"The next largest group of 4,000, it is not surprising to learn, appears in women's time-honored occupation of cleaning. Women have long been cleaning stations, offices, etc., but now they are employed in the yards to clean coaches and Pullmans, both inside and outside; and in the roundhouses, doing the heavier work of wiping locomotives; 800 were so employed. In personal service, including work in dining rooms and kitchens, as matrons and janitresses, 2,000 were found. In the railroad shops, women entered the greatest variety of new occupations. Three thousand were employed, ranging at one end of the scale from common laborers, at the other end of the scale of skilled mechanics earning the machinists' or carmen's rate of pay. "Many women were employed a year and a half ago, before the railroads were put under Federal control, because they could be obtained for less pay than men. They were, for instance, engaged as common laborers at 20¢ to 22¢ an hour, at a time when men were receiving 28¢ to 30¢ for the same class of labor. With rare exceptions where adjustments are still necessary, the wage orders have absolutely stopped this undercutting of men's wages by women. WORK UNSUITABLE FOR WOMEN "Soon after women began to be largely employed it became apparent that some of their work was neither profitable nor appropriate. The use of women as section laborers, for instance, in a gang of men working along the tracks at a distance from any house or station was judged to be unsuitable. This was also found to be the case where women were employed as truckers in depots and warehouses on account of the extraordinary physical exertion required of them. In view of the wages now paid it was believed possible to secure men and to transfer the women to some class of work suitable to their strength and with proper regard to their health. The railroads were accordingly asked to discontinue their employment in both these positions.