New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-06-01

telephOned, and hadn't time to change
back"
And when Jane cried out, as they
entered the drawing Dom: "Gooc
heavens, Rodney, what II house" he
answered: ut isn't ours. We rented
II for a year in some sort Of honey
moon delirium, | guess. We don't live
up to 1t, Of course. Nobody could but
The woman who built It,"
The gaiety in his voice clouded q
little as he said it, and his grin, for
II moment, had Il rueful twist. But
for a moment only. Then his untem-
pered delight in the possession of his
old friends took him again.
They talkcd-heavens, how they
talked! 1t was like the breaking up
of II log jam. The two men would
rush along, side by side, IN perfect
agreement for n 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 prisinatic spray of cpl
gram. Jane kept up Il sort of obliga-
To to the show. inserting provocative
WitticiSlnS here and there, sometimes
~ itodney's ally. sometimes as her
husbands, and Turing them, when she
could, into the quiet backWnter OF
metaphysics, where she was more
than Il match for the two of them.
But the main topic of the evening
got lalvched when Rodney seized the
advantage of II pause to say:
"A series of articles on women, ELI !
What are you going to do to them?'
With that the topic Of felninism
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 it,"
she demanded. "You'vc been %grinning
away there all this time without say
ing II word. Are you for it,"
For what?" Rodney wanted to
know.
For what women want" said Jane.
'EconoIAic independence 49, equality,
easy divorce-nll the new stuff"
I'm not against it, Rodney said,
amy 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 getY'
Il knew there vas something dead
ly about your grim" said Jane, What
are you so cantanker0us about?"
"Why. the thing" 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 | hear a
woman with five hundred dollars
worth of clothes Orwell, no, not on
her back-and anything you like in
.jewelry. talking about economic indie
pendence as If it We're something nice
JAIN on the pantry shelf that we men
We're too greedy to let them have a
share of have to put on the brakes
in order to stay on the rails.
I'VE men have to fight Tor economic
independence from the time we're TWEEN
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
l- .,,lra ha, ,N,nfn;orn1
services worth a hundred dollars a
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 elSe?"
"She can bear children" SAIL Jane.
"She ought to be paid well for that"
you're only paid WE'LL Rodney re-
piled. "for something you n do PIX
ceptionally well, or for something that
few people can do at all. AS long as
the vast majority of ONE can bear
children, the only women who could
get well paid for it, would be those
exceptionally qualified, or exception
ally proficient. This is economics,
now, we're talking. Other cOnsidera-
lions are left out. No, l tell you,
economic independence, If she really
got 1.-THE kind of woman I've been
talking about-wOuld make her very
sick"
Shed 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-
an I've been talking about" he said.
would feel, when oil is said, that
she'd got a gold brick"
Rose poured his coffee with a
steady hand. They were in the library
now. /
IF that's So" she said, then the |
kind of woman you've been talking
about has already got a profession.
Doctor Randolph says. she's cashed
In on her ankles. But maybe you're
mistaken in thinking she wouldn't
choose something else if she had a
chance. 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
always tell"
1t was almost her first contribution
to the talk that evening. She had
asked a few questions and said the
things q hostess has to say. The
other three were manifestly taken by
surprise.
But surprise was not the only ef-