"The root of the evil is the old incompatibility between male and female labor in the skilled and semi-skilled grades of industry. That incompatibility has arisen partly from fallacious theorizing of the 'wages-fund' type, but largely from the fact that the industrial woman, in spite of the uphill and often successful trade union work which has been accomplished, mainly from above, during the past forty years, is regarded by her male colleague as nature's blackleg. And in spite of the short-sighted policy of hostility to women members displayed by a few trade unions, it is fairly clear that it is not the woman trade unionist that the man is afraid of, but the woman blackleg; not the well-paid woman, but the sweated woman. Now there are three ways of dealing with a blackleg: he may be elbowed out of the industrial world altogether; he may be penned up, as women have been penned up, in the lowest and most undesirable grades; or he may be turned into a trade unionist. As far as women are concerned, the first two are closed by national expediency, humanity and justice. The third lies open; and in view of the peculiar economic rocks which loom vaguely ahead of us, it may be said without exaggeration that one woman trade-union leader is worth a hundred welfare workers." [Illustration: Copyright Underwood & Underwood Women Workers in America A field of winter lettuce, with the cloches, or glass bells, which made it possible during the war to raise plants in cold weather.] WOMEN WORKERS IN AMERICA As a result of the labor dislocation due to the operation of the American Draft Law, a large number of women were employed in railway work. The experience of the United States Railroad Administration in the matter of women employes was summarized in a paper read by Miss Pauline Goldmark, manager of the women's service section of the Railroad Administration, at a conference at the Academy of Political Science, in 1918: "The number of women employed on the railroads of the United States had been 60,000 at the beginning of the year, and reached approximately 100,000 by October 1st. The greatest number are in the clerical and semi-clerical occupations. Of the 81,000 employed July 1st, 61,000 were working as clerks of all kinds, stenographers, accountants, comptometer operators, etc. In this class appear women ticket sellers and bureau of information clerks, who served the public for the first time; they were found well fitted for this type of work, and special instruction agencies were opened by the government in various states to train them in the intricacies of tariffs and routes.