The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Thomas Wentworth Higginson, April 6th, 1883
TO THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
| The Evening Post, 210 Broadway, | |
| New York, April 6, 1883. |
According to my experience the correspondent of the Tribune is substantially right. I have no statistics at my disposal at present, but have frequently had occasion to observe the fact in question.
Neither can I say that “the loss through physical weakness as compared with male clerks is balanced by gain in the steadier habits of female clerks in other ways.” It is, I think, the experience of the Departments that the average is on the whole more favorable on the side of the male clerks. Many female clerks, perhaps a large majority of them, do excellent work. But there are some, not quite inconsiderable in number, who are irregular, pretentious, wayward and impatient of discipline, and they run down the general average.