TO KEEP THEIR FAMILIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1921, Page 6

TO KEEP THEIR FAMILIES.

After emphasising the obvidms and in-

disputable fact that many mothers are obliged to earn in order to keep (or help keep) their families in this country, an Auckland writer says: In America, at least, the women’s clubs have set about tackling £hc» situation with characteristic promptness and energy. Realising that many women arc under the necessity of earning money ■ for themselves and their children, but also keenly alive to the fact that it is of paramount importance to keep mothers in their homes if possible, they have inaugurated a system wliereby every town may be said to market its own local talents. Thus, if a woman excels at choking or needlework, if she has a talent for millinery or designing, or any other form of work which may bo turned to profitable account, she registers with her village exchange, which in turn sends on her name, address, and capabilities to the district centre. People who want home-made cakes or original designs help in any particular branch of work then apply at the district centre, and book orders to be sent to the registered women who seem most likely to be able to fulfil their requirements. The exchange transacts the business, charging a percentage of the cheque, and the women do the work and cam their money in their own homes. In this way women are being helped to keep their financial independence, to find outlet for their creative liabilities and to work in their own homes instead of in congested cities. There is no subject which peaceable folk handle more delicate!}’ than that of the relation between women’s wages and men’s; none which excites more envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness, says the London Daily Telegraph. The battle-cry of equal pay for equal work has resounded over many an embittered meeting, and will yet agitate many more. To the Bureau of Municipal Research in New York belong.-, the

honor of achieving what we had. thought impossible of discovering some hew facts and new arguments for the combatants. The bureau has been engaged upon the valuable if melancholy task of investigating the cost of living. It has established that a family of five in New York requires ;CSGS a year to maintain a minimum standard of comfort, a single man €273, and a single woman €279> There are several criticisms which a domestic financier would like to make on these figures, and we cannot refrain from remarking on the singular success of the citizens of New A’ork in keeping down the expenses of family life. That a household of five should be comfortable on a. sum which would just provide the bare living wage for two people living separately is surprising. But the great discovery is that a woman's necessary expenses are larger than a man’s. Hitherto it has been generally assumed that, considered merely as machines. women arc naturally more economical than men; that their fuel consumption, and consequently their working costs, are loss.