Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-27
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Woman az Eleotor VIII Act as Wife
Did When She Took Her First
Meal With Your Family
BY SARAH d. LOWRIE

Mnal VIII sne do with III A1ter tne
w election is over. mean! We all know
that until the election the women who are
going to use the franchise will work for the
election.
But afterward3 We have high hopes of
her, pessimistic doubts Of her. .grumbling
we are all interested in her, whether we let
on or no.
viii she do nothing? Or will she do
somethingY And IL SO, what2
Mr.. Ed Ware would like to know, Mr..
Ernest Tustin would like to know. The
coroner would like to know, Mr.. Simon
Gratz would like to know, so would John
Wanamaker. he has said so, and the
Governor, even the Honorable Boies Penrose.
She cannot please all these persons. she
will confirm the worst fears of some of them
and set others to rejoicing, whatever she
does.
TIL tell you what think she will do. I
think the better part of her will act the
way your wife acted when she took her
first meal with your family. She observed
how things were DONE while she made up
her mind whether they were done that way
because you liked Il or because you hadn't
known any other way or because there was
no other way under the circumstances. She
watched, not so she could copy but so she
could change. And not so much change the
ways as change you, so you might change
the ways.
That is what women. when they get
together, call managing mon"
1t makes the doctrine of free will and
preordination perfectly comprehensive.
Until now women could not see the ways
they could only see the results. Now Pan
dora has got the lid off And she is going to
examine what she has long suspected but
could not prove was inside.
When she gets through-and not until
then-she will begin to make herself felt.
7 EFT me relate to you a case In point A
~ woman in Philadelphia whose word goes
with good many people was asked by one
Of the numerous child welfare organizations
of the state to use her influence to have the
law enforced which forbids the employment
Of children under fourteen and for children
under sixteen without license in street
trades, A great many facts were given her,
Undoubtedly, children were on the streets
who would be better at school; undoubtedly.
children were selling things after dark who
would be better at home; undoubtedly. the
police force and the truant officers had
power to stop them, and their employers and
parents were the persons who were to blame.
THE woman asked the police force at
i headquarters why they did not enforce
and the public school authorities WHY they
did not enforce. She did not ask this
through the newspapers or at the head of
delegation, nor like teacher who knows
the answer. but really asked it because she
wanted to know.
She was told very panstakingly. There
was the law, there was the authority, but
there was no appropriation to hire and to
train the number or the kind of officials to
carry out the law.
4 child selling newspapers on the street
under age and out of hours is very small
| needle in a very large haystack. very far
| from the beat of the police officer who knows
| him. quite beyond the district of the truant
| officer who has his name on his list.
He may be sixteen and look twelve or he
| have license. His school may only have
| room for him half time. he may be on Mar
ket street tonight and on Lehigh avenue
| tomorrow night.
| no crowd would take kindly to the arrest Of
| boy for working. 1t is the parents or. the
employer Of the boy who should be arrested,
| and where are they?
| THE school authorities were even nicer to
i the inquring woman and even more
| panstaking. They made appointments for
her to talk to still other authorities.
They all said the place for a child who
| had a license to work-and they admitted
| that many had-was provided for by law in
, the continuation school.
Tho continuation school is nlace where
the children who work by permission of the
authorities can make up for their lost or
omitted education by studying after work
| hours.
1t should be the best equipped, most
| specially taught school In the city. The
building should be well ventilated, we'll
lighted and adapted to tempt the tagged
children to attend it, to rally their faded
faculties to make an effort. 1t is none Of
| these things.
Th" school authorities confessed that thev
| had the law and the authority but not the
appropriation to make It what it should be-
THE parents and steppareuts and legal
i guardians Of the children who piled
trades on the street were rot painstaking or
patient when the woman looked them up
They were very painful
| They said they needed the monev--or
rather the child needed It. and they said the
children were on the streets anyway and
might as well turn an honest penny. The
woman could see for herself the boy would
prefer the streets to the alternative that was
open for him-not so much a home as an
address. In many cases there was only one
| parent, the child's mother.
The woman. fatigued to irritation but still
pursuing, sought the Mothers Pension"
| officials.
They were lovely and quite of her own
kind. They did not need tactful treatment
| or any preliminaries. They got" her cues
tion on the first motion.
Yes. these mothers were. entitled to nen.
| sions; yes, the recipient of a pension from
| the state obliged TO sign and agree to
certain stipulations or forfeit her pension.
She had to feed the children properly.
house them properly and see that they got
proper opportunities for education Their
physical. mental moral life were all legally
provided for by the state, and the very com :
petent officials appointed by the state Ind
the power to enforce the requirements; but
the state had not appropriated enough
money to pay a third of the pensions needed
or indeed to pay as much as was needed in
any pension. As consequence the vcrr
alert and competent officials could not force
a mother to feed or school or keep tab of a
boy which the state. in the face Of its verv
munifcent sounding law, had forgotten to
appropriate funds for.
YOU will be interested in the reaction ~
| I that woman. hnt not surnrisnd cLs