The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-07
SOCIETY in REACTION
THEME OF MRS. sEwALL At CLASS
CAL SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT.
Rude Awakening to Prevalence OF
Divorce, Flat Life and other
Dangerous Conditions.

Girls Classical School graduating class on
Society in Reaction" The address fol-
lows:
"One whose ear is attuned to contem-
porary currents, and able TO receive their
testimony, knows that within the last dec
ade, more nOticeably within the last five
years, a reaCtionary impulse has been
given to social thought. The first half of
try, enno5led by three strong appeals.
One was made in behalf OF human liberty
ana announced mat color ought not and
should not determine the possibilities of a
mans development. The second was In
behalf OF religious liberty; IL was an ex-
IRENE demand coming out OF many circles
of professionalism which united in protest.
ing against the limitations which had been
imposed upon religious thought by the
creedS upon which the different sects of
evangelical religions had been founded. The
third was an appeal for the recognition of
the dignity and capacity of the human
SOUL, regardless of sex, which demanded
Tor women the same opportunities for cul-
ture, the same free arena for the exercise
OF their trained faculties. the same liberty
or thought and the same independence in
expressing that thought upon public as well
as upon private matters, which as a re-
suit OF a series Of revolutions. had already
been granted to man. The impulses given
by these three demands resulted in society
as II was at the end OF the nineteenth
century. To. only one aspect of the result
thus suggested do I invite your attention
tonight.
NO RECOGNIZED STANDARD.
A the beginning OF the nineteenth CEN
fury. neither In this nor in any other coun-
try, was there any recognized standard of
intellectual training for women. Such
standards there had been in Italy. but
their influence had become inert. At the
end Of the nineteenth century the con-
ception OF TennysOn's Princess had been
realized in Great Britain. the United
States, France and Germany and in Italy
the universities. always by law open to
women. but long since bV custom closed 20
them, had been reopened. In the United
States, tnis conception of the Princess"
was being wrought out under conditions
more or less difficult and with more or less
serious limitations at a hundred different
%centers; while in a score Of centers the
same conception was being realized in a
larger or smaller degree of approximation.
Institutions that, upon the intellectual
side. more than half realized the aspira-
tons OF the Princess were in successful
operation, and Vassar, Smith, Wellesley,
Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, Barnard, Evelyn,
had become significant names.
When Alfred Tennyson wrote The
Princess no discussion of the conception
could have taken any other form than the
medley. The confusion of ideas, the clash
of interests, the contradictory impulses
which necessarily produce a medley had
at the end OF the nineteenth century been
reduced to harmony at many points. The
educated woman. the free woman, the
woman with a sense of ability and con-
seriousness of such power of adaptation as
could turn ability into capability in a
thousand fields had arrived.
AWAKENING OF SOCIETY.
"Coincident with her arrival in such
force as TO command recognition came the
awakening OF society to certain social
dangers. and society. while quicker TO scent
a danger than sure TO detect its origin, was
not slow in associating the dangers that
menaced some of it's most cherished ideals
and its most sacred institutions with the
higher education of women. Hence, 1t has
n0nno ArT fhnf T.
where. from 1910 to 1890, women found only
sympathy with their highest aspirations,
help for every honest endeavor. encourage
ment for every new departure, they be-
gan TO perceive Indications of disapproval,
murmurs suggesting fear, and mingling
with these murmurs the sounds of open on
position, even Of stern denunciation. With
apparent suddenness society discovered that
1t was characterized by much extrava-
gance; that every day in the year had be-
come a May day In the sense Of its be-
ing a moving day, and that the removals
were more and more numerously from the
separate home into some condition of do
nestle life more or less inimical to the
sacred institution OF the family. With APP
parent suddenness society awakened to the
fact that IT was becoming moro and more
gregarious. less and less discriminating:
that family hotels, boarding houses, apart
ment houses, flats and kindred menaces
under a variety of names were multiply
ing out of all proportion to the separate
homes. With apparent suddenness society
discovered that census reports were dis
ehoN II III W NC SOlC-
~ taken into account, the supremacy OF
the race first settling these United States
was threatened With its accustomed lack
of logic, seeing numerous conditions CO.
existing, society asserted them to exist In
the relation of cause and effect. Hence,
the reaction which has now grown so
strong that the dullest must have perceived
1t against all that is included and implied
in the phrases, higher education, industrial
freedom. political activity, civil and do
nestle equality.
DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS.
us the higher education of women re-
sponsible for the deplorable conditions with
which it has been charged? The answer to
this question must be sought in the answer
to another. What are the theories and what
the practice of college-bred women, OF of
women not college-bred who yet aspire to
sound culture? The reports issuing from the
Bureau of Education under the able edi-
torial direction OF DIR. William II. Harris.
afford much material for a reply to this
question. Still more definite information
concerning what the college woman thinks,
and what she is doing. can be ascertained
by a careful perusal of the reports of the
Association OF college Alumnae. The ans
wers thus gained may be supplemented by
"A study of the curriculum of the best sec
ondary schools for girls in the country. y
serious and an almost universal defect i'm
the educational system of the nineteenth
century was that 1t was purely a mental
education. Schools We're equipped to deal
with the mind only. The recognition of the
needs of the body was first made by pri-
vate schools. where the soundest. the most
varied, the most eXacting and the only COM
pulsory physical training is still found. But
the human being is not merely mind and
body. There are at least four great de-
partments Of being joined in each individu-
al. The soul. which is the shortest name for
mans religious nature-the heart. which is
the briefest name for his social nature-are
not less essential TO the entity which we
call a human being than are the mind and
body.
'"rhe school formerly sought TO educate
the soul through catechismS. long and short,
and formal prayer. While from my point of
view prayer. catechisms and Scriptures
are necessary and noble essentials III the
souls nurture, they alone are not enough.
They have, for the most part, been dis
carded. No system OF education can be con-
sIdered complete which does not recognize
the existence OF the soul and its need OF cul-
ture and guidance just as clearly as il rec
Ognizes the existence of the mind, and its
need OF culture and guidance.
DOMESTIC INFELICITY.
sWhat does formal education do for the
development and guidance of the heart? 1t
IS true. without doubt. that domestic ip-
felicity Is either on the increase or is be-
coming less reticent. II Is certain that the
acute stage Of domestic infelicity which
seeks treatment I'm the divorce court is on
the Increase. But is IL true that the un-
happy marriage and the divorce are trace
able 10 the higher education OF women? On