New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-03-26
SLAVERY OF MEN.
No Time for Culture-Women the
Countru,s Hone. SAYS Mr. Sprague.

Leslie Willis Sprague regards the class of eda-
Gated women as the most hopeful element in Amer
lean life and it Is to this class he looks for social
advancement Talking the Womens Conference
Of the Society Of Ethical Culture yesterday after
noon Mr. Sprague said
II regret that men losing their culture.
don't want to magn my own sex but 1t Is fact
that by the time man is forty you can't tel. in
cases. whether ne has been TO college or not
mans moss is at the grindstone all the time All
he sees is dus> The burden OF supporting family
has grown great that it is grinding all that IS
highest and best out of the men OF the race There
is no nope for the majority OF business men. Ihey
have no time 10 study the problems Of society. II
they vote honestly once n year il is much We
can expect OF them That is more than most Of
them do.
And so II has come about that women are rap
idiv becoming the educated class of the country
lust like the clergy in the Middle Ages. ard small
group Of privileged resting upon a basis OF
slavery in ancient Greece or Rome. There Is
large class OF women that are economically iree-
We must look 20 them more and more IN every
inlnortant entC-prseto make social researches 10
carry on institutions for social beterment ALREADY
ever, one % these institutions is almost entirely
supported by women. The churches would be closed
within a month without them. Ihey are hhuiHs
opportunities for large usefulness Ihey are ieuIhs
the difference between going to club and welding
a Clue.
economic burden to carry much as posslole o.
the burdens Of society, and because "oHiei. az
less burdened than men they should 90 the ms
that no one else can do The centre ot d "o'i"',
lie and of a mans life is in the home, out inc
parfphery may include the world. A womans
sphere is as large a one as she can cover
There is no issue between the home and the World
and l do not find that the women who are Work
ing laboriously at their professions are the ones
who neglect their homes. The women VINO INSIST
that nome is womans sphere the ones whose
children taken 10 school by nurses in al sorts
Of weheT and ff on me ssPs for the
Mr.. Spiaeue traced the changing position Of
to the invention of machinery. and con-
trasted the lot Of the modern woman with thar o.
seventeen man with nine children added seven
of her own 70 the brood cooked ior thenl an over
d back log IRE and conducted their education
Compared with that woman Mr.. sprague said,
the women Of to-day are absolutely unemployed.
the educational burden ana the burden of over
production They have learned that Two or three
regiment turned loose in child labor.
DOUBTFUL CULTURE.
'one Of the results Of all this is the creation of
a large amount Of idleness among women, and so
we have the social butterfly, the pursuit Of culture
Of a more or less doubtful kind. fancy work and
the wonens club movement on the other hand.
there is a large class cf women who have followed
their tasks outside the home and are performing
them under conditions that are much less favor
able than the old In the industrial woi!l
women for the most part do the mental work.
There is no opposition 10 a woman performing
a : much drudgery she likes. II is only when
she essays enter the higher positions that there
is an cutlery 1 have heard men protest in the
sacred and holy name of womanhood against
women entering the professions when the floors
and windows Of their Offices were being cleaned by
They nothing Incompatible with the
sacred and holy name OF womanhood in the per
Torrance of such labor by women
The very agency which has freed one class OF
women has compelled others to labor under condi-
lions that threaten the life Of the race. wish we
could have a Womeu's labor league in addition 10
child labor ORGANIZATIONS There Is much 10 be
done along this line ftisgt has, not Yet been done.
Go and look a Your sfstera IN her and vul-
garity and ask yourself If il Is right that civiliza-
should permit this slaughter Of the mothers OF
the race-and this among the class that has not
vet learned that quality is better than quantity"
All this Mr.. SpraguP concluded. concerned men
quite much women, II not more, and this was
his excuse for talking about II.
In response 20 a question as to something definite
the conference could do, Mr.. Sprague suggested "A
domestic training school, to take OF the 81 %
a week girls out OF the factories but the audience
wiser in its generation than the speaker and
unanimously voted the plan hopeless
The president. Mrs. Henry Olesheimers told Of
expensive plants erected for this purpose having TO
close for lack Of pupils.
Even the immigrants won't come them she
said and the Rev Anna Garin Spencer added
Girls win throng 10 classes designed help
them improve their own homes. but they won't
train 10 be domestic servants. We viii have 20
solve the problem in different way, and after we
have exhausted the Chinese and the japanese and
business and find that way"