ermanent place in the modern system of trade. A
tour among many of the larger establishments confirmed the statement
made by employers in smaller ones, the summary being given in the words
of a manager of one of the largest retail houses to be found in the
United States.

"We don't want men," he said. "We wouldn't have them even if they came
at the same price. Of course cheapness has something to do with it, and
will have, but for my part give me a woman to deal with every time. Now
there's an illustration over at that hat-counter. We were short of hands
to-day, and I had to send for three girls that had applied for places,
but were green--didn't know the business. It didn't take them ten
minutes to get the hang of doing things, and there they are, and you'd
never know which was old and which was new hand. Of course they don't
know all about qualities and so on, but the head of the department looks
out for that. No, give me women every time. I've been a manager thirteen
years, and we never had but four dishonest girls, and we've had to
discharge over forty boys in the same time. Boys smoke and lose at
cards, and do a hundred things that women don't, and they get worse
instead of better. I go in for women."

"How good is their chance of promotion?"

"We never lose sight of a woman that shows any business capacity, but of
course that's only as a rule in heads of departments. A saleswoman gets
about the same right along. Two thirds of the girls here are
public-school girls and live at home. You see that makes things pretty
easy, for the family pool their earnings and they dress well and live
well. We don't take from the poorer class at all. These girls earn from
four and a half to eight dollars a week. A few get ten dollars, and
they're not likely to do better than that. Forty dollars a month is a
fortune to a woman. A man must have his little fling, you know. Women
manage better."

"If they are really worth so much to you, why can't you give better pay?
What chance has a girl to save anything, unless she lives at home?"

"We give as high pay as anybody, and we don't give more because for
every girl here there are a dozen waiting to take her place. As to
saving, she doesn't want to save. There isn't a girl here that doesn't
expect to marry before long, and she puts what she makes on her back,
because a fellow naturally goes for the best-looking and the
best-dressed girl. That's the woman question as I've figured it ou