for their work, and by their power to do it clearly demonstrate to an employer that it is to his interest to employ them, they will not be in such sore straits as they imagine. It will be a spur to their effort to do excellent work, and much more dignified than to be employed because they are cheap; and society is the gainer. One argument for the equalisation of remuneration for men and women is that the community will get the best work, for there will be no temptation to employ bad workers simply because their work is cheap.
It is feared by many that the unemployment of women consequent upon the equal pay principle being accepted will crowd a few occupations and bring down wages to starvation point in work previously well paid, such, for example, as skilled domestic service. The equal pay principle will not be accepted by every industry simultaneously, but gradually, as public opinion demands it, and the industry affected will have time to adjust itself to the new conditions. Trade Unionism is the immediate remedy for the too serious lowering of wages, and the enfranchisement of women would probably do more for the enactment of a legal minimum wage in all low-paid employments than any other one thing.
This question of wages is an extremely complicated one, and one which the lay mind can scarcely hope to handle with intelligence.
