Cruelty to Shop-Girls

1899

Medical authorities generally agree that it is cruel to compel shop-girls to stand all day, and that serious forms of disease can be traced to the practice. Nearly twenty years ago, a leading English medical journal — the London Lancet — tried to correct it and published a list of the employers who persisted in the system. In this country public sentiment has been often appealed to, shoppers have sometimes cooperated to refuse to buy at stores where the girls were not allowed seats, and in at least one state a law has been passed to compel employers to give women clerks seats that can be used when opportunity is given.

The British Parliament, at its recent session, had under consideration two "Seats for Shop Assistants" bills, one applying to Scotland, and the other to England and Ireland. The Scotch bill was defeated, but the other passed the Commons without opposition, and received the support of the Lords by a large majority. Lord Salisbury opposed the measure, promising the appointment of a commission to consider it, if the bill were withdrawn.

The chief argument used against the bill in Parliament was that it would work hardship to the girls, because their employers, rather than give them seats, would fill their places with men; but the fact that men's wages are higher than women's will prevent such a change.

Some of the shopkeepers who held meetings and wrote letters to protest against the measure may yet find it working to their advantage. Girls whose physical strength is not needlessly wasted by being compelled to stand all the day must be in the best condition to serve their employers. Tired bodies make tired minds. They hinder activity and thoroughness in store duties, and prevent alertness in the treatment of customers.

The evils of the present system are apparent, and are greater than those inherent in the proposed change. In the one humanity is outraged. In the other it is honored; and obedience to the "higher law" not only neutralizes many an evil, but it ennobles business life.