Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-09
AS ONE WOMAN SEES 1T
What the Young Women's Christian
Association Is, What II Does and
What It May Become
by SARAH ID. LOWRIE

I HAVE observed the Young Women
L Christian Association for ten years. some
times at very close quarters. sometimes from
the outside, not only in this city but in this
state. and not only as chairman of some
half n dozen committees in turn. but as
very sharp critic standing afar off, and now
at last as a very genial admirer not only OF
II but of its administrators.
1t suffered, when | first knew It. from
sort of dualsm. II was made up of two quite
separate and Numerically opposed forces.
lu this town it had been started by band
of capable and religious women as n women s
Christian boarding house, and as such it was
both financially and practically successful.
The women who started it grew old and the
women for whom it was run grew old, and
as a consequence when there was a vacancy
by death in either group--bcnefactors or
bcnctciarics-thc only type of Congcnial per
son to take the vacant chair was another
oldish person or youngish person with an
oldish mind
For this reason it was not an organization
that young persons liked to be connected
with. If, because of economic reasons, they
were obliged to board there, they accepted its
limitations without much enthusiasm and
were not very loyal to it among their fellows.
There was, to be sure, always n long waiting
list of persons ready to accept its cheap and
comfortable accommodations. but these be-
longcd for the most part to a certain type
and not the most admired type of girl or
youngish woman.
A S A consequence. although the organiza
n tion did n great business amounting ten
years ago to more than 500, 600 n year, it
was not generally popular organization
with the younger element in the city. One
heard it much more knocked" than praised.
It's board members, however praised it con
tinuously, for it was what they had made
and what they wantcd-all except q few.
who wanted it quite different. Those who
wanted it to be quite different wanted it to
be not an old women s Christian association,
run by old women for oldish women, but n
Young womcn's Christian association. run
by young women for young women. They
wished the members Of the association to be
the ones who would benefit by the assoca
llon. because they co operated to make it
What 1t was and at the same time partook
of what it was.
The ideal of the original founders was
benevolent scheme; the ideal of the later
organizers was co operative scheme. The
type of boarding house that would be con
genial to women over thirty and the type Of
religious and educational classes, the type
OF rccrcatonS, the very look Of the rooms set
apart for pleasure, would Of necessity differ
from the type OF surroundings Congcnial TO
girls IN their teens and early tWcntieS. Rules
and regulations and n social atmosphere
created by board of managers most of them
over fifty fv" and many of them over seventy
and none OF chem under thirty five could not
be accepted with enthusiasm by the normal
girl feeling her independence for the first
time away from home and supporting herself
When the few prOgressivCs on the board
tried to make the organization fit the young
girl rather than the young girl fit the or
ganization they had a long and bitter fight.
which ended in lawsuit which ended in
the victory of the new over the old, the
GO. operative over the benevolent program,
and the actual oustng of many of the old
authorities, who took their mOurnful de
parture with many representations Of evil
days to come