The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-18
WOMAN'S home RIGHT
SUBJECT OF TALK
BY FEMINIST LEADER


Mrs. Harvey w. Wiley, wife of the
former chief of the United States
bureau of chemistry, thinks that smok-
ing is abdominable. Yet she upholds
the right of girl to smoke. She is
fighting for the equality of women in
all things. She is militant feminist.
She is the mother OF two boys, eight
and ten years old, and it is her great
est ambition that they take a leading
part in Christianizing the world. But
she believes in the basic right OF all
individuals to shape their own destin-
les, and she believes that girls as we'll |
as boys are individuals.
Just now she is one of the leaders /
in the organization, the object of
which is TO remove the last remaining |
Determinations against women in |
American homes.
Wants Equal Rights
The organization is the Home-Mak- |
er's Council of the National Woman's |
Party. This party is composed of
women who are not aiming to enter
professions, but who want the right to
continue as home-makers on an equal
footing with the men.
81 had supposed, l told Mrs. Wiley,
that women were rather more of a
factor in American homes than men,
''They are possibly more important
she answered, but their rights in
many states are still almost negligible.
| am not speaking merely of their
property rights, although the legal
determinations are against them in
this respect make it impossible in
many places for them to function as
they should. / talked with a woman
from the south the other day. She is
happily married and very much in
love with her husband, but he doesn't
know that she is a person, and she
could not make him think so except
by nagging him or starting fight.
Appropriates Property
Because legally she is not a person.
She had an estate before she was
married valued at 100000, She had
planned for years to devote this land
to a specific charitable purpose. The
other day her husband came home to
dinner and nonchalantly announced
that he had sold it. He had a right
to under the law.
In that state, in spite of the nine
teenth amendment, a married woman
is still very much of a slave. Her
work, her resources and her lifelong
ambitions count for nothing.
But even in states where property
rights seem to be equal, it doesn't
necessarily follow that women have
achieved equality. In these states a
woman may leave her home, enter a
trade or profession and have full say
as to what she shall do with her sal
airy. Her husband can't take that
mean the money which she has earned
outside the home. But how about the
money she has earned inside the
home? If the man dies, the woman
can command her legal share in his
estate. But if he lives, she can't even
command salary. On large per-
centage of the American farms today
it is still the ridiculous practice for
the wife to ask her husband for money
with which to buy new hat.
Must Have Understanding
ITO manage any enterprise properly
the manager must have very definite
idea of the financial resources at hand.
A home-maker should have either a
stated allowance or a definite per-
centage of her husbands income"
1t is not any personal discomfort
which has brought Mrs. Wiley into
the feminist movement. She is there
because she has strong convictions
concerning things from which she does
not personally suffer. That woman
should have a right to vote was one
of her lifelong convictions.
Education is at present the main
reliance of the Home-Makers Council
There is no talk as yet of a strike Of
farmers wives or of any dramatic as
sertion of woman's equality. From
Mrs Wiley's standpoint at least the
movement does not contain the slight
s-f olr ,e
Our object" she said, SIS to remove
the elements of discord from the home
Marriage between equals must, in it!
very nature, be a continual compro
mise. If harmony is to be achieved, i
must be through complete equality o
not at all. So long as rights are un
determined they will be fought for
the harmony based on authority ha
passed forever. Our real aim is NOR
than an assertion of individual rights
1t is the assertion of the most sacret
right known to human history-th
right of man and woman to becom
completely united in love.
Did you ever stop to think Mrs
Wiley added, that millions of home
today are cursed with discord simpl
because the personality of the mothe
has been suppressed? Take almos
any CdSe VI COupleI6ly uOHlUdl6
woman and you will find a woma
who is making life unbearable. Sh
quits being a person and becomes
professional mother for life Sh
babies her children. They are her lif
and she sees her life departing fror
her. She struggles to hold them a
babies when they should be develop
ing manly characteristics instead Sh
undermines their self-reliance. 1t j
up to them either to rebel and brea
her heart or to succumb and to G
down in utter uselessness. Eithe
way. such mother is hopeless.
What we should aim at" Mr.
Wiley continued, lis not to fire,
woman from the great work of bea
ing and rearing children but to say
them from destroying themselves i
the process. There is no reason VIII
any normal persons life should end
fifty. A woman at 80 should be lool
ing ahead"