Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-23
BY MARGUERITE MARSHALL
Cartwright 1921

NEW YORK.-Exit the sheltered
female!
Goodby, mothers girl"
Meet the modern daughter-who
is neither of these!
In the case of the girl of today
VS.. Mrs. Grundy, there have been no
more amazingly frank admissions
considering the source from which
they spring-than those which 1 have
summed up above in my own words,
but which in substance have just
been advanced by Mrs. Robert E.
Speer, president Of the national board
of the Y. w. G.. A, wife of the pres1-
dent of the Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America, moth
er of four children, and a recognized
leader in New York's social and phil
anthropic work
This commander in chief of a le-
gion of American girls is perhaps
the first of the conservatives to
recognize that over the old problem
of "why girls leave home" has been
written a new one: Girls HAVE lett
home-and what are we going to do
about it?"
She sees the girl of today floating
down the broad srteam of the worlds
activities like a fluffy, self-contldent
little ducklng while mother" stands
on the bank clucking as frenzledly-
and uselessly-as any mother men!
And isn't that truly accurate uneX-
aggerated metaphor, summing up
most of the her-and-Caughter dl-
lemmas of today?
"Seventy-five years ago woman
was the exception IN a business oI-
flee, or in industry" declares MIS-.
Speer To-day if women are with
drawn from these activities they
would stop.
Last fall the doors of political
life and responsibility were opened
with the others. There are boundleSs
opportunities, but the resources with
which to meet them are in too many
instances lacking. God has proVlded
youth with courage, energ ; vi slor
faith, but He also meant TINS Nlgor
to be tempered by the kindly WIS
dom of maturity and experience. .
OBVIOUSLY, if in one district OF
Chicago alone there are $4,000 girls
in industry, all of them out OF their
homes all day, and many LIVING
away from home, these girls cannot
share such WISDOM as IheIl llloIiioi
have to offer.
'They have been taken out OF
school and home by economic neces-
sity, but they are none the less tne
guardians of the. future NJ p "9t eHa
mothers, actual citizens; Ihey ha 4he
home; their teachers now are the rae,
tory. the movie, the shop window"
What are these girls learning from
their new instructors? They learn
one valuable lesson in the factory, II
seems to me; a lesson Wnlfn mas
neither shall he eat" Sometimes,
being myself a bit of an optimist
about the modern daughter, l won
der if this propaganda against para
sitism. this self-respectlng SAUSAGE
ton of the girl worker in real money
earned by real toll, does not counter
balance some of the instruction con
veyed to her by the movies and the
shop windows; namely, that her
whole duty is to wear. the fuffiest
and most expensive clothes! 4esLer-
days daughter, often learned that
much despite the tutoring of home
and mother-and yesterdays daugn-
ter didn't learn that the economl-
callv honest wearer of pretty frocks
must work for them.
NO Longer ia Homes
What is, happening with these
girls in one city" continues Mrs.
Speer in the Association Monthly.
'is happening to groups of varying
size in every city and town In Amer
lea The great mass of American
girls no longer are IN InelF noIneS'
they are at work, facing conditions
of which their mothers are ignorant
with new demands on their physique,
their minds, their emotions. If Amer
lean standards and liberty are to en-
dure, they must be interpreted afresh
to these girls. The mother who can
project herself into her daughters
world with wide sympathy is rare. "
What is the result of the girl
duckling in the stream and the moth
er hen on the bank? ShreWdly but
sympathetically Mrs. Speer sums 1t
up:
I'VE think of the American girl as
one Of the best products of the race.
We have given her almost unrestrlct-
cd opportunity; we have let her go
out into uncharted seas, and then
If we do not like her choices we are
quick to offer harsh judgment IN
stead of sympathetic guidance. In
nothing does society more need freSll
estimates, discerning, fearless ana
full of faith, than in its judgment
of it's young women.
1--WE have not taught, probably pc
cause we have not learned, that sell
discipline is the first step toward
liberty. We have recognized, some
what, the needs of our boys, know
ing that they would leave nome TO
go out into the temptations and high
winds of the world; but we cling to
the fallecy that our girls are at
home, safe. sheltered, inheriting by
daily contact the best standards Of
the older days.
eff women are to be occupied out
side the home, the standards Of home
living cannot be transmitted by the