The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-12-29
THE CAUSEOF WOMEN
AI''E STONE BLACKWELL ON
WORK AND WAYS.
The Right of Women to Work When
They Are Not Obliged to Do So
Inc Question Of Working to Get
Extra Money for Luxuries.

They Are Not Obliged to Do So
The Question Of Working to Get
Extra Money for Luxuries.
Everybody will admit, at least IN tho
CRY, that women may work witb~,+
plame When they must do If tn carr q
living, says Alice Stone Rlackv,an T.,
t .iie New York sun. But many persons
Dl'teIiE oenounce those women. an s.
peclally those married women vhn
work for wages from choice. net from
cohlpulslon. As eX-S nator ingalls, on
presses 1t: They want pecuniarv inda-
pendence. They desire more r,aa.,,,.o
and recreation, finer rafment. fr,..1
society, and so seek public and p,n.3tn
emp!oyment;" and he coRuIafrs that
each woman who suot eds disnIacos
some man with his living to earn. The
question, therefore, resolves itself info
thls' have women right to earn mon
eS When they are not compelled?
But the question whether a married.
woman shall or shall not engage in
outside work is a question between her.
self and her family, not between her
S~'A ''AAN tAlC SONFIUi l. II is countless
pest for the community that the av-
erase man should undertake only one
business and shoY!l give his full at
tention to it but ths government does
not step in to pre- ent him undertaking.
two, or three, or bali dozen, if he
chooses. There is no reason why 1t
should he more meddiesome in the case
of women.
A woman has, and should have, the
legal right to earn money for luxuries,
If she is able and DESTROYS but has she
the moral right? To answer this we
must broaden the question and ask.
"Have people moral rieht to work for
money when they are not compelled to
do SOP" Mr.. ingalls, would answer. Yes
II they are men; no, if they are wo-
men" But no such double standard Of
ethics can be maintained. A famous
clergyman was once told by a young
scoffer that the religion he preached
might be very good for old WON n. bit
it would not do for men, The minister
answered, "Sir, either the religion
preach is true or it is not true. Ii IL
is true 1t is good for everybody; IL II
is not true, it is neither good for oil
women or for anybody else" II a law
of right and wrong is valid at all Il is
valid all around. When a young man
inherits from his father a fortune sugl-
cient to support himself and family
Is it wicked for him to go into business
and try to make more, thus dispacing
some man W no has his living to earn?
If It is not wrong for a milionaire's
Gnv xt.It -I > - r., 1.
daughter? When the average man has
accumulated enough for himself and
his family to live upon IS he under
moral obligation to retire from bust
ness, and cease competing with men
who have not yet accumulated COM
petence? Mr.. ingalls, would say that
every man, married or single, has a
perfect right to stay in business as
long as he chooses, in order to earn
luXuries either for his family or for
himself. He may heap up money be-
yond the widest estimate of his or his
family'S possible needs; and the more
money he makes, the more people will
think of him, so long as he makes 1t
honestly. BY what possible process of
reasoning can Mr.. ingalls, claim for
anu pNhCl NlS AA6ht
to work for Injuries, and at the same
time enjoin upon all women a literal
compliance with the Scriptural injunc-
ton having bread and raiment, there
with to be content?" The members
of the Salvation Army have right to
rebuke the women who work for luXu-
ries, but no other men under the sun
are entitled to cast a stone at them;
least Of all American men. who as
class possess in a high degree both the
liking and the talent for making mon
ey.
Does 1t follow that 1t is never wrong
for married woman to work for lux
uries? Sometimes It is. 1t is wrong for
people to neglect their families In oS-
der to earn luxuries, Of course; but
this sin Is not found wholly or chiefly
among women. AS Gov. Roosevelt said
the other day to the Assembly Of Moth
ers at Albany, a fathers influence as
we'll as q mothers is essential to the
best bringing up of a family; yet how
many men do we know 80 absorbed in
the race for wealth that they hardly
see their children except on Sundays!
There are twenty such fathers to one
mother who neglects her family.