Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-23
Old Fogyisms
of To-day
By DOROTHY DIX.


n NE Of the most interesting plays
OF the past season was Arnold
- Benneyrs ''AiiIestones." The
theory Of the drama Was growth. It
showed how the advanced thought Of
one day IS the conservatism Of the next
and the old fogyism Of the day after
IN the play the hero breaks with his
business partner because he wants 70
build iron ships instead Of wooden ships
You'll he ruined 81 YOU do" says the
standpatter; Iron ships will never
float You might as well build stone
ships
The progressive man goes on and
builds iron ships and makes a fortune,
hut at middle life his partner wants 10
build steel ships. Never" cries the
old man, with his conservative old ideas,
iron ships are all right, but steel ships
viii never float" The young man builds
his steel ships, that give us our Maure-
tanias, and then, when he has grown
old. comes a young man talking Of build
ing airships, and he cries out as the
other two old men have done about the
iron ships and the steel ships, that air
ships will never be practicable"
This play. 'DIilestones." is the biggest
suffrage play ever written. and offers
the best suffrage argument
Go back three generations. The ques-
ton Of whether woman should he given
an education then was just as burning
a one as the question Of whether she
should be given a right 20 vote IS now.
And precisely the same arguments were
brought against IL as are brought
against woman suffrage now
An Old Belief.
In our great graudmothers' time It
was contended that It would unsex a
woman 10 teach her geography. ana
make her bold and unwomanly and kill
her sweet feminine charm for her 10
receive an education. Also that only a
few blue stockings among women want
ed an education Therefore. # was fool
ish and wrong to open college doors
10 the feminine sex
Wen, by dint Of a heroic fight by a
few women for all women. the privi-
leges Of education were extended to
girls and the learning that our fore
fathers so feared would unsex and de-
morallze women has brought about none
Of the calamlties they foretold Women
are still women. They are still sought
in marriage, and so far from only a
few caring for an education, the girls
uutnumber the boys in high schools Ed
ucation has not untitled women to be
good mothers. II makes them better
ones.
Look back at the time when educa-
and you will laugh as you did at the
man who was so sure that an iron ship
couldn't be made 10 float
The next milestone that we have
passed Is the one that marked the place
where women began TO go into gainful
occupet ions. In our grandmothers day
the only way a woman had 10 make
good living was 10 marry H. BY and
by a few bold and heroic women rebelled
at this state Of affairs and demanded
right TO 20 into any kind Of business
that they were fitted for. The whole
conventional world raised one grand
howl of protest
A woman's place is in the home, II
cried. whether she's got home or not,
or anything TO eat IN IL or not. II
she goes out into the world 10 work she
will become unseXed She win become
coarse and vulgar. and wear short hair
and trousers, and smoke and swear, and
men won't marry her. and everything
will 60 TO the bow-wows.
There are eight million wage earning
women in the United States, and II
there are any unseXed among them the
Eden Musee has failed 10 get them So
far from the working girl having her
love Of dress eliminated. the trouble
with her ia that she's too much given
10 frills. Also, instead OF being opposed
10 marriage she gets married Just when
she's most valuable to her employer
The finest woman in the world today is
the wide-awake, competent business
girl. amply able to stand on her own
feet, and earn what she needs. She is
the prop Of her family, and blessing
10 society,
IT'S as absurd to think that people
were ever afraid to give women the
right to earn an honest living as It is
10 think that they ever prophesied that
You couldn't make steel ship that
would float
The third milestone that we have
passed Is the property milestone. Up TO
our mothers day when woman married
every cent she had passed into her
husbands exclusive possession. This
was true although the man might be
a gambler and a spenGthritt, swamped
10 his chin in debts Of which the woman
knew nothing, or whether he was good
fellow Of the shiftess sort between
whose fingers money leaks as water
through a sieve.
When il was first proposed to pass
property laws securing a woman S
money TO herself II was fought tooth
and nail--even by many women Peo-
pie said IL would break up the home,
and produce endless friction between
husbands and wives. Women cried out
that II they could trust themselves "a
their husbands they could trust theli
money 1t was Contended that for a
woman 20 own her own money would
make her bossy and insulting to hel
husband.
They Worked Well.
Nevertheless some property laws, not
adequate ones vet, have been passed
and IL has been found out that they
worked out for the general good, The
right sort Of man didn't want 10 hole
up his wife and rob her of her property
and the woman who is married 10 Tho
wrong sort finds out that IL is, at least
some consolation to have roof ovel
her head when her dream Of love Is
broken.
Nobody would now argue that g
woman hasn't a right to her own prop
erty or TO the money she earns, any
u.