The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-10-29
The Typical
American Woman
~ Or. FRANK CRANE
(Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)

Some time ago young woman was to
be selected to play the part of Miss Chi
cago in the tableaux celebrating the dedi-
cation of the Dixie highways in the
western metropolis. She was to be typi-
cal Of Chicago's womanhood.
Hundreds Of candidates were present.
ed, and the mayors wife. Mrs. William
Hale Thompson, was asked to select the
one best suited for the position.
She chose Miss Margaret West,
stenographer.
Said Mrs. Thompson: Chicago
stands for energy directed to hard, use
full and constructive ends, and for that
reason decided Miss Chicago should be
a working girl. / don't believe society
girl would fill the bin exactly. As part
of the standard also required that Miss
Chicago be voter provided she was of
voting age. AS to beauty, al TIE candi-
dates represent the womanhood of our
great lakes region, so had no choice
there"
This is refreshing, democratic, sensi-
BILE, and, it must be confessed, surpris-
ing.
Usually when the Sabbath journals
present their full-page illustrations OF
the "most beautiful girls Of the city
they confine themselves to members OF
the society" class-that is, girls whose
fathers are rich enough to support them
in idleness, girls whose activities seem
to be directed toward owning $4,000
pups. riding thoroughbreds in the park.
wearing several new expensive robes
every week at balls, luncheons, and
theatre parties, attending race meets and
Yacht parties, and the other variegated
functions of the smart set.
There is no intention in these lines to
scold these young ladies. That they are
the septic expressions Of wealth without
responsibility is no fault Of theirs. They
are creatures - environment. They do
what their parents are eager to have
them do. This is free country, and for
neople who like that sort of thing that Is
doubtless about the sort Of thing they
like.
But that they are in any way typical
or representative of American woman
hood is an error. On the contrary, they
stand for vicious idea that has come
down to us from the ignorance and in
humanity of the past.
That idea is that it is "nobler" to live
upop money accumulated by somebody
else than it is to accumulate it oneself.
All Europe is rotten at the tor. with
the notion that to earn ones daily bread
nv labor stamps one as belonging to the
lower classes. The only business kings
and mobiles can engage in without faint 10
war or sport-that is. the business OF
killing men or animals.
We think we are free from this In
sanity. but the first thing the average
American does when he gets rich is to
trv to ruin his daughters by entering
them in the lists Of society that they
may destroy themselves and others Dy
becoming occupied solely in arnusement.
We are still infected by the subtle In
fuences of Old World ideas. Our litera-
ture smells of them to heaven. TINS Is
perhaps the principal reason why It II 50
difficult to establish any limitation OF
wealth or restriction of inheritance.
One does not have to be an extreme
radical. a socialist, or an anarchist TO De.
l;eve that in some way the wisdom OF
the twentieth century should arrange
that every man and woman snoulo %
entitled only to such money as ne OF snc
earns. and that huge unearned wealth
units imply masses of unfortunate PEG.
ple who are underpaid or cannot get
work at ALL
For these reasons we congratulate the
wife of Chicago's mayor, and render
most willing obeisance to MISS West'
worker.