., 1911. See, also, _Saleswomen in
Mercantile Stores_, by ELIZABETH BEARDSLEY BUTLER, published by the
Charities Publication Committee, for the Russell Sage Foundation, 1912.

The solution of woman's present industrial problem is not an easy task,
but out of the present unsettlement certain facts are emerging with a
good deal of clearness. The efficiency in production, secured by
concentration and specialization, make it certain that the old-time home
with its multiplied industries will not return, but that more and more
even of its present lessened activities will be transferred to factories
and to their equivalents. It is also certain that women are not going to
be supported in indolence by men, because when deprived of the
discipline which full participation in life gives, they must always
degenerate. For themselves, and for the sake of their children, they
will demand a chance to live abundantly. It is also clear that our
present chaotic conditions are destructive of health, happy marriages,
effective homes, and the strong line of descendants which must always be
the chief care of an intelligent society.

In the first place, then, we must work to produce an entire change in
our present mental attitude toward organized industries. Our present
worship of industrial products, no matter how obtained, must give way to
a recognition of the fact that the chief asset of a nation is its
people; that a woman is more important than the clothes she makes in
factories or sells in stores; and that to needlessly destroy or
scrapheap a working woman is worse than to needlessly destroy or
scrapheap the finest and most costly machine ever devised by man. Such a
statement seems to carry conviction in its every phrase, but the fact is
that we do not believe it, and until we do believe it, there will be
little help for our present absurd and wretched conditions. Unregulated
competition, backed by greed of individuals and groups, will go on
wasting the wealth of women's lives until we cease to be fascinated and
hypnotized by the display of products which they make possible. Better
fine women and children, and few things, than stores and warehouses
crowded with goods, and the women and children of our present factory
towns. By fixing our attention on people instead of things, we should
almost certainly secure more and better things; but, regardless of cost,
we must change the focus of our attention.

In the second place, girls must get