Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1910-06-03
PRESIDENT TELLS BRYN MAWR
GRADUATES HIS OPINION OF
IDEAL MARRIED LIFE.
COMPANIONSHlP MOST VALUED.
Enjoyment of Home and Training of
Children Are Important Duties
and Pleasures
MOTHERHOOD is NORMAL STATUS.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa

PHILADELPHIA, Pa, June p
President Taft came to Bryn Mawr col
lege today to deliver one of a number of
commencement addresses he is to make
this month.
At the college, all had been put In
order for the coming of the President,
whose daughter Helen, is a student at
the institution, and will be graduated
next year.
Next to the visit of the President and
the commencement exercises is the mat
ter Of making up the fund of S3SO,OOO
that Bryn Mawr college is trying to raise
to be eligible to receive the $4,000 that
the General Educational board has
awarded to Bryn Mawr on condition that
the first named amount be raised Early
TO-DAY the college was still $1,000 short of
the $3.50, 900.
President Taft in his address on
"Woman's College Education" spoke in
part as follows:
Your able and distinguished presi-
dent has asked me at this commence
ment to say something in respect to the
higher education of women. 1t is of
course theme most reevent and ger
name to the occasion, but it is one of
winch L hesitate to speak in the presence
OF those who have made it their life
study and whose opinions in regard to the
than my own.
The marvellous progress in material
and other ways made by the world in
the Nineteenth century is only less Won
dertul than the ease and rapidity with
which we forget the step in the progress,
the dlthcultles IN its attainment, and the
conditions that existed prior to it's COM
ing"
Reviews Advances Made.
The President reviewed the advances
made III educational advantages for both
sexes since 1900, reciting the growth
from the two small schools in Pennsyl-
wanna that offered opportunity for even a
grammar school, education for girls in
mat year to the magnificent colleges of
the present day, turning out women cap
able to teaching in its highest form. :.
Continuing, the President said:
L dissent from the view that an aca-
demo education units man or woman
for business. 1t may be that the tastes
that lead one to an academic education
are not those which insure business sue
cess; but that the mental discipline, the
power of reasoning, the cultivation and
comparison OF ideas, are not of assist
ance IN business transactions in which
the highest quality of the mind are acute
ly IN action, can hardly be true
But it is said that women are NOT
all going into the professions. and so
that the education necessary as q basis
for professional career is not needed
by those women who have a competency
or who look forward to marriage and
motherhood as the chief end of woman
1T is even suggested that the higher
education of women rather units them
to discharge the duties of a wife and
mother; that in some way or other if
robs them Of a charm and gives them
an intellectual independence that is IN
consistent with their being the hest
from this view. The companionshiD of
married lie is the chief charm and req
son Tor It's being, so far as it relates to
the two persons concerned The eDiov-
ment OF the home, with children. and
the training OF them of course among
the most important duties and pleasures
OF married life; and it certainly does
not detract from the power of woman
10 make good companion or to teach
ana train her children up to high ideals
that she should have the ADVANTAGE of
the higher education
1t IS not essential that woman who
KNOWS much must conform to the unat,
tractlVe manner and WAYS of tha CO.
Ventlonal blue stocking: that she shonId
make the extent of her knowIedro .
source OF discomfort to those with whom
she associates, or that she should lose
4 nel interest ~ IN the sentiment and emo
tons of life, or fail to have an annren;o-
tlon OF beauty and romance
Woman Happier Married.
L am quite ready to concede that mar
rage and motherhood are a normal stat,1u
Tor woman, and other things being e0uaI
she is happier in that condition fban IN
any other. But this is far from SAVING
that Woman's life is a failure because
she has not married, and that her life
may not be failure because she hos
married. The home and the family aro
the nucleus Of the highest happiness
out II circumstances are such rs TO force
women to accept husbands whom tbey
do not respect and love- and whom tho
would not marry except to escape life
OF poverty, the home and the family are
not nkely to be model or to furnish
an ideal oh
One of the great advantages of the
higher education for woman in nv iudo
ment IS in the independence that it gives
her IN the choice of the kind of life which
she is to lead
we cannot be blind to the general
movement IN favor of opening more and
more occupations not dependent on phys-
zeal strength to the female sex.
Il Go not think we can estimate the
enormous advantage that the present
generation has enjoyed and that the fin
ture generations are 20 profit by in the
increasingly sound and thorough educa-
ton of the mothers OF families
Il do not think we can estimate the
increased happiness that men and wom-
en- have experienced who as husbands
and wives have enjoyed the higher sense
Of companionship that is made possible
by the intellectual sympathy and asso-
citation OF ideas between two thoroughly
educated people.