Evening star., 1916-07-16
Eugene Brieux, French Aca-
demician, Predicts Violent
Phases in Labor.
OTHERS EXPRESS VIEWS
ON PROBLEMS OF WORK
Nine. Pelletier, q Leading French
Sufragette, Looks for Complete
Change in the Household.

Of the Associated Press.
PARIS. June 2.-"Feminism is
making great strides during the war"
says Eugene Brieux. member OF the
French Academy. discussing the future
of the women OF France. He predicts
"a violent phase in the war OF sexes'
when the soldiers come homo and has
thereby provoked a lively discussion Of
these questions:
Will woman suffrage be advanced by
the war?
VIII women now replacing men in all
sorts Of occupations hold their places
and come into competition with the dis
charged soldiers?
Will they complicate the labor-prob-
lem by accepting the wage scale for
mans work?
Will their extended participation in
Industrial life separate them more from
men?
THE competition between male and
female labor will be fierce" according
to NJ. Brieux. and he declares that
women will abandon the career of
housewife. while young girls, having
learned how to provide for themselves.
will no longer look to man as pros
pectfve protector"
Marcel Provost, another academician.
also sees coming "a great falling of in
sentiment. due to the penury of men,"
and he expects the women who have
learned to use the lathe-making
projectiles will turn out parts Of auto
mobiles and all kinds OF machinery
after the war. He is less pessimistic
than NJ. Brieux as to the intensity OF
their competition with man.
Expects No Harmful Conflict.
Maurice Donnay agrees with his two
confrerees of the academy that women
will do more manual labor In factories
and take a more active part in mems
occupations generally. but he thinks
there will be so much to do that a
proper division of labor will prevent
harmful conflict.
DR.. Madeleine Pelletier, one OF the
leading French suffragettes, who says
she ''despaired of feminism before the
war" now thinks that the necessities
of life are going to impose what years
of propaganda failed to effect-the
emancipation of women"
The war;" she says, will put France,
as well as the other belligerents. face
to face with a crushing financial prob
lem and the state will be unable to
support the millions of mothers. wild
ows and orphans deprived of their nat
ural protectors. Instead of a meager
pension" she anticipates, the country
will provide for them by giving them
occupations in which they will earn
their own comfortable living"
AS to domestic life. Nine. Pelletier
looks for a complete Transformation of
the household to put it in accord with
new conditions.
DIRTY dishes will be laid out on the
doormat to be taken away by special
lists who will deposit them properly in
the same place." she thinks. stock
ings will be darned by other special
lists. leaving the women of the family
to earn the price of two pairs in the
time they would take to stop up the
holes of one.
Future Housework by Specialists.
Cooking, as we'll as dishwashing and
darning." she adds. will be done by
specialists while the lady of the house
concentrates her attention upon the
shop or the factory"
Nine. Pelletier. as we'll as the acade-
micians. neglect the question as to
what will become of the children. 'Tt
will be quite necessary for France to
think of the children, though writes
a woman temporarily working at the
lathe. Future generations" she points
out. must make up the wastage Of war
in human life. and nothing could be
more inopportune now than encourage
ment of the separation of woman from
the home and the smothering of fam
lily sentiment
Hundreds of women contributing to
he
ment of the woman of the lathe. In re-
ply to it NJ. Brieux reminds them that
every married man who falls on the
battlefield leaves a widow: that every
young man killed leaves a widow by
anticipation-a widow without weeds:
that all these added to the widows,
orphans and mothers that had lost
their protectors before the war make
up a formidable army of women for
whom husbands cannot be readily
found and who must be permitted to
make living.
I'VE allowed ourselves to be surpris-
ed by war says NJ. Brieux; 'let US not
be surprised by peace; let us think
right now of what shall be the fate
of these victims"
No Obstacle In Mems Way.
Women will work in France after
the war as they always have DONE"
answers one correspondent. but they
will put no obstacle in the way of men.
If employers are tempted by the pros
pect of getting cheap labor they will
be met by this general old doctrine
equal pay for equal work; the wom-
an that runs lathe after the war will
get mans pay for her labor"
The best way of caring for the in
terests of women after the war is to
look out first for the men," is the opin-
ion of another female munitions work
er When the victorious soldier comes
home he will find in woman a COM
panion and a collaboration instead of a
The only thing to do now
is to reassure those who are fighting
for us that they may come back to
their flresides without anguish"
The long separation will reveal in
a new light the joys of hearth and
home" says another. Even those who
never appreciated it will realize the
meaning of the family. and would il
be at that delightful moment that the
woman would fly from the house to
the workshop by choice?"
The majority of opinions of women
thus far gathered seem to be against
Nine. Pelletier and the academicians
SO far as concerns a possible conflict
between men. and women, while admit
ting that the latter must. forcibly dur
Ing the reconstruction period, take on
A considera BILE part of mans work
IN F. A CHJ