[Illustration: Diagram 1.--Boys and girls under 18 years of age in
office work in Cleveland. Data from report of Ohio Industrial
Commission, 1915]

The difference between boys and girls begins at the beginning. Boys
are given a larger share of the positions which the youngest worker
can fill. Diagram 1 illustrates this and the figures of the United
States Census for 1910 clearly corroborate it. Boys are taken for such
work and taken younger than girls, not merely because the law permits
them to go to work at an earlier age, but also because business
itself intends to round their training. Girls, on the contrary, are
expected to enter completely trained for definite positions. This fact
alone would in most cases compel them to be older. Furthermore,
because boys in first positions are looked upon as potential clerks,
miscellaneous jobs about the office have for them a two-fold value.
They give the employer a chance to weed out unpromising material; and
they give boys an opportunity to find themselves and to gather ideas
about the business and methods which they may be able to make use of
in later adjustments.

[Illustration: Diagram 2.--Men and women 18 years of age and over in
clerical and administrative work in offices in Cleveland. U.S. Census,
1910]

Diagram 2 shows that girls' training, if it is to meet the present
situation, must prepare for a future in specialized clerical work;
boys' future must apparently be thought of as in mostly the clerical
and administrative fields. The term "clerical" as here used, covers
bookkeepers, cashiers and accountants, stenographers and typists,