Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-06-22
DOING ONES BIT
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
49, Writer

=. Writer
- HIS terrible war has added many
new words and phrases 70 ou:
vocabulary. The one that think
best is the one which is on the lips Of
every English man and woman today.
IL Is: 81 AM DOING MY BIT"
There could be no more inspiring
motto than that TO live by, or fight
By. One could wish no nobler epitaph
TO be carved on ones tomb when one
dicd, for It means that one had done
ones duty wherever one found It, and
filled ones appointed role In the
world. ,-5es
Most of as live little humdrum
lives. There comes to as no opportu'
nifty to do any great, heroic, specta-
cuiar act, 90 we drift unconsciously
into being sIackers because II does
not seem to US TO matter whether we
do well or I'll, or even perform at all,
our small tasks .
This is particularly true Of home
keeping women rho, Of all workers m
The world, work under the most dis
cOuraging conditions For Il 10 their
lot 70 labor without apparent results.
Them spend thsir days and their
strength cooking meals that are eaten
and forgotten as soon as cooked; IN
sweeping floors that must be swept
over again in the next hour; IN darn
fng holes IN garments that are rent
again IN q day; In washing little faces
and combing little heads that are dirty
and tousled again IN five minutes.
Such q woman can point to no yist
Bile thing with pride, az can the car.
renter, or the writer, or the artist,
and say, This thing have wrought"
She cannot even jingle IN her pocket
the money she has earned by her long,
weary hours Of toll, for OF eli workers
she Il the only laborer now left on
earth who IL expected to work and be
thankful for the privilege Of working,
Tor srch board and clothes a. her lord
ana master sees at TO give herr
II q no wonder that such women
say enviously to their sisters who are
out IN the world doing things that get
their names in the papers and bring
them IN independent incomes, Z wish
that could do something worth
While
Nor d It strange that such women
lose heart and courage and so about
their daily grind Of monotonous duties.
without enthusiasm or interest. that
hey deRenerate into larry. shtftless
E6nsskeepers Who feed their families
out Of can1 and paper bags and care
less mothers who raise their children
IA the streetE
Etsry domestic woman IN the land
should hang this motto; Il AN DOING
NY BIT" where she can see II every
time she raises her eyes from her
work. II VIII be an inspiration to her.
n viii make her feel that every time
she sweeps 4 floor she IL doing her
part In the great work OF sanitation;
that every time she markets thrifty
tr make over an old garment 30 that II
4 IS good as new. she 10 solving prac-
||cally the problem Of the high cost Of
living with which learned economists
are wrestling IN vain; that every Tina
she scaids out the baby's milk bottle
properly she Is reducing the infant
mortality rate:
Il would make her feel that when
she made q comfortable cheerful. hap
~ home that her husband and chill
fren liked to stay IN, she was doing
more to stop drunkenness and vice
|han 4 d6zcn loud mouthed reformers:
hat every time she taught her boys
and girls self control and obedience.
.X4he was fulfilling q high patriotic
1nty By making good citizens for the
country, and that when she raised mp
family Of honest, intelligent, indus.
{fious men and women she shared
with Cod himself in the great work Of
creation.
That Is her BIT Of the worlds work.
and Il Is the one most important piece