The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-04


{" The following paper was read 8
' by Miss Clara 1. Colburne of Row I:
:: land Hall before the women at the :
y last convention of the State Fed I:
I" Grafton of Women's clubs held In I;
:. Ogden. It is so full Of practical !:
= suggestions for fathers and moth I:
' ers of girls that it is published to- I:
= day in full. I:
s-:-:**:*.- NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
When succeeding generations look
back upon this twentieth century and
compare it with those that have pre-
ceded and followed it, they will call ii
a century of reconstruction, therefore
a century of perplexity and doubt. Old
and well-tried customs, traditions and
beliefs are passing away, and the new
and untried are taking their places. II
is a century Of experiments followed
by brilliant successes and lamentable
failures. Those who look back upon
US with the clearer vision which the
lapse of time will give, may lament
our follies and ridicule our mistakes
but they will at least acknowledge that
we were intensely active and intensely
earnest in this twentieth century life
of ours, and that our hearts and minds
were united in the solution of problems
upon which depended the uplifting Of
humanity.
We are trying 20 solve the immigra-
ton problem, the labor and capital
problem, and the problem of trusts and
monopOlies. Important political, relig-
ious and educational questions confront
us; all questions Of vital importance to
the next generation: but, when we
consider the part which woman has
played throughout the worlds history
in shaping the destiny of men and of
nations, we shall realize that not one
of our twentieth century problems Is
more important than this: How We
shall train our girls that they may best
fulnll the duties which await them in
life.
On this subject so many widely diff
fering opinions exist, and it is so I'M
certain what the duties of life are to
be for the girls whom we are training,
that it seems difficult to decide what
aims and ideals we shall place before
them as the noblest ideals of woman
hood. We have, on the one side, the
conservatists. and among these we
must number a large majority of our
most earnest. intelligent men and wo-
men. who deplore the new woman
movement entirely. They say that
with all our woman's clubs and conven-
tons, colleges and literaries, we shall
never be better women than our moth
ers were, and they were mot learned
save i'm gracious household ways"
Heber Newton. in his lectures to the
young women of All Souls church in
New York, said that he doubted
whether the advantage of college
training for women would compensate
for the removal of our daughters from
their homes during those years; and
Ruskin, in speaking of the same sub
ject, says: "A man ought to know any
science or language which he learns
thoroughly, while the woman ought to
know the same language or science
only so far as may enable her to SYM
pathize with her husbands pleasures
and those of his best friends"
On the other side, we have the ex-
tremely progressive, who affirm that
home is mans province as well as wo-
mans; that marriage is but a partner
ship, in which the parents are equally
responsible for the maintenance of the
home. If the wife can earn a larger
salary than the husband-and in many
cases she can-let her go out and earn
it and leave to the husband the care
of the household. If the wife is the
more intellectual of the two-and she
often is-let her be the one to have
the profession. hold public offices and
enter into the administrative affairs
of the government. WOman's home
sphere is but a tradition, which like
many other traditions, is passing away.
x !: X
But the conservatism, it seems, loses
sight of the fact that all women do not
marry and, of those who do, many will
be called upon by death or misfortune
to support the family, while the advo-
cate of the new woman forgets that
a large proportion of our women do
marry and that nature has decreed that
the woman who bears and rears a fam
lily must spend large part of the best
years of her life within the home walls.
They also overlook the fact which l
believe to be true of most women, that
they do not want new sphere. The
ideal of woman is wifehood and moth
erhood, and as wife and mother she
realizes that she has the current of the
worlds progress at its source and can
turn II whichever way she will. She
has the making or the marring of the
world in her power, and, just because
this is an earnest century and woman
realizes more than ever before what
her power should be, she has become
restless and has been misinterpreted.
Woman is not clamoring for a new yo-
cation, but she is growing more and
more to realize that marriage is a vo-
cation more serious than any, however
important, that man can choose; and
she justly asks that she may be fitted
for 1t. She asks. shall man have the
of systematic physical and
mental training to prepare for his life
strrggle-the struggle whose object is
to wrest from the world his share of
gold or fame, or to form such nacbin
cry as shall tighten the labor or in
crease the comfort of the next genera
tion-and shall woman, too, not have
this same opportunity to develop her
powers, when her life work is to be
not the making of machinery or the
of money, but the moulding of
human souls?
Our girls reasonably ask of us that
they be well trained: every faculty of
body, mind and soul developed, that. as
Wife and mother, they may intelU-
gently fulfill the duties of that posi-
ton, and that, IL they do not marry.
they may not be dependent upon some
male relative for support, but NAV
make their lives a contribution to the
great work for humanity.
In this three-fold training of body.
mind and soul, I would put first the
training of the body, not because II fs
most important. but because 1t is most
likely to be neglected, and on the
healthy. well-trained body, the HEALTHY
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