontent 1 which loads to success. It makes him restless, but it gives him . initiativo and energy. It is a matter of psychology. Tho office girl will do tho routine work to perfection, whero tho boy will Ijo untidy and careless, but ™ boy will do tho big work of tho world.