The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-07
The Old Woman,and the New,

The Rev. JOHN j.. SCUDDER may be
right in his assertion hat business
women make better helpmates than
wives drawn from the leisure or at least
non-self supporting class of girls, but
there seems to be something radically
wrong in the view of the connubial
| partnership which he presented in his
sermon on business women. Speaking
of the business woman, he is reported
as saying:
" She believes in personal freedom and self.
support aud retuses to be a mere appendase TO a
mere man. a tender 10 a masculine steam engine.
To day she Is her own locomotive, and II she mar
ries, she marrles as an equal and not as a depend.
ant. The question OF feminine support must be
answered In one OF two ways. Either the woman
must gain her own livelihood or become the bene.
fclary OF man."
1t may be remarked that nobody who
enters into a partnership of any sort
can expect to retain absolute personal
freedom. The rule is equally true in
business and marriage. The attempt
to exercise absolute personal freedom
by one or both partners is pretty sure to
result in disaster to any enterprise of
any description. ~r
But this is not the main point.S Mr..
SCUDDER'S most serious fallacy lies in
the notion that in any healthy marriage
relation the woman is non-self-stlpport-
ing and the mere beneficiary of man"
The proposition is as absurd as it would
be to say that the member Of a law firm
who pleads in the courts is a mere tender,
a mere %appendage, a mere beneficiary
of the gentleman who sits in the office,
sees the clients and collects the bills, or
that the expert engineer at the head of
a steel plant is a mere tender to the
man who manages the finances of the
concern.
Nobody earns his or her livelihood
more h~onorably or more directly than
the wife and mother of a family who
does her duty. She is her husbands
business partner in a phase OF his life
which is at least as vital to his interests
IA the outside one by which he makes
his money under the eye Of the world.
If the couple are partners in a poor and
struggling concern, the wife contributes
as much to the general success by the
work of her hands as the man does by
his; if they are more fortunate, and
! prosperous, the woman's busy brain
contriving and ruling in the household
| is earning by earnest, eager, expert and
honorable exertion as good a livelihood
as the husband is able to provide her
with. The law holds good in the realms
! of wealth and luxury. The woman who
creates and maintains an eminent social
position for her family is likely to be
her husbands most important ally, and
her share Of all the benefits that they
enjoy in common is not a mere gratuity,
! it does not come to her from her hus-
bands bounty; it is her compensation
| for the services she does in advancing
| the interests of the alliance.
Mr.. SCUDDER Institutes in his sermon
a sharp contrast between the business
roman of to-day, who looks at her ten
fingers and says: | a use these and
earn my bread, " and the maiden of
the past centuries, who tried to solve the
problem by attempting deliberately to
capture a husband and make him pay
the bills"
Nothing car be more unfair than this.
The fact is, the maiden of the past GEN.
turtles sought employment, just like the
girl of to-day, in the field of work for
which she was trained and in which she
felt confident Of her ability to shine.