ABSTRACT
UNION is strength. This principle which men, mechanics or artificers, have so long understood, and have brought into use in every profession is now being applied by women to their trades, and with every prospect of gt'eat .advantage, both to producers and consumers. The labours peculiar to women, carried on, as they used to be, by each separately in her own home, were not susceptible of much :unprovement. Every housewife had to be a" Jack of all trades;" brewer, baker, dyer, and chemist to some extent, each following her own experience or family receipts, and no great degree of perfection could be obtained in any of the arts. Clothes which were spun, woven, cut out, and made up by the same hands, were durable and serviceable no doubt, but would not answer our present requirements of ele~ance. ,V omen now, however, are beginning to find, hke men, that their work can be better done by combination; and also are learning that cooperation, beneficial to men, is almost necessalyto women, who, with smalIel' wages, insufficient training, and (possibly) less physical endurance, are l~ss able to support
1876]. Co-operation among Sltirtmake'l". 63
themselves independently. The) have more need of benefit associations, unions, and co-operative societies than men who have hitherto monopolised these advantages.
