Lower coast gazette., 1910-11-26
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, l9l,
The Woman Problem.

good Lord had made him OF that splendid hortl-
cultural paridiSe, the woman problem has been
one that has confronted all people. Even good
st. Paul, of whom progressive christians are dis
posed to think so we'll, said that the women
should not speak in the churches and a few hun
dred years later, when MahOmet made up the
details of his religion he said that ONE had
no souls, although admitting that they were
among the leading attractions in that heaven
to which all good Mohammedans 60. And so,
for better and for worse, the status OF woman
has been i'll defined and she has been compelled
to fight her way for her self and now, in the
Twentieth Century, she seems to be coming
into her own good fortunes.
John Stuart Mill demonstrated sixty years
ago, in his famous book on The Subsection of
Women that they had only been held down by
the fact that the men were physically stronger
and that women were practically slaves; not
only slaves to custom, but slaves in fact and
were not permitted the privileges that mer. en-
joyed with impunity and immunity. Fifty
years ago there were scarcely any women in
business anywhere. In England barmaids were
employed long before that. but in theU nitedStates
there was probably not a woman hotel clerk
anywhere. The writer recalls having seen one
in the Canadian hotel at Niagara Falls in 1854
and was quite astonished thereat. Milliners
ard dressmakers there were of women in every
city. In the country and in the city seam
stresses and washerwomen could be employed
everywhere, but the invasion of the occupations
of men had not then occurred.
But even fifty years ago it became manifest
that wherever wonen had a fair show in school
or in business they were very apt and did their
work better than men in the a occupations.
The most reconcile problems in mathematics
were solved by the. young women more readily
than by the young men and it is reported now
that Tufts College, a prominent institution at
MedfOrd, Massachusetts, which has been a CO.
educational institution for some time, now pro-
poses to abandon the co-educational part. be-
cause the women are carrying off all the honOrs.
This will compel the aggregation of women into
their own colleges, such as NeWcomb, Vassar,
Smith, Wellesly,; Byrn Mawr and Radcliffe. Ii
the average man would look over the curriculum
at any of, these institutions he would be para
lyzed with fear of having or developing the in
~teliectual calibte necessary to enter, and still
less to graduate from one of these institutions,
yet they are full of students and are turning out
highly educated young women by the hundreds
and even by the thousands. These are the wO-
men who are doing so much for the intellectual
development Of their sex and out of all of this
apparently very excellent work arises this I'M
certainty as to what the future status of woman
will be. 80, ,..
In a more primitive form of society and, in
fact, among some of the ruder races of the earth
at the present, time, girl children are much de-
sired and much sought after, because they are
so readily salable. On. the other hand, we have
been told hundreds of times that in China a girl
child has no value and girl babies are frequently
drowned to save the cost 81 Fearing them.
While the lighter manufactures and espec-
tally those of an ornamental or tasteful charac-
ter, employ thousands of women, thousands of
them have gone directly into business circles
and engaged in stenographic work, book keep
ing, literary work and scientific research. We
have in mind now Madam Curie, who with her
husband discovered radium, the metal that dur
ing the last ten years has really upset all the
worlds cosmogonies. A history of the noted
scientific m of the world have to do quite a
large document to do anything like justice to
them.
We may look at the matter as we choose, but
the facts are there. If in the days of such men
Hercules, Samson, Sandow and Roosevelt as ath-
letes have gone, or at least do not dominate,
excepting in base ball and football circles, we
are compelled to admit that the educated wo-
man of the present day can execute intellectual
work better than her absinthe drinking, cigar
and cigarette smoking. gentlemanly dissipated
brothers. That is about the issue that presents
itself to US and men complain of being displaced
by women. Why should they he displaced by
women, unless women do the work better than
they? 1t is a recognized fact today in business
that one can depend more upon care and
attention from women employees than from the
average young men employees.
Of course all these great social movements
may have their abuses and the women of Eng
land who have not had the opportunities for ad-
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