Omaha daily bee., 1910-04-10
MODERN GIRL IS PRUDENT
This is One Reason Why She Hesitates
to Marry.
PREFERS TO EARN OWN LIVING
Man More Likely to Rush Into Mar
riaEe without Counting the Cost
Living Expenses Now
aud Formerly.

NEW YORK. April 9.-Gn the belief OF a
New York business man the problem In
cities OF how to meet the increased cost
Of living hits hardest the people who are
fairly well educated, including artists.
clerks and the average run OF professional
men. with young lawyers in the lead.
Similarly an ardent suffragist declared
that there has been q falling Off Of late
in the number OF marriages OF women OF
good education and that It is directly at
trlbutable to the increased cost OF living
and not to a drop in sentiment or a lessen
ing regard for the marriage tie.
This woman bristled at the mere sug-
gestion that the large number Of single
self-supporting women enrolled under the
equal suffrage banner indicated a distaste
for matrimony. Said she:
The presence Of so many unmarried
women at equal suffrage meetings lndi-
Gates merely among other things that the
present economic conditions have not been
favorable TO matrlmony among thinking,
educated women fairly well equipped to
earn their own living.
Fortunately or unfortunately, accord
ing to ones point Of view, economic ques-
tons interfere very little IL at all with the
matrimonial plans of the u~neducated. the
non-thinking class. Nowadays a woman
with a good working knowledge OF arith-
metic and mind enough to use 1t is apt to
do some figuring before undertaking to
stretch a small income to cover rent, food
and clothes bills for two persons, and the
result OF her figuring, II she is ambitious,
Is likely to keep her out OF m%atrlmony.
She may be romantic without altogether
forgetting the fact that landlords and mer-
chants usually do business on a cash
basis. This is true, at least, of the New
York women Of this class. In rural places
it may be different.
"Old-fashioned .pgrsons often have an ex-
asperating way of telling about the small
incomes on which our grandmothers man
aged to bring up a large family, forgetting
that relatively these incomes were larger
than the incomes women Of the same social
class have today.
With rents and food prices continuing to
rise Of course the number of bachelor
women is increasing fast, and it is women
of the sort / have in mind rather than
men who are the least inclined these days
to hazard matrimony Oil what they con-
slider a too small income.
Concerning the relative size of the in
comes Of a couple Of generations ago and
those Of today the business man referred
to thought that the suffragist had stated
the case correctly, particularly as regards
dry goods clerks and statesmen, whose in
crease Of pay has no kept pace with that
of mechanics.
Generally speaking" said he. whole
sale and retail dry goods men are paid
about 2 per cent more today than forty
years ago, whereas carpenters, painters,
plumbers, bricklayers. stonemasons and
others get pretty nearly 30 per cent more.
Supposing they have steady work. the lat
ter are the class of the community least
of all affected by the higher cost of living,
the price OF their work having kept pace
Will the advanced price of food and higher
rents.
This is one reason why so few promis-
ing young men now want to learn the dry
goods business, which more and more every
year is passing into the hands Of women.
One of these days, 1 predict, there will
practically be nothing but women clerks in
the retail dry goods business.
Suppose that today a young man gets
1900 a year for selling goods as against
$500 paid for the same work thirty odd years
ago. The Increased pay is offset by the
rise in the price Of board in the same time,
which in a fairly good place, to quote bot
tom prices, is about 80 per cent. When I
was a young man clerks could board for &
a week more comfortably than they now