Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1904-06-02
own account.

Schools are pc rhaps the best in
dex as to the position of woman.
In 1888 co-education was Inaugural
ted by Oberlin College, Oberlin,
Ohio. By 1880 fifty-one per cent
of the colleges in the country had
adopted the policy. BY 1890 the
increase had reached sixty-fiye per
cent, 1900 seventy-one per cent? In
1902 we had in America four hun
dred and forty-one institutions to-
which women were admitted. In
these institutions there were 46, 600
women students.
Before the recent date of ma
chlnery wOmun's work was neces-
sary in the direct production of the
family support. The accomplished
and sincere mother of Israel had
her lOem and spinning wheel. Our
age Of steam has transferred these
industries from the home and
transformed them into factories.
In going to the factory woman has
simply followed her work. Is this
necessary Is it bestl If the unmar-
ried of the rank and file can get
better wages in this way and be III
less danger of becoming criminal
and vicious 1t it best. Busy people
are always One-half good, idle peU-
pie not ut all.
What of woman's higher social
and political relations? We may
for the present and perhaps for IL
century to come, stop short Of
woman's entering the political are
ma on full equality with men. Per-
haps she never will. But she pos
sesses a browning virtue that pc
culiarly fits her for scores and
scores of positions in society. There
are Educational Boards, Charity
Boards, Prison Boards, Hospital
Boards, commissions of divers
kinds and so on, on which we can
use Il woman S services aud secure
the benefits of this browning vir-
tue. This browning virtue, says
VIM. 7. Harris, is the sense of
nurture. The chief purpose for
which woman was created
and from which purpose she can
not ALLEVIATE herself by all of the
education, factory life and profess
sional life she may have, is the
business of nurture. Society as
we'll as the infant of flesh and
blood needs this nurture service.
Her history from the beginning
has been a schooling for this pur-
pose. This is her browning virtue.
On all school boards there ought
to be a large representation of wo-
men. These women must, Of
course, have common sense and be
to a degree educated. Women are,
by all odds, because of this quail
ity, the best teachers for the small
err children.
Recall the worlds progress in
opening schools to women as al
ready given. Once in they have
meyer been elected. There is even
, testimony in ancient times as to
intellectual ability. Even in those
( times a few women made attempts
, in literature with distinguished
? success. The Greeks always count
= ed Sappho among their great poets;
: and we may well suppose that Myr-
( tbs, said to have been the teacher
e. of Pindar, and COrrinna who FIVE
e times bore away from him the
| prize of poetry, must at least have
: had sufficient merit to admit of be.
n ing compared with that great
e name. But with all of those pos.
L sibilities on the part of woman
S what has been soeiety's real atti'
- tude towards her, even in very re-
n cent times and largely to-day
John Stuart Mill states the cast
r with consumate skill. Says he
d women have been brought NJ
e from their earliest years in the be
o lief that their ideal of character wa'
e the very opposite to that of men
> not self-will and government b!
o self-contrOl, but submission an,
yielding to the control of others
% All the moralities and all the sen
70 timentalities tell them that it i
.. the duty of women (not including
n mem to live for others, to hav
10 no life but that in their affections
le When we put three things to
in gether 1)the natural attraction
between the sexes, ~ the wife
=. entire dependence on her husband
n all her pleasures or privileges be
90 ing dependent upon his will, q
+ that the particular object of hu
n man pursuit, all objects of socia
ambition, are sought for, or ar
obtained by her, only through him
10 mould Ia 4, A., SEQ la IL tha ohinat r