The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-11-03
WOMEN'S WORK.

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movement, but the danger we face to-
day is not that women shall demand
equality with men at the polls but that
women will not interest themselves
in those activities whose good or i'll
success make for the advancement or
retrogression OF mankind Just as
the refusal of clean-minded men TO
mix up in dirty politics." leaves pol
itics in an apparently hopeless state
OF uncleanliness, so the refusal of
women to enter into consideration
OF problems which interest mankind
leaves unpleasant conditions unim-
proved and Unidentified.
The moral force of pure woman
hood Is, of course, something but ex-
erted as an active element and not
assumed passively its influence should
be greater by five or six times what
II is today. Women would serve the
home nest more efficiently and intel
hgently If they looked upon the prob
lens of the outer world not as ques-
tons which they need not bother
themselves with but as problems
which worked for or against the pro-
lection of the four walls and a cell
ing which they call home. For the
working out of nine-tenths of the
problems of mankind have vital af-
feet upon the integrity of the home
and the happiness of it's inmates.
The little State of Rhode Island
boass IS per cent Of trained teachers
to our paltry II per cent. That is I'M
pleasant but its very bitter
ness may prove tonic. They tell us
that the rural population is below par
in the isolated districts because of
the lack of educational influences,
that girls are being sent forth year
after year from the high schools with
out knowledge of the principles of
cookery and housewifery with which
the majority of them must battle. that
tuberculosis is making a stubborn
fight against all the efforts of society,
that divorce statistics have reached
alarming records, that our prisons
and industrial schools are filled with
the products of unhappy homes where
peace and self-control and love and
sacrifice were not, that the high cost
of living or the cost of high living
as you please, is wrecking many ma
trimonial barks on otherwise calm
seas Do these not concern women
and the home nest vitality? Are they
not more important than studies of
Canada and New South Wales. an
alysis of Browning and discussion OF
Shakespeare, interesting and instruc-
tive as these studies are?
What women need is practical edu-
cation, practical viewpoint, healthy
activity in matters which affect every
day happiness and comfort 1t is not
educational warnings that prompt a
woman to prepare papers on dead is
sues when the poor are at her door
and the uneducated at her feet. 1t is
selfishness, no more or less, and the
sooner women recognize this fact and
devote more considerable portion
Of their time to consideration of the
really vital things of today the sooner
will some Of the unpleasantness dis
appear and the standard of education
cannot but be raised. 1t is time ac-
tive intelligent Jealous women recog-
nized the tie which binds the home to
the world and acquaint themselves
with their duties of this larger sphere
which are, also, in a sense, the duties
of the home itself.
Fine feathers and pink teas. elabor-
ate headdress and bridge should be
the legitimate diversion of those who
may choose such diversions in spare
moments, but they should not be al
lowed to become the purpose and am
bition of womanhood which ambition
satisfied. onthing is lacking.
Selhshness has no part in mother
hood nor in the great problems of men
which demand solution. Women can
help, can support, can sustain these
problems until girls are approaching
marriage with confident and capable
step, when standards of health are
so universally recognized that tuber-
culoss becomes a plague of the past,
when parents understand each other
and bear with one another for the
children's sake and when men and
women live simply within their in
come and happily within the home
nest. These are not impractical Wis
ions. They are the vital issues upon
which mans happiness rests.
Let us be sensible and purposeful
and unselfish with an ambition to do
one good thing at least, before we
have spent our days OF grace.
Hew One Woman Kept to the Point.