Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-12-02


iority or inferior!ty Of either sex. Such
arguments generally are based upon
the most groundless assumptions as a
matter of fact, I'm ashamed to argue
the question of woman's intellectual
eoualitv. Have we not mothers,
wives and sisters? Do we need any
further proof of woman's capacity? A
French proverb goes, One does not
have to prove the light
These remarks were made by Pres
ident l.. Clark Seelye Of Smith college.
Next June President Seelye, then "
years Of age will retire from the head
of the college, having been the presi-
dent Of Smith since it's establishment
more than thirty-seveE years ago.
President Seelye has been called the
most expert "girl psychologist" in the
world, and Northampton, Mass, the
own In which Smith is situated might
properly enough be Gale girls town.
President Seelye is Of the medium
height, rather slender, bIue-eyed and
rich voiced. He looks very much,
with his chin Whiskers, like com
pOsite OF Emerson and Whittier,
though more like some neighboring
farmer. He has a way Of withdraw
ing into himself, mentally speaking,
and the pale light of mysticism seems
to come into his eyes. But when he
does speak he speaks not like the
Yogi mystic, but like the hard-headed
Yankee. They say that he Is as
sharp as a whip" and never comes
out second in any business deal.
RI have long ceased debating
whether or not higher education Is
good for women" President Seelye
replied In answer to a conventional
question Woman needs to be edu-
Gated for her womanhood The reason,
in my opinion, that college life is,
valuable to man is not because 1t
makes doctors and lawyers out of
them but because it creates in them
higher manliness broader sympathies
and clearer mental and spiritual in
sight The end Of a collegiate edu-
cation for woman is not to make sa-
wants out of them, but to make them
more wOmanly teacher, mother, house
wife-there's not a condition in life In
which education is not of great aid
This is especially true as regards the
struggle for existence. Having less
Drawn and muscle than men, women
must if they are to succeed, depend on
their mental abilities.
mo, / don't believe in any double
psychology; that is, a psychology for
women and psychology for man. Wo-
men are perhaps a little more inclined
to be emotional than men, but I don't
believe with Coleridge, or whoever 1t
was that said it. that women all jump
to conclusions, and that all men rea-
son. And, besides, / do not consider
it fair to point to the results of inferior
training as evidences OF inferior ca
pacity, to shut women out from all the
best schools and then attribute their
lack of knowledge to lack of native Ia
lent.
There Is no imperative need Of suf-
fTage now. The time Is not yet ripe.
Suffrage is a matter Of expedisncy.
There are as it is now too many ignor-
ant women, and to give the ballot to
woman at this time would only be to
increase the perils of democracy.
when the subject of female educa-
ton was first preached in the east,
prominent Mussulman, exclaimed: Ed
uCate a girl? You might as we'll at
tempt to educate a cat! Did not Ath-
ems raise her grandest monument to
Athena? The Romans ranked MI
nerva third among the Capitoline di-
whites, and have not the classic poets
always sought inspiration from the
muses.? Numa looked to Egeria for in
SEPARATION when he would make peo-.
pies laws, and the classic mythology
found nothing homogeneous in attribu-
ting the highest thought to woman.
THE Greeks the keenest critics of
poetry, ranked Sappho, who had writ
ten but a few lines, very high. CORN
ma won prizes for poetry from the IA
nous Pindar. COrnelia, though the
mother of twelve children, is ranged
among the great philosophers. Then
there is the classic Hypatia. One of
Marie of France. Who has written
better poetry in contemporaneous
times than Mrs. Browning, better fic-
ton than George Eliot or clearer ma
thematics than Mrs. Somerville?
Il really become a little impatient
with people who say that marriage is
the end Of woman, and this is often
said by men who acknowledge wo-
mans mental abilities. The only
knowledge, these men think, woman
needs is the knowledge Of how TO be
good wife and mother. Yet why
make marriage the end of one sex any
more than Of the other? Men do not
go to college to get instruction in how
TO he good fathers and husbands. WO-
man is member Of society just as is
man. She has duties the greatest OF
the TroubadOurs was to her race as
truly as to her family. My thirtv-fve
years experience as president of
Smith gives me increasing confidence
in wOman's ability to take higher edu.
cation and the value of it TO her in
any sphere.
The facts Of history do not justify
the assertion that the mere presence
Of woman will be sufficient to reform
and define the manners of college So
ciety. Nor is it true. as has been
stated. that as soon as woman began
Il. write. literature was purified Mrs.