Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1910-12-30
DOES THE
SWEET GIRL
GRADUATE
MAKE GOOD?

rled already and the remainder are
freaks. The married woman don't take
so much Interest in outside affairs
and freaks can't accomplish anything,
anyway.
These are the startling words ut
tered recently by Leslie j. Tompkins,
professor in New York university,
and president of the National Asso-
citation of College Graduates, says
writer in the Cleveland Leader.
The professor must be one of the
men of today who cling to their old
fashioned tendencies and believe that
the woman's sphere is in the home.
Evidently, women's suffrage and its
correlatives in which women are ia
king such an active interest at pres
'ent must be especially obnoxious to
the professor, for, according to him,
the college woman who doesn't marry
Is practically hopeless case.
Rough on the Women.
This seems to be rather hard on the
gentler sex in this day Of co-education
and sweet girl graduates. It is just
seventy-two years since Miss Zern1ah
Porter, the first woman to graduate
from college, completed her march
through Oberlin college, and since that
time, woman's head has been steadily
filling with 'ologies and 'isms until
now, many think that she is untitled
for life unless she possesses a col
lege degree Of some kind or other.
In this year of grace the number of
women studying in institutions OF
higher education is quite half the
total of men, and co-educational insti-
tutions are in danger Of being
swamped by the hordes of women
clamoring for admission. The follow
srs of Zerniah Porter have come, in
her own university, to number twice
as many as the men, and many OF the
state universities and smaller colleges
of the middle west are in a like case.
In the east, women have, for the most
part, preferred to have their own in
situations rather than "co" with any
body and the graduating classes at
such institutions as Smith, Vassar,
Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Wells are
steadily increasing in size as the
years go by.
More Marry Among Poor.
It has been pointed out by census
statisticians that many more women
marry among the very rich or very
poor than in the middle class. Of
women in general it has been COM
puted that one out of every six is
likely to remain single. If this COM
putation Is compared with that among
college women, which students Of the
question say is between 80 and Is per
cent, the difference seems enormous,
but there is no way Of telling just
how many women marry in the class
from which the college women comes,
which is made up of neither the very
rich nor the very poor. Whatever it
may be, it would seem, to an unpreju-
diced observer, that the proportion in
the case of the college woman is rath-'
er low, though every feminine A. B.
may rage at the idea.
There is certainly no disgrace in
remaining unmarried and doing a
share of the worlds work in ways
other than domestic. Many have ar
gued that an avoidance of the matri-
monial bonds showed a superior in
telligence But almost every writer
on the subject seems filed with a de-
sire to prove that thorough knowl-
edge of Latin and Greek is not alto
gether incompatible with the weak
ness Of love and a wreath of orange
blossoms.
Says Statement Is Unfair.
Miss Bess Philips, president Of the
senior class at the College for Won
en-, of this city, said, when told of
Professor Tompkins' statement: Col
lege certainly makes girls different,
but not freakish. A college woman
will live a very different life from
that of the woman who has not been
to college. l think that such state
ment as the professors is unfair and
Silly"
Mrs. Malcolm Mcbride, No. 1870 E.
Sixty-ninth street, nee Miss Lucia Nc
Curdy, a graduate of one of the east
ern colleges, said: Such an opinion
is not worth bothering about. Even
If the man who possesses it is a pro-
lessor. he's not worth paying any at
tention to in that matter. 1t is a
ridiculous statement and that's all
there is to It,"
Miss Adele McKinnie, No. 2049 E.
Seventeen street, who, at Vassar, was
the roommate of Miss Inez Milholland,
the young American suffragette whose
activities In that cause have caused
her arrest both in this country and
In England, thought an answer to
Professor Tompkins' statement would
be rather futile. The point Of view
was exaggerated, she thought. The in
terest In women's suffrage is general
at Vassar and Miss McKinnie says
that one of the greatest things one
gains in college is an intelligent In
terest in broad topics, equal franchise
rights in particular. But" she says,
there is no use in saying these things
In answer to such an attack, because
the maker of 1t doesn't believe in
women's suffrage, anyhow"
y