here is an
economic element among the causes of the social evil; it is remarkable
that moral sturdiness resists so much temptation.

210. =Offices.=--The numerous office-buildings that have arisen so
rapidly in recent years in the cities also have large corps of women
workers. They have personal relations with employers much more
frequently, for there are thousands of offices where a few
stenographers or even a single secretary are sufficient. Office work
is skilled labor, is better paid, and attracts women of better
attainments and higher ideals than in department store or factory.
Office relations are pleasant as well as profitable. The demands are
exacting; labor at the typewriter, the proof-sheets, or the
bookkeeper's desk is tiresome, but the society of the office is
congenial, working conditions are healthful and cheerful in most
cases, and there are many opportunities for increasing efficiency and
promotion. The office has its hardships. Everything is on a business
basis, and there is little allowance for feelings or disposition.
There are days when trials multiply and an atmosphere of irritation
prevails; there are seasons when the constant rush creates a wearing
nervous tension, and other seasons, when business is so poor that
occasionally there are breakdowns of health or moral rectitude; but on
the whole the office presents a simpler industrial problem than the
factory or the store.

211. =Transportation.=--A third industry that has its centre in the
city but extends across continents and seas is the business of
transportation. Manufactured goods are conveyed from the factory to
the warehouse and the store, goods sold in the mercantile
establishment are delivered from door to door, but enormous quantities
of the products of economic activity are hauled to greater distances
by truck, car, and steamship. The city is a point to which roads,
railways, and steamship lines converge, and from which they radiate in
every direction. By long and short hauls, by express and freight, vast
quantities of food products and manufactured goods pour into the
metropolis, part to be used in its numerous dwellings, part to be
shipped again to distant points. Along the same routes passengers are
transported, journeying in all directions on a multitude of errands,
jostling for a moment as they hurry to and from the means of
conveyance, and then swinging away, each on its individual orbit, like
comet or giant sun that nods acquai