The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-06
Dorothy DiI Says
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer


n.
sex from woman's brow as not even
the most optimistic feminist ever ex-
pected to see it lifted. 1t has answered |
questions, once and for all, that the |
world has debated for hundred years.
With the Regiment of Death stop
ping the flight of craven Russian men
soldiers in battle, and with hundreds
of thousands of women making NUM-
lions and nursing soldiers in hospitals
under the enemy's shells, no one can
ever say again that women should not
be given the right to vote because they
cannot defend their country in time
of war.
With women driving heavy motor
trucks and building barracks for SOL
diers at the front, and doing railroad
construction, and raising crops at
/ home, no one can ever talk again
about womans sacred sphere. She
| has demonstrated beyond all queS-
| ton that womanIs sacred sphere, like
mans sacred sphere, is wherever
| there is work to do.
| Nobody can ever argue again about
whether women as a sex have the
| physical strength to do this and the
mental stability to do that, when in
/ every line of trade and business girls
have leaped into the places left va
| cant by the men who have gone off to
war, and, almost without any prepar-
alton, have given just as efficient
service
The bloody hand of war has not
only opened wide the door of oppor-
| tunity to women but has dragged
them thru it by the hair of their head.
Thousands of prosperous W o m n
| whose fortunes have been swept away
in the great conflict have been forced
out into the world to support them
selves. Thousands of other women
have had to suddenly turn bread win
ner not only for themselves but for
= of fT1eI, Il
brothers that the war has sent home
to them.
And still thousands of other men,
Having found out that real, construc-
esting than the silly and fruitless la
| Dor of toiling in the treadmill of so
ciety. have turned their backs upon
the drawing room forever.
It is respectable for a woman to
work. More, it is fashionable. The
idle woman nowadays is looked upon
as a Stacker quite as much as the man
who won't fight and while woman is
doing her bit for her country she is
doing far, far more for herself.
She is achieving independence in
the only way in which it can be won,
for the only really free people are
those who are economically free and
who possess their own pocketbooks
Political freedom means nothing with
out financial freedom. The man who
is dependent on another man for the
food he eats and the clothes he wears
belongs to the man who supplies his
needs just as much as if he were his
slave.
The woman who has no money of
her own and who has no trade or
profession by which she can earn a
penny is the chattel of the man who
supplies her needs. 1t is only the
woman who can stand alone on her
own feet and make her own living who
is free woman.
All of the injustices under which
women have suffered have been based
on the fact that they were economical
ly dependent on men. Money votes.
Money talks in law, in the courts OF
justice, in the family circle, for it is
eternally true that the hand that holds
the purse rules the world.
| War has given women a chance that
they have never had before to achieve
financial independence. 1t is up to
them to decide what use they will
make of this golden opportunity and
whether after the war is over they
will sink back again into their old
role of domestic mendicant, or ill paid
odd Job doors, or not.
Every variety of employer is expert
menting now with female labor in new
fields They are trying girls out as
clerks in banks, as track walkers on
| railroads, as runners on the elevators
| in apartment houses and office build
| ings, as machinists in factories, and
: whether or not these girls hold their
! Dlaces after the war and make these
avenues of occupation the road TO
financial independence for women for
ever after depends on how they do
their work.
democracy for their sex just as
much as the men in the trenches
are fighting for the democracy of the
world, and if they fail to realize this
and turn towards and cutters, they
flows an
is who deserts because he is faint
hearted, and doesn't like the CRIME
and sweat and strain of battle.
The chief trouble with the recruits
lin this new Industrial army of women
is that they do not like discipline. Do
. nestle life, which is mostly run on a
: hit-or-miss platform. has not taught
them either accuracy or promptness
: and it is hard to make them accept
, the rigid routine of business and I'M
derstand that accounts must absO-
: Iutely balance instead of near bal
fance and that machine work that Is
almost right is altogether wrong.
, One man who is employing lot OF
: girls for the first time said to me:
Il find the girls quick to learn and
their work is quite as satisfactory as
: that of men, but the trouble Is you
; have to handle them with kid gloves
: If you dare to criticize girls Work
or speak to her about any fault, nc
matter how kindly you do it, she takes
it as an insult and puts on her hal
and leaves.
IF women expect to keep their
Jobs when the war is over and the
men come back, they viii have &c
put the soft pedal on their personal
| ity In business no one thinks about
! the individual, or cares about him
( or her It's just the work. and there's
no place in work for emotions, nor Is
there any time for diplomatic hand
ling of anybody's little feelings. If the
girls will learn to cut out getting
hurt and angry when they are criti-
r cized, and take the criticism in the
helpful spirit in which it is meant
p they will be able to hold their jobs
Not otherwise
I asked the starter in a big office
: building in which girls are being tried
D ont as elevator runners how he liked