The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-10-07


yesterday.
By INEZ HAYNES GILMORE
Noted Woman Writer
Some tragedies have un-
doubtedly come I'm to the
home as a direct result OF
woman's activity I'm the bus-
mess OF professional world.
just as many such tragedies
have had their rise i'm the
fact that husbands were not
economically Independents.
But Fundamentally there
is no peril to family life I'm
the achievement of financial
freedom by the wife through
work. In fact, 1 believe the
highest type of home life
will come only when wives
shall have unrestricted lib
erty to exercise all their pO-
tentiaI energies, those fin
anciaIly profitable as well as
those domestic.
The best men 1 know are
those who are proud that
their wives are earning
something I'm business.
professional or artistic way.
And the happiest women 1
know are those who have
been able to express them
selves as fully as artists as
in motherhood. Most cer-
tainly their homes and fam
lilies have not suffered be-
cause of their professional
activities.
Whenever any deep social
change is in progress it is the
fashion to lay the blame for the
abnormal manifestations on the
disturbances most in evidence.
Thus divorce is held responsible
for many surface evils, and vice
versa.
No one has ever questioned a
woman's financial Independence
so long as IL is gained through
inherited money; so long as it is
the gift of some man.
But as soon as she does that
most splendid thing-earns IL
through her own endeaver-she
Is criticized and condemned.
Undoubtedly economic indie
pendence of wives through work
will result in fewer children. But
they will be better children. With
the double income, mothers will
be able to employ professional
and expert caretakers of their
babies. 1t has always been toe
great a demand upon a woman
to rear a large family unassisted
IL has killed many of our finest
matrons, and the race has not
profited by the tragic devotion
and martyrdom.
Mothers who have the gift OF
properly rearing children are ex.
ceptionalIy few. A great many
become mothers who haven't this
gift, while many who have ft are
denied opportunity of expressing
Ii.
There is no virtue in woman
merely being shut up in the
home, compelled to make a fail
ure of the thing she wasn't des-
tined to perform, and denied the
chance to take part in that for
which she is eminently fitted.
1t is a curious thing = the
blind acceptance of the unfound-
ed assumption that all women
are fitted for the domestic
sphere. If the finest type of chill
dren and the most admirable
type of women are to be the test,
this is certainly a lamentable
fallacy.
The double income would per-
NIT mothers untitled for rearing
a family to delegate this delicate
task to paid experts, while the
former were left free to pursue
their vocations. The race would
profit by such an arrangement,
hereto though it may sound.
The real tragedy of woman
hood today is not that the strug-
gle for further emancipation
should result in some SCATTERING
of domestic ties, but that with
the majority of women so much
fine energy must lie dormant and
go to waste.
Women, irrespective of mar
riage ties, should be permitted
to choose the sphere to which
they know themselves best fit
ted, on the elective principle
which has increased efficiency
by specialization in other fields.
AS society is now constituted, the
matron who pursues a career is
also expected to look after the
home. Naturally only women of
the most pronounced ability and
vitality can make a creditable
showing under such double bur
den.
Tomorrow Judge Graham VIII
continue his articles on the df-