The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-03-09
Some Idea of Woman's Business Ethics.

nearly every profession, and the retail =
business men of a large Southern city have
started campaign to educate the women of
their city into understanding the word.
Men, usually, have very clear conception
Of the word honor, as applied to the every
day affairs of life, and it isn't on record that
tailors nor haberdashers (Which means the
people who sell ties and shirts) have had to
start a campaign to instruct men in the ethics
Of dealing with them.
The ladies of the higher class, which is
proven by the fact that they had credit at the
big stores, of the city referred to, have been
In the habit of having sent home, ION APP
proval," hats dresses, cloaks, coats and the
other ct cetras that 90 to the dressing of the
well-dressed woman. These articles have
been kept, in some instances, only overnight;
in others, for several days, only to be returned
to the store with the mot suitable" tag Of, the
supposed purchaser.
just what this custom has meant to the
retail Dealers is hard to imagine just what
it has meant to the women who have bought
as new goods what really are second hand,
is also hard to compute, but the practise has
grown to such proportions, the dealers have
banned together for the purpose of instruct
ing the women of their city in the ethics they
seem to be decidedly ignorant Of
One of the stock arguments of the suffra-.
gettes has been, that the women of the better
class-those whose position stood for educa-
ton, clear thinking and progressiveness-
were the women who were making the fight
for the ballot
And the fact that the merchants of this
Southern city have had to pass laws to protect
themselves against the shady practises of this
very set of women, is a smashing blow to the
argument of Womans fitness to rank with
men, In the matter of reasoning
AS women. we have not yet learned to think
with both sides of our brain; we see one side
of question, and that is the side that appeals
to the woman IN us; we haven't gotten to
where we can reason with ourselves and de-
eide, if the decision is against what we really
want to do.
We are still as hysterical as our grand
mother; we can, in the concrete shed as many
tears, and as easily, over a paper heroine, as
ever Miss Betty Straightlace did in the old
days, and we will shut our door as promptly
to that heroine, if she has been "wronged," as
ever the women of another day and time did.
All the arguments for woman suffrage are
foolish ones; here and there we find women
who are capable of handling big things; and
to be perfectly frank-don't they, as a rule,
get the chance to show what they can do?
Isn't it true that there are more women in the
business world, doing mems work and getting
mems pay, than ever before?
And isn't it also true, that, while they are
doing this work, and getting this pay, the
majority of them are envying the woman who
has home, husband and family of chill
dren to look after?
If we are to believe the fiction of the day,
this is still the time for the womanly woman,
who is more than ready to take up the work
of being mother and home-malzer and
keeper, when the right man comes along.
As FOR the men who ''adyocate" woman suf