The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 17, 1901, Page 9

% For = rtai T served may produce more is a contribu- gy womah's P r s '\m\.m llum N " nwmm “"'“" X 4!.'..""»"'"L !!!t’.ff CHARLOTTE P. STETSON. America that we have thrown off slavery, and with the same impulse have set in motion the long struggle toward securing woman's fuller equality before the law. Woman are growing honester, braver, stronger, more healthful and skiliful and able and free, more human in all ways. Day by day the bars go down. More and more the fleld lies open for the mind of woman to glean all it can, and it hes responded most eagerly. And the clearness and strength of the brain of the woman prove continually the injus- tice of the clamorous contempt poured upon what was scornfully called “the female mind.” are many birds among iring the nesting seasom, helps the female feed the d partially feeds her. In ase does she depend on him ab- ., even during this season, save of the hornbill, where the female, her nest in a hollow tree, is by the male, so that ak projects; and then he feeds the eggs are developing. But female hornbill does not expect ny other time. with clay n species the condition is ough the present century is a great g the this respect. beginnings of and Woman's progress in the arts sciences, the trades and professions. is steady; but it 1s most unwise to claim from these relative advances the supe- or even their What is more a certain percentage of persons to persons in order that the ones riority of women to men, equality, in these fields. not to be overlooked. The labor of women in the house enables men to pro- than they otherwise more wealth the superiority of the women of to-day to those of earlier times. By what is freeiy written by most au- he domestic work which the wife rforms is given her as part of her func- duty, not as employment. shown our change in circumstances and change in feeling. . In old romances the woman was nothing save beautiful, high- pioneer life of the early settlers presence was at a pre- mium and her labor had a high economic very ) e who molded the bullets and borm. virtuous and perhaps “accom- A : the guns while the men fireq Flished” BShe did nothing but lgve and I co-defender of the home and hate, obey or disobey, and be handed b ?fi\ 2nd women prayed together, here and there among villain, hero and 4\ ther and fought together in OuUtraged parent, screaming, fainting, or i bursting into floods of tears as secmed More than all, the of democracy has brought individualization that has The federal y in its organic union, reacting strengthened, soul in e equality. called by the occasion. In the fiction of to-day women are continually taking larger place in the action of the story. They are given per- sonal characteristics beyond that of mere beauty. They are no longer content sim- ply to be; they do. e fullest the world ever seen. democr: has so ed the human [ ] B o 2 e e e e e . ] r'RS. ERNESTINE KRELING. other, to keep sentiment in the back- ground, to never show thelr emotions— those emotions that have been their her- itage for generations. A woman guards her own watches over the growth of her business Women have not yet adjusted them- their new environment. The selves tc on of the race places them at interests, home and they enter the to them un- wn business world apologetically. For and mothers it just as she would a child. they have been kept in the She is cautious about large Investments and 1s a hard loser. No, we are not men’s equals in busi- 4 to cultivate the gentler vir- t is hard for them to fight, to e one business proposition with an- tates. . F course I think woman in business is a success! It has been both my ex- perience and my observation that women who apply themselves earnestly but it is not on the financial side that they oftenest fail or It is on the side of personal sacrifice. How many women come saying, “Oh, how delighttul to be in business and to have a al, definite interest in life and something to occupy one's time, with a real resuit st the end of h day or week!"” My serious views on “Women and Business,” if worth listening to, are soon told, but I must add the opinion of a successful man, whose views on business m be of more value than mine; for though I am grateful to my customers for the success that T am indebted to them for, I eannot but give the superiority on commercial matters to the other sex, even though necessity demands that some of vs must do for ourselves. The successful commercial man is usually able (so I am told, at least) to take & broad, comprehensive view. which, however, does not allow minute detalls to pe. 1f he sells blankets, he buys sh2ep wholesale, clips the fleece, refines the and manuifactures it into blankets When the blanket is ready to sell your man knows not only what it has cost him to make it, but what percentage of that cost is represented by raw wool, how much by the cost of the labor, how much by the proportionate share of his rent, heat, light, interest on his investment, efc.; how much for dye, for wear and tear and for the thousand and one other details that go to swell his expense account. Women, on the other hand, business women who succeed, usually do so because of thelr inventive faculties, imagination and adaptabliity. They are able to turn \ them to sufficient account to be able to pay less attention to -the methods which bring success to men. make money, suffer loss. into my shop, wor long 3 to the purpose and easily to be shown is / thors and freely read by most people is f the Dis FEW months ago Judge Waldo M. York of Los Angeles startled the community at large by stating his belief that wives should ba bread-winners. This decision was brought about by the divorce suit of Mrs. Flora E. Stephens against Henry G. Stephens en the ground of cruzlty and non-sup- port. The Stephenses had several chii- dren. The father had no trade and shunned work. Mrs. Stephens was compelled to take in washing to sup- port the family. The case was pleaded and submit- ted. The next day Judge York reu- dered this decision, to the surprise of the assembled Stephens f-milyf‘ “A wife might easily earn enougn to support both herself and husband. I believe that -women should bear some of the responsibility of the sup- port of the family upon their own shoulders. We ought all of us to work and do something to keep the world going. The mere fact that this wo- man and her daughters have had to help support the family is pot in itself sufficient gréund for divorce. “The fact that the husband has not contributed to the support of the fam- ily, without proof of his ability to do so or proof of his neglect to do so by ~~ The Calse of A clssion. qERA ‘!Yll r‘"”fl ' reascn of his idleness, profligacy or dissipation, is insufficient to justify a divorce. Besides, the law does no* contemplate that a poor man, relying solely upon his labor for support, _ should be the only laborer in the fam- ily. In this case the wife and daugh- ter, by honest and honorable employ- ment, were able to earn a living and Lad the courage to do so. Their work was no harder than that ordinarily done by laboring people, and for aught that appears the husband may not have beer able to find employ- ment, and if able to find employment may not have been physically able tc labor. All people, rich or poor, should do their part of the work of the world and not be drones whose existence is useless, “But it dfiinppur in this case that the husbanfl, prior ¥o-the separation, was extremely cruel to his wife in many ways and that without cause he inflicted upon her grievous mental suffering and physical injuries, aud upon that ground she is entitled to a divorce. 5 “I do not look upon this matter of women helping to support the hmfly as such an extraordinary state of ‘af. fairs as to warrant anybody tpplying for legal separation . upon that ground.” LUCY UNDERWOOD M’CANN, ATTORNEY, SANTA CRUZ. Of course a woman can be as successful in business as a man, but she must learn it, and the sooner she learns to do business as a man the sooner will she be just as successful. BELIEVE that a woman can be as successful in business as a man. She is satisfied with smaller beginnings. She is saving and small profits suf- fice for her until she can get her head above water. But there is no denying that business ijs a hard school for most women, espe- clally 0 if a woman wants to get rich quickly. Women must not expect to get money without working hard for it. A woman hasn’t the chances of money mak- ing a man has. She isn't around among men; she doesn’t hear of the financial op- portunities talked of day by day in the ‘great business centers. Suppose she has saved up a few hundred dollars and wanis to invest in stocks. She doesn’t know how to go about it. She is timid about ven- turing into the reglon where man rules supreme. This is foolish, and she will THINK woman is constitutionally and temperamentally unfit for com- petition in business with man. Thev should not b; compared ‘n this re- spect. They should be regarded a3 diverse—each supreme in hisor her respec- tive sphere, for, as Tennyson says, ‘“Wom- an'is not und.veloped man, but diverse.” Man should seek his sphere, woman hers, and these spheres do not lie together in the business world. ‘Woman adds to man’s life what is need- soon learn that a woman can get along in .. any office if she conducts herself properly .{ and is business-like. She will learn to look out for the sharpers; ior woman's intuition is quick and in the business werld it will be of incalculable help to her. She arrives at conclusions instantly and sces motives that a man will find out only after a course of reasoning and per- haps bitter experience, 1 am able to manage my affairs better than any man could manage them. YWhen a man gets prosperous he puts in a man- ager here, a head clerk there and a type- writer to attend to his affairs. If I had let other people do my business for me I most likely wouldn't have had any busk ness to do now. It is the duty of every woman, I belleve, to learn to take care of her own business affairs. (] B o U MAYOR PHELAN. ed to complete it, and he to hers. In each rounding ‘out the other’s life is to be found the perfected happiness of both Woman was not created to vie with man in the labors of the fleld and mart. Had she been, nature would have en- dowed her with a physique equal to man’s. Her temperament is sympathetic l.n'l yielding, and to face the business world one must be firm and reason out facts and schemes cold-bloodedly. g aad Is the situation unalterable? If the man, for reasons beyond help; fails hab- itually in his undertakings, is there any harm to love or to loyaity for the woman to acknowledge the fact openly and early to herself? From such an honest admis- sion she can take a new view of their united fortunes. What can she do? The chances are even that she may have in herself that talent for succeeding which her husband lacks. In other words, the family should be exploited for success, a business firm would be amid similar circum- stances. In a business concern that member comes to the front who by na- tive force can make the business flour- ishing. The woman sometimes Is this effectual member of the matrimonial firm. It is lucky if she finds it out in time and de- termines to take up the problem ration- ally as her own, undeterred by false pride or by foolish fondness. But a wife usually walits too long be- fore she acknowledges the probability of her husband’s eventual faflure. She ‘waits until her own day for doing things is past, or until she Is called upon to do. but . is not able to do, the creative kind of work which she might have done fiva or years earlier. - Sentimentality for a v:tl-;hed expectation has narrowed her idea of herself. She has let discour- agement eat out her heart—that essence of discouragement which Is distilled through another’s loss of spirit. Hew much simpler it would have been had she shifted the responsibility of cre- ative work to her own shoulders as soon as there was reason to suspect that she was fitted to bear it the better and more lightly of the two. HE partnership of marriage is often a failure because the husband does not succeed in business. It is a real failure, although per- haps not always a dismal failure. The affection stays, all the obligations are met, and there may continue a loving se- renity. Nevertheless the ghost of fallure is shut up with the two people who are bound together and who never dream of ceasing to love. For when hopes are de- clining because the promise of youth:has not met its opportunity, or: because a misfit seems to clothe every endeavor, two ambitious partners in marriage cannot be thoroughly happy. The young man makes his great essay in life: the young woman who has tied her faith to him looks on, encourages and spurs. But she can do little more than that. If she sees him constantly gaining ground, then gratification and compla- | cency are at the bottom of her conscious- ness, and ease of life keeps her face charming. It is not because he is able to give her more things, though such things may be one-fourth of life, but because he brings . true her. dreams of achlevement, because he opens the door of life wider and she shares his sense of power. But if affairs go the other way, if the man fails to grasp here and to combine there, or if his all-together cannot get its place, then begins for them both, and for her in particular, an ordeal of adjust- ment to a less hopeful outlook on the tuture. Here is a deadening of hopes, a dying of longings, which is written on the faces of multitudes of women who smile and yet cannot smile it off. S The pathos of this situation raises a g/ practical question. L e e MARSHALL WOODWORTH. when the intellectual woman Is the rule and not the exception. Women. with great credit to themselves, occupy posi- tions of imporiance in the world side by side’ with men. ‘Whether or not a man would so crush his innate feelings of gallantry as to sue for maintenance is a purely personal mat- ter and in no way affects the legal right of the husband to do so. : HOLD that the husband is entifled to sue fo support. Mutual duties, responsibilities and cares constituts the marriage union. Marriage is = civil contract. If the wife is entitlel to sue for maintenance or divorce on the ground of non-support, the husband, vice " versa, should be ertitled to the same priv- lege. There is no logical reason why he should not in these days of co-education, OMAN, when designed\ by her Creator, was never intended for business. God made her to be a homemaker and homekeeper, not a wage earner. She may take up business lite from necessity, but never from choice. All a woman's early training tends to it her for wifehood and mother- hood, through which qualities she Dbecomes the home influence, but in no case is she trained for financlal' and commercial life, Therefore, if from unforeseea circumstances she is thrown out into th:: world to earn her livelihood, she is seri- ously handicapped. The self-abnegiion and trustfulness of woman are great stumbling blocks in @ her path to financial success, and it has always scemed a pity to me that men should lose the better part of woman in what she is trying to do outside of her natural functions. In saying this I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not belittle woman's capabilities, for I am firmly convinced that, notwithstanding her many disadvar- tages, when she is put £o it she is man’s equal, if not his superior. Were a woman trained as a man is, she could easily take her stand side by side with him in the financial 2nd comiherclal world, but I pray I may be spared that sight. The better 1art of woman, as God made her, is so essentially feminine and de- pendent that it grieves me to see the griwing tendency of the age toward welcom- ing her into the arena of business life. To be a successful business woman she must have a man's brain, and in gaining this she oftentimes loses her womanly charms and characteristics. I am so thoroughly old-fashioned myself that I shudder to see a woman enter the lists against men, and yet I know in many u to be the future of the coming ‘woman, then it is the duty of mothers and fathers to train her for such a life, as they train her brothers. i