The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-06-08

up W IT, VI NbuIhts ANbbpuJ NSAiN bN
the woman who built IT,"
The gaiety in his voice clouded q
little as he said it, and his grin, fol
a moment, had rueful twist. But
for moment only. Then his untem
pered delight in the possession of his
old friends took him again.
They talked-heavens how they
| talked 1t was like the breaking VI
of log jam. The two men would
rush along, side by side, In perfect
agreement for while, catching each
others half-expressed ideas, and hurl-
ing them forward, and then suddenly
/ they'd meet, head on, in collision over
some fundamental difference of opin-
ion, amid a prismatic spray Of cpl
gram. Jane kept up a sort of Obliga-
to to the show, inserting provocative
wltticisms here and there, sometimes
as Rodney's ally, sometimes as her
husbands, and Turing them, when she
could, into the quiet backwater or
metaphysics, where she was more
than n match for the two of them.
But the main topic of the evening
got launched when Rodney seized the
advantage of pause to say:
"a series of articles on women, eh !!
What are you going to do to them|
With that the topic of feminism
was on the carpet and it was never
thereafter abandoned. After half an
hour of it Jane turned to Rodney.
But what do you think about itT'
she demanded. you've been grinning
away there all this time without say
ing word. Are you for it?"
For whatY Rodney wanted to
know.
"For what women want" said Jane.
Economic independence - equality,
easy divOrce-all the new stuff"
I'm not against it," Rodney said,
''any more than I'm against tomorrow
being Tuesday. It's going to be Tues
day whether / like it or not. But
that conviction keeps me from crusad-
ing for it very hard. What I'm curl
Gus about is how it's going to work.
When they get what they want, do
you suppose they're going to want
what they get?"
81 knew there was something dead
ly about your grin" said Jane. what
are you so cantankerous about?"
"Why, the tnlng,' said Rodney,
"that sours my naturally sweet dis
position is this economic independ-
ence. I've been hearing it at dinner
tables all winter. When l hear
woman with five hundred dollars
worth of clothes on-well, no, not on
her back-and anything you like In
jewelry, talking about economic inde-
pendence as if it were something nice
jam on the pantry shelf that we men
were too greedy to let them have a
share of have to put on the brakes
in order to stay on the rails.
1--WE men have to fight for economic
independence from the time we're twen-
ty, more or less, till the time we die.
It's a sentence to hard labor for life
that's what economic independence is.
How does that woman think she'd set
about it, to make her professional
services worth hundred dollars
day-or fifty, or ten? What's she got
that has a market value? What Is
there that she can capitalize? She's |
got her physical charm, of course,
and there are various professions
where she can make it pay. Well and |
what elseT
"She can bear children" said Jane. |
"She ought to be paid well for that"
"You're only paid WE'LL" Rodney re-
piled, ''for something you can do eX-
ceptionally well, or for something that
few people can do at all. As long as
the vast majority of women can bear
children, the only women who could
get we'll paid for it, would be those
exceptionally qualified, or exception
ally proficient. This is economics,
now, we're talking. Other considera-
tions are left out. No, tell you,
economic independence, if she really
got 1.-THE kind Of woman I've been
.alking about-would make her very
sick"
"She'd get over being sick, though,
wouldn't She" said Rose, "after
awhile? And then don't you think
she'd be glad?"
Rodney laughed. "The sort of wom-
IN I've been talking about" he said,
would feel, when all is said, that
;he'd got a gold brick"
Rose poured his coffee with a
teady hand. They were in the library
low
"If that's So" she said, "then the
lind of woman you've been talking
bout has already got a profession.
IS Doctor Randolph says, she's cashed
n on her ankles. But maybe you're
mistaken in thinking she wouldn't
hoose something else if she had
hance. Maybe she wouldn't have
lone it, except because her husband
wanted her to and she was In love
With him and tried to please. You
ant always tell"
It was almost her first contribution
o the talk that evening. She had
sked a few questions and said the
hings a hostess has to say. The
ther three were manifestly taken by
urprise. I
But surprise was not the only ef- /
ect she produced. Her husband had
ever seen her look Just like that be- ,
ore. The fash in her eyes, the splash ,
f bright color in her cheeks, the ex-
iting tlmbre Of her voice, was new
0 him and very alluring.
Barry saved him the necessity Of
rying to answer, by taking up the