THE WOMAN OF IRON

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2169, 6 June 1914, Page 11

THE WOMAN OF IRON

Readors of Margaret Deland'e hook, '.'The Iron Woman, made the acquaintanco in fiction, of a master manufacturer of iron, who was a woman. Among the many captains of the real feminist movement, few take a more prominent place than Mrs. Harriet White Fisher Andrews. So woll known is she in America, so sought after at the conferences of tho master manufacturers and experts, that within the past few months several English and American magazines have given accounts of tho work of this almost uniquo woman. For the past nine years she has owned and managed an iron foundry, which has quadrupled its business since she took charge. Her anvils are found in the machine shops of every American- warship. In every workshop along tho Panama Canal are anvils made by this, remarkable woman. Tho Fisher anvil is known in China, Australia, Africa, South America, Europe, in every quarter of the globe. Of strict Puritan stock, which had never demeaned itself by adopting trade, Harriet White, on completing her studies at Home and abroad, became the wifu of Clark Fisher, who took over his father's fouudry,_ where for over 50 years the Fisher family had made anvils. It was only when her husband was stricken seriously ill, and the works seemed about to collapse, that she took to the business of necessity. Tho foreman, proving inefficient, she took matters into her own hands, mastered every detail of the work, learning to do each process herself, and to-day she is the owner and manager of the largest anvil works in America. • • Clad in a big fitting overall, which prevents her skirts from being drawn into the machinery, she makes a tour of inspection each day. It is told that when one of her workmen crushed a finger, and was advised by a mate to get a day off on account of it, he remarked: "The boss smashed two of hers, yet she stayed on tho job," then he resumed his work. She has never asked a man to do anything she was not ablo to do herself. If sho could accomplish the work set, it is safe to say that no man wa3 going to lot himself off by doing less. Tin's is the spirit that has helped her all through. The works have never been shut down, the men havo never lost a day's pay, and such a thing as a strike is unknown. She takes a keen personal interest in the welfare of her men and of their wivos and families, and of their dogs. For tho past nine years sho has been at her post from whistle to whistle. When her day's work is over she seeks recreation at her poultry farm, four miles from the works, whero she lives. Recently she has rc-marriod—a gentleman of tho Argentine Navy, Mr. Andrews—and, as is 60 often done in she keeps all her names, Harriet White Fisher Andrews.