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

By DOROTHY DIX.
n NE Of the most interesting plays
Of the past season was Arnold
Benneut's "NIilestones 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
n the play the hero breaks with his
business partner because he wants TO
build iron ships instead of wooden ships.
You'll be ruined # you do says the
standpstter. "iron ships viii never
float You might as well build stone
ships
The progressive man goes on and
builds iron ships and makes a fortune,
but at middle life his partner wants TO
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 sirships. and he cries out as the
other two old men have done about the
iron ships and the steel ships that air
ships viii never be practicable"
This play, 'AInestones,' is the biggest
suffrage play ever written, and offers
the best suffrage argument
Go back three generations. The ques-
fIon Of whether a woman should be given
an education then was Just as burning
a one as the question Of whether she
should be given a right TO vote is now.
And precisely the same arguments were
brought against it as are brought
against woman suffrage now.
An Old Belief.
In our great Erandmothers time it
was contended that if would unsex a
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 a
few blue stockings among women want
ed an education. Therefore it was fool
ish and wrong to open college doors
TO the feminine sex
Well, by diut 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-
moralize women has brought about none
OF the calamities they foretold, Women
are still women They are stiu sought
in marriage, and so far from only a
few caring for an education, the girls
outnumber 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
occupations. In our grandmothers' day
the only way a woman had to make a
good living was to marry H. BY and
by a few bold and heroic women rehelled
at this state Of affairs and demanded a
right TO 80 into any kind Of business
that they were ftted for The whole
conventional world raised one grand
howl OF protest
a woman's place is in the home, 1t
cried, whether she's got q home or not,
or anything TO eat in II or not. II
she goes out into the world TO 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
win GO to the bow-wows
There are eight million wage earning
women In the United States, and il
there are any unseXed among them the
Eden Musee has failed to get them, 50
far from the wording girl having her
80 ia nl{ r7F fiah %
with her is that she's too much given
10 frills Also, instead of being opposed
70 marriage she gets married Just wher
she's most valuable 90 her employer
The finest woman In the world to-day is
the Wide awake, competent business
girl. amply able 70 stand on her owf
feet, and earn what she needs. she i
the prep Of her family, and blessint
It's as absurd to think that peopl,
We're ever afraid 10 give women tht
right to earn an honest living as II Is
to think that they ever prophesied tina
you couldn't make steel snip tina
would toat
passed Is the property milestone. Up 1,
our mothers day when a woman married
every cent she had passed into he
husbands exclusive possession, Thl
was true although the man might b
a gambler and a spendthrlft, Swampe'
to his ohm in debts Of which the Womal
knew nothing, or whether ne was a gon'
fellow of the shifuess sort between
whose fingers money leaks as waite
through sieve,
When ii was first proposed to pas
property laws securing a woman
money 10 herself IL was fought toot
and nail--eVen by many women, PEG
pie said IL would break up the nome
and produce endless friction betwee
husbands and wives. w omen cried on
that il they could trust themselves I
their husbands they could trust thel
money. II was Contended that fer