The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-04
WORDS OF WARNING
TO AMERICAN WOMEN.
T HE wisest. kindliest observers Of
American Tendencies are highly |

T@ HE Wisest, kind1iest observers Of
American tendencies are highly
cultured foreigners who, work.
ing for reforms in Europe, come here to
study us industrialIy, sociologically and
politically.
In the past few months two of the
most public spirited and farseeing wo-
men of Europe have visited us and left
a message. In each case 1t was a mes
sage of both commentator and of
warning to American women. One of
the ladies was an Austrian. Baroness
Bertha Won Suttner, apostle of univer-
sal peace among nations. She saw with
regret and disapprova1 the general APP
ing of European social customs among
US as our country grows wealthy. She
said:
american women have the grandest
opportunity their sex ever had. 1t is
pity that instead of using their wealth
and leisure for noble aims so many Of
them strive merely to reproduce in the
United States the social usages and.
above all, the social caste system Of
rnonerchical countries. If your country
is allowed to become socially unrepub-
ncan the condition of American women
will drift backward toward the subor-
dinate status of their sex in the old
countries of Europe"
Herself belonging to the bluest blood
of the old nobility of Austria and the
intimate friend of the late Empress
Elizabeth of Austria, this utterance of
Baroness Won Suttner IS worthy of
thoughtful attention. AS our women
marry foreign titles. and as we intro
duce into our country the armies of
dunkies that for purposes OF show bat
ten upon wealthy people in Europe, Will
freeborn American women in that pro-
portion lose their personal independ-
ence and become prisoners in the bas-
tile OF conventionahty? In the older
countries poor women are beasts of
burden; rich women are social puppets.
Neither has any individual liberty of
action.
Notable is 1t. too, that Nine. Marianne
Weber of Heidelberg agrees with the
baroness. Nine Weber is the wife of
the professor of sociology at HeIdel-
berg and herself a graduate of that uni
versity. She has spent a considerable
time in the United States lately study
ing especially the attachments of Amer
lean college women She is disappoint-
ed. She says that the colleges for wo-
men here are second rate; that they
have second grade equipment, second
grade instruction and second grade in
tellectuaI standards.
Nine Weber Is leader in the Wo--
mems Educational association of Ger
many, which for years has been work
ing to have the highest universities in
that country opened on equal terms to
women. The ladies' efforts are grad
ually meeting with success. and Mime.
weber is of opinion that here, too, wo-
men should work INCREASINGLY till every
1eading institution of learning is open
to their sex. She says there is danger
that American so called college women
will be satisfied with a merely superb
ciaI and srnattering education, never
deiving for the deeper riches OF learn
ing.
Nine. Weber, too, left word OF
warning for American women. It was
that. IL we permitted class distinctions
to arise and our social fabric. to ap-
proxinate that of Europe, then Amer
lean women would lose some of the
privileges they now enjoy unless they
took pains to safeguard these carefully.
That il apparently precisely what they
are not doing. Pastor Wagner, too aa1-
thor OF 1.-THE Simple Life." in his last