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

By DOROTHY DIX.
N NE Of the most interesting plays
Of the past season was Arnold
- Bennert's ''Nilestones" The
theory OF the drama was growth. Il
showed how TIE advanced thought Of
one day is the conservatism Of the next
and the old foEyism II the day after.
In the play the hero breaks with his
business partner because he wants to
build iron SHIPS instead Of wooden ships
You'll be ruined u YOU DO" SAYS the
standpatter; iron ships VIII never
float You might as well build stone
ships"
The progressive man goes on and
builds iron ships and makes d fortune
but 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
will 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 practica bic"
This play. ''Aiilestones," is the biggest
suffrage play ever written, and offers
the best suffrage argument
Go back three generations The ques-
ton Of whether woman should be given
an education then was just as burning
a one as the question Of whether she
should be given a right 70 vote IS now
al. .f--
brought against it as are brought
against woman suffrage now.
An Old Belief.
In our great Erandmothers' time Il
was contended that it would unsex
woman 10 teach her geography. and
make her bold and unwomanly and kin
her sweet feminine charm for her 10
receive an education. Also that only
few blue stockings among women want
ed an education. Therefore, It was fool
ish and wrong to open college doors
10 the feminine sex
Well. by dint Of a heroic fight by a
few women for all women. the privi-
leges Of education were extended 10
girls, and the learning that our fore.
fathers so feared would unsex and de-
moralize women has brought about none
OF the calamities they foretold. Women
are still women They are stln sought
IN marriage and SO far from only a
few caring for an education, the girls
outnumbcr the boys in high schools Ed
ucauou has not untitled women to be
good mothers. II makes them better
ones
Look back at the time when educa-
tlon was thought TO endanger women.
and you win laugh as YOU did at the
man who was So sure that an iron ship
couldn't be made 20 float
The next milestone that we have
passed Is the one that marked the place
where women began TO go into gainful
occupations In our grandmothers' day
the only way a woman had to make a
good living was to marry It, BY and
by a few bold and heroic women rebeiled
at mis- state OF affairs and demanded d
right 10 90 into any kind Of business
that they were fitted for The whole
conventional world raised one grand
howl Of protest.
Womans place is In the home, it
cried, whether she's got a home or not,
or anything To eat i'm fl or not II
she goes out into the world 20 work she
viii become unseXed. She viii become
coarse and vulgar, and wear short hair
and trousers, and smoke and swear, and
men won't marry her, and everything
will g. to the bow-wows
There are eight million wage earning
women in the United States, and II
there are any uuseXed among them the
Eden Musee has failed 10 get them So
-
love OF dress eliminated. the trouble
with her Is that She toQ much given
10 frills Also. instead of being opposed
10 marriage she gets married Just when
she's most valuable 10 her employer.
The finest woman in the world to-day Is
the Wide-awake, competent business
feet, and earn what she needs. She is
the prop OF her family, and blessing
10 society
MS as absurd to think that people
were ever afraid to give women the
right to earn an honest living as II is
TO think that they ever prophesied that
You couldn't make a steel ship that
would float
The third milestone that we have
passed is the property milestone Up to
our mother day when woman married
every cent she had passed into her
husbands exclusive possession This
was true although the man might he
a gambler and a spendthrih, swamped
TO his chin in debts of which the woman
Knew ntlI4lBs OF MbtlitGl NE WAS Il ktAtl
fellow Of the shiftiess sort between
whose fingers money leaks as water
through a sieve.
When il was first proposed to pass
property laws securing a woman $
money to herself 1t was fought tooth
and nal-eyen by many women, Peo-
PIE said IL would break up the home,
and produce endless friction between
husbands and wives. Women cried out
that IL they could trust themselves to
their husbands they could trust their
money, 1t was Contonded that for a
woman 10 own her own money would
make her bossy and insulting TO her
husband.
They Worked Well.
Nevertheless some property laws. not
adequate ones Vet, have been passed,
and II has been found out that they
worked out for the general good. The
right sort of man didn't want To hold
UP his wife and rob her of her property
and the woman who is married 10 the
wrong sort nnds out that IL is, al least.
some consolation TO have roof over
her head when her dream Of love is
broken.
Nobody would now argue that d
woman hasn't a right 10 her own prop
erty or 10 the money she earns, any
more than they would contend that We
should 20 back 10 the old GEys nf the