Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 68

There is, in every session, what is called an urgency deficiency bill, the object of which is to take care of the different Interests which are likely to fail through inadequate appropriation. The opposition to including the item of the loan for the Exposition Company was found to be so powerful that it could not be inserted in the bill when it was sent to the House.

This urgent deficiency bill pa.s.sed the House and went to the Senate. There the loan amendment was inserted, and finally our amendment was added also. It pa.s.sed the Senate and was then returned to the House in order that that body might pa.s.s upon the amendments which the Senate had added. In the meetings before the two appropriation committees, as well as in the discussion in the two Houses, the arguments for and against were very forcibly expressed. One reason advanced as to why the loan should be made was because other governments had been invited to partic.i.p.ate, and the company should be enabled to open its gates in a manner befitting a national host. Among the main objections set forth at length were: First, the alleged unconst.i.tutionality of the whole proceeding; second, the inadequacy of the security.

All those speaking against the measure affected a total disbelief that the receipts would be sufficient to enable the company to return the money advanced, and, of course, a spasm of economy nearly rent these statesmen in twain.

The exposition management was not spared. More than one speaker waxed eloquent over what he declared was wanton waste of the greatest amount of money ever intrusted to an exposition management, which wanton waste had made the Exposition Company bankrupt and again at the doors of the Treasury begging for funds. Those working against the bill triumphantly quoted the following clause, which is section 24 of the original bill, and which authorized the creation of the exposition. It reads:

"That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to create any liability of the United States, direct or indirect, for any debt or obligation incurred, nor for any claim for aid or pecuniary a.s.sistance from Congress or the United States in support or liquidation of the debts or obligations created by said Commission."

After postponement and delays, the bill of the 11th of February pa.s.sed the House 172 to 115--57 majority. On the 15th it went back to the Senate and was promptly pa.s.sed.

The whole amount appropriated for the use of the board of lady managers was placed in their custody by the Secretary of the Treasury, and its expenditure has been most carefully guarded.

With this money at its command, it has always stood ready to a.s.sist the Exposition Company in every way possible, and the report of the treasurer will show that the disburs.e.m.e.nts have been made in a manner befitting the greatest of all world's fairs.

Respectfully submitted.

C.B. BUCHWALTER.

MARY PHELPS MONTGOMERY.

SALLIE D. COLEMAN.

All of the members of the board of lady managers were inspired at an early period of their official existence with a desire to accomplish something that would be of lasting benefit to the interests of women, and one of the first committees to be appointed by the president was on woman's work, which seemed to offer great scope for the development of earnest efforts and good judgment. They realized that upon their activity would greatly depend the extent to which women in this country and of the world at large would partic.i.p.ate, directly or indirectly, in making this exposition the most beneficent for women that had been, or could be, attained in any age or ages.

Specific action was restricted, however, by the Exposition Company, and the committee on woman's work was not enabled to give an international character to its work. While the life of its organization was in no way affected, the board was not allowed to expend any money except under the authority of the Exposition Company, and although the members believed that whatever action they might take in regard to sending a representative of the board abroad was legitimate exposition work and would be promptly ratified by the National Commission and local company, their request was denied by the executive committee of the company, and they were not permitted to extend their work on the broad lines for which they had hoped.

An effort was made by two members of the committee on woman's work, in conference with the heads of the departments in Was.h.i.+ngton, to secure information as to the details of the work performed by women in the various Government departments, and their salaries. This matter was brought before the board at its session held February 18, 1903, and it was believed by the members that if such a statement could be obtained it would be helpful in the development and organization of woman's work in connection with the board. As all arrangements had previously been planned in Was.h.i.+ngton to have the work done if desired by the board, the secretary was instructed to write to Hon. John R. Procter, president United States Civil Service Commission, and ask for statistics. In order to procure the data from all the departments, it was necessary to have an Executive order from the President. Mr. Procter made this request, and the President graciously issued the following:

Executive Order.

The HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS:

The board of lady managers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition desires a statement prepared, showing the work performed by women in the departments, together with their official designations, salaries, etc. It is requested that so far as it will not inconvenience public work, such information may be supplied.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

WHITE HOUSE, _March 21, 1903._

It may be said that the occupations in which women are now engaged in the Departments, where their duties range from those involving mere manual labor to skilled professional service, represent many of the lines in which women are now so active everywhere. The salaries vary from $240 to $1,800 per annum.

It is believed that the citation of a few examples of the high positions of importance and responsibility now held by women, compiled for the information of the board of lady managers, may be a source of encouragement to others by showing what natural ability, backed with determination and industry, may accomplish. The following memoranda has been taken at random from but four of the Departments:

_Department of State_.--Miss ---- went into the service in 1893, and was detailed to a.s.sist the Secretary of State, who was engaged in negotiating reciprocity treaties. She served in the capacity of confidential clerk to four Secretaries and one a.s.sistant Secretary of State. Served as stenographer and typewriter in the Consular Bureau of the Department of State, and was later confidential stenographer to the Third a.s.sistant Secretary of State, and a.s.sisted in the preparation of the correspondence with the Alaska boundary question.

Another was appointed as a temporary clerk for the purpose of introducing the book typewriter for recording the correspondence of the Department which formerly had been done by hand. After installing the book typewriter and bringing the Diplomatic Notes and Instructions up to date, she was detailed as stenographer and typewriter to the Chief Clerk of the Department. Her duties in the office of the Chief Clerk required her to be familiar with the work of the bureaus of the Department and the many intricate questions constantly presented to the Chief Clerk's office. She was required to have expert knowledge of the cipher used in the Department, and a considerable part of her time was employed in enciphering and deciphering telegrams sent from and received by the Department.

One young woman was detailed for three months to serve as stenographer and typewriter to the American Commission at The Hague in the arbitration between the United States and Mexico, where she a.s.sisted in taking stenographic report of the sessions before the arbitral court.

Miss ----, appointed under the civil service rules, was in the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, where her duties required her to prepare the consular reports for publication, translate extracts from foreign commercial newspapers, etc.

A clerk was appointed in the recorder of deeds' office, but resigned to accept an appointment in the Department of State.

Her work at first was in the Diplomatic Bureau, where she was engaged in preparing papers for signature, translating French, Italian, and Spanish; engrossing treaties, proclamations, drafting maps, pen and ink sketches, etc. Later she was detailed to the Bureau of Indexes and Archives, where she was employed in recording the Diplomatic Notes and Instructions of the Department on the book typewriter.

_Department of the Interior_.--Mrs. ---- held a law desk in the General Land Office and decided many of the difficult problems connected with the deeds and patents of land on the frontier.

Was first appointed in the Government Printing Office at $48 per month, and later appointed in the Pension Office at an increased salary, where her duties were copying pension certificates and notifying pensioners of the allowance of their pensions. Upon her second promotion, the work and pay being unsatisfactory to her, she was, at her own request, transferred to the railroad division of the General Land Office. Her duties were to copy railroad decisions, and the work being merely routine clerical work, she took up typewriting, hoping to advance herself thereby. This caused her to be transferred to the contest division, and later she was a.s.signed to a desk requiring original work, and her duties were to promulgate decisions of the Department. From this time on the grade of her work was raised until she was promoted to $1,400, by which time she had become familiar with the entire work of the division. She soon found that a knowledge of the law of Congress disposing of the public domain and familiarity with the rules of practice and decisions of the General Land Office and of the Department alone were not sufficient to enable her to perform her work in a manner satisfactory to herself, however satisfactory to the Department, and she therefore took up a regular four years' law course and graduated with credit to herself and her college.

How satisfactorily she does her work is shown by the fact that out of sixty appeals from her decisions rendered during a period of six months, decisions involving thousands of dollars, only one was reversed and one modified, and this because of new matter being filed after the decisions were rendered by her.

Mrs. ---- also enjoys the distinction of holding a law desk in the General Land Office, having been transferred to it from the Census Office, where she had been dealing with mathematical problems. It was found that a $1,600 clerk was back in his work with 300 cases which it was necessary to have adjudicated. The bringing this work up to date was a.s.signed to her. Prior to this she had written a few decisions. She was at first appalled at the decree, but went bravely to work with a determination to succeed. How well she succeeded can be ascertained by the records of the office. Later she was transferred at her own request from the public land division to the contest or law division. Her experience gained in the Land Office taught her how to adjudicate contest cases, and she was often required to bring up work of the princ.i.p.al law examiners when in arrears.

Miss ---- was a.s.signed to duty on Board of Pension Appeals to typewrite decisions for signature of the a.s.sistant Secretary and act as his stenographer. Afterwards transferred to patents and miscellaneous division of the Secretary's Office. Duties: Stenographer and typewriting; indexing; in charge of issuing authorities for open market purchases to the Geological Survey and to Howard University, and issuance of permits for admission to the Government Hospital for the Insane, and to Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum; a.s.sistant in abstracting various reports to be embodied in the Secretary's annual report to the President. A knowledge of law was of considerable a.s.sistance in the work of the division, and after entering the Government service she took a three years' course in the Was.h.i.+ngton College of Law and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the District of Columbia.

_Library of Congress._--The Library of Congress employs 135 women in a force of 302 persons. The salaries range $1,500 to $360 a year, and they are employed in almost all the divisions.

None of them, however, rate as laborers.

At $1,500 there is one woman at work in the catalogue division as an expert reviser of printed catalogue cards and proof reader. At $1,400 three women serve as a.s.sistant readers of catalogue cards and proof readers in the catalogue division, and another is the chief reviser in the record division of the Copyright Office.

At $1,200 there are 11 women employees. Of these, 5 are in the Copyright Office as translators, indexers, and cataloguers; 5 are in the catalogue division as cataloguers of the first cla.s.s, and one is in charge of the reading room for the blind.

_Post-Office Department._--One clerk of cla.s.s 3, salary $1,600, prepares correspondence for the signature of the Postmaster-General and the Chief Clerk reads and refers the Congressional and Departmental mail addressed to the Postmaster-General; a.s.sists in the compilation of the estimates of appropriations for the Department and postal service; also a.s.sists in the compilation of the Postal Guides; in charge of the distribution of the Postal Laws and Regulations and of the Postal Guide throughout the postal service; stenographer and typewriter.

One clerk of cla.s.s 2, salary $1,400, to whom is a.s.signed the duty of preparing the three lists of post-offices published each year in the Official Postal Guide, and lists of changes in post-offices published each month in the supplemental postal guide.

One clerk, a.s.signed to the claims division. Duties: Preparation of correspondence connected with claims of postmasters for reimburs.e.m.e.nt for losses occasioned by burglary, fire, or other unavoidable casualty, and for losses of money-order and postal funds in transit to depositaries.

Office of the topographer: One woman skilled as draftsman, at $1,400, prepares the guides for the colors printed on the post-route maps, and has supervision of the map sheets transmitted from and to the photolithographer. Three other women draftsmen note the reported changes in the postal service of a group of States, revise and post-route map sheets of those States, and correct monthly the corresponding diagram maps for the use of officers and clerks of the Post-Office Department.

Office Second a.s.sistant Postmaster-General: One clerk, salary $1,600, on work relating to ocean mail contract service; occasional translating, indexing, and briefing. One clerk, salary $1,400, on work relating to domestic statistics in connection with the international service; stating accounts of steams.h.i.+p companies for the sea conveyance of mails; occasional translating, and a.s.sisting in general correspondence. One clerk, salary $1,400, "corresponding clerk," whose duties consist in the examination of applications for establishment of star and steamboat service; changes therein; preparation of cases to be submitted for decision; preparation of orders and correspondence for official signature.

In most of the examinations which women pa.s.s in order to be appointed in the departments technical skill is required, as shown by the following list of subjects:

Artist, a.s.sistant microscopist, clerk stenographer and typewriter, computer in Coast and Geodetic Survey, counter, Government paper mill, industrial teacher, trained nurse, register and receiver's clerk, compositor, public doc.u.ment cataloguer, a.s.sistant ethnological librarian, scientific a.s.sistant, book typewriter, kindergarten teacher, scientific aid, zoological clerk, Internal-Revenue Service, Philippine Service, topographic draftsman, a.s.sistant to bookbinder, music teacher.

The following is a compilation and table of comparison showing the number of men and women employed in the various departments at Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. The figures are based upon the Official Register of the United States, July 1, 1901, volume 1. Since that date there has been a great many hundreds of new appointees of both s.e.xes in all the respective departments and bureaus below enumerated, and the accurate figures down to the present time will show an increase accordingly:

-----------------------------------+--------+--------+ | Men. | Women. | -----------------------------------+--------+--------+ Executive Office (the President's) | 28 | | Department of State | 92 | 17 | Treasury Department | 3,234 | 2,313 | War Department | 2,411 | 300 | Navy Department | 2,292 | 85 | Post-Office Department | 812 | 237 | Department of Interior | 4,810 | 2,862 | Department of Justice | 191 | 21 | Department of Agriculture | 650 | 382 | Government Printing Office | 2,623 | 1,068 | Department of Labor | 74 | 10 | United States Commission of Fish | | | and Fisheries | 55 | 12 | Interstate Commerce Commission | 133 | | Civil Service Commission | 55 | 6 | Industrial Commission | 10 | 7 | Smithsonian Inst.i.tution | 320 | 39 | Bureau of American Republics | 13 | 9 | -----------------------------------+--------+--------+

The first woman employed in the Government service was appointed by General Spinner, of the Treasury Department, about 1864.

On July 1, 1901, the clerical force in the Executive Departments in Was.h.i.+ngton was approximately a force of 27,605 employees of both s.e.xes.

Out of this number there were 7,496 females. The time, at this ratio of increase of the respective s.e.xes, when the gentler s.e.x is to overcome and pa.s.s the men, is merely a matter of arithmetic to those who wish to ascertain this interesting data. The above table shows that the women have between one-fourth and one-third of the appointments in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

Mrs. Mary Phelps Montgomery, the chairman of the committee on woman's work, read her first report of the work of that committee at the meeting of the board held Tuesday, April 28, 1903, and a copy was transmitted to the National Commission. At the session held on December 17, 18, and 19, 1903, the following letter was received and read by the secretary:

ST. LOUIS, U.S.A., _December 16, 1903_.

DEAR MRS. HANGER: Replying to your esteemed favor of the 14th instant, transmitting a copy of report of committee on woman's work, which was adopted by your board at a meeting held in April, 1903, you are advised that on motion the same was approved to the extent that the report prescribes the scope of your proposed field of activity.

The Commission, at its session on the 15th instant, adopted the following resolution:

"Moved and seconded that in so far as the report of committee on woman's work prescribes the line of work for the board of lady managers, the same stands approved by the Commission.

"Motion prevailed."