With American industry preparing to put women into the places of male workers called to the war, it is a rather surprising thing to learn that there already are 7,438,686 women in the United States who earn their own living. Of these no less than one-fourth are married. Here are the figures: Single, 4,401,000; married, 1,890,626; widowed or divorced, 1,147,060. In 1900 only 4,833,630 women left their homes to work, showing an increase of approximately one-half since then. In 1890 the married formed 14.3 per cent. of all women sixteen years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations. By 1900 this proportion had increased to 15.9 per cent. From 1900 to 1910 it jumped to the unprecedented proportion of 25.4 per cent. While there were important variations, the great increase was not confined to any one occupation or group of occupations, nor to any one State or group of States. In every occupation examined the married formed a larger proportion of all women sixteen years of age and over in 1910 than in 1900. The proportions were exceptionally high in the South and Arizona—50.8 per cent. in South Carolina, 46.8 per cent. in Georgia, 46.7 per cent. in Florida, 47.4 per cent. in Alabama, 54.2 per cent. in Mississippi, 45.6 per cent. in Arkansas, 40.7 per cent. in Arizona. In contrast, the proportion was only 15.8 per cent. in Connecticut, 15.1 per cent. in Pennsylvania, 13.1 per cent. in Wisconsin, 11.9 per cent. in Minnesota, and 15.7 per cent. in Iowa. The unusually large proportion of married women engaged outside their homes in the South is explained by the number of negroes living in that section of the country. The total of white women working for a living in the same States is perhaps smaller than in any other part of the United States. Even more significant than the great increase in the proportion which the married form of all women sixteen years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations is the marked increase in the proportion of all women so employed. Statistics show that in 1890 just 4.6 per cent. of married women went to work. The figures had expanded to 5.6 per cent. ten years later, and in 1910 had reached 10.7 per cent. It may be safely assumed that in the years which have elapsed between then and now the increase has more than kept pace with earlier figures. And it is equally certain that once men have been replaced by women under war conditions neither they nor employers will be inclined to restore ante-bellum conditions. The problem is one to give economists grave concern. CHILD LABOR _MARY ALDEN HOPKINS, Harper’s Weekly, 1915._