Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-28
As ONE WOMAN SEES II
How Much Are You Worth and What
Rate Of Interest Are You Paying
on the Original investment
.' In You? .
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

slope known as Alma Whitaker put
very disturbing thought into my head not
She said that she had felt thst a ransom
Vt SlOOOO which some heather bandits had
extorted for the safe return Of one maiden
lady missionary had been q hideous over.
estimate OF any one persons worth. until
been expended OIL her own upbringins up to
twenty in order to make her paying invest.
ment to society. and also to calculate her
own investment In her two children.
She calculated that her boy of thirteen had
cost 5000 to date, beginning with $500 a.
the cost of his birth and outfit and monthly
nurse, hospital, etc. The cost had risen
since then, 20 that her baby Of two had cost
81. She herself q back in the more eco economical
nineteenth century had cost $4,000 to the
time that she was twenty and about 800
month since. which brought her to a total OF
S34.OO to date in actual outlay or invest.
ment in herself. She has made in that time
about S6O, 600. SO that as an investment she
has almost doubled OH her capital and now
represents a sum of money spent on her or
held by her Of nearly $1Oo. 900. She was
modest about herself as an investment, but
1t struck me she had done very well BY the
parents who had made the original $40 900
Investment and by her husband who had put
up the balance.
VERY few women, even nowadays, in this
go.to-w work" age, have done 80 we'll
pr come anywhere near doubling the original
investment in themselves. In fact, it is q
very hnmbling process to compare ones pres.
rnt value as nm Garner with the money in.
vested in ones birth. upkeep. education and
general advantages, with health bill thrown
In.
One woman know, whom have re.
garded as royal moneymaker a. q writer.
has actually done little more than pay
per cent on the capital invested in her to
make her the cultured, creative person that
she is. II she died tomorrow. not a third Of
that capital could be realized by royalties OIL
woman. with lovely disposition and good
executive ability and almost no education
that counts. has turned the original $16 900
that she cost until she married and the
S1U.OOO that she cost since she was married
into into something sonnet over a million. At least that
trusting husband left her when he died. and
as she made $50. 900 by clever investing and
selling in less than year after the property
had become hers. his trust in her acumcn
seems to have been justified.
But.as another woman said TO me. il Is not
always possible to prove in dollars and cents
what money you have made, because. though
you may save great deal Of money BY the
way you manage your house and family and
your work on philanthropic boards may mean
there IS no column where that can be put
down in dollars and cents. No more is it
possible to compute what n woman is worth
to her children or to her husband or to her
parents in dollars and cents.
INDEED to some people the bare idea Of
L doing such thing would seem mercenary
and unnatural and beside the mark. re-.
member that every time spoke Of myself to
my father, whose housekceper was for ten
years, as person whose earning power In
his establishment wns from $50 to $40 a
month. he was SO hurt that he pretended not
to hear. But the fact remained he could not
have run two houses and country place
without housekpeper, and the wages of a
responsible and efficient one would have come
to $50 plus her board and keep and travelling
money ana two weeks holiday with pay
nothing, ] was actually saving the family
purse something very near $1,000 year.
And I further calculated that as was re.
ceiving no money from the family purse
during those M ten years. the money that I
paying back my fathers original investment
in me. And that was a very good feeling
And at the risk of seeming too autobiograph-
ical ! have set 1t down here because / think
that it would clear the air in many a family
members of family if what was saved by
any individual was counted as earnings al
least on the debit and credit columns Of
family life.
And this is especially true of women who
are too much or -pied by their home duties
to get chance to compete in the omen mar.
ket for salaried positions Generally sneak
Ing. the more competent a woman Is in her
own home the more valuable she would be In
some paid position. but she cannot prove it
because her home needs her and her men
folks or the husband or father or brothcr
from whom she draws an allowance look in :.
diligently skeptical when she calculates her
| worth in dollars and cents, or Obstinately
hurt, because they like to give that nj.
| lowance as favor. not az something that
might be regarded as a debt.
MY CHCREMAN married 80 soon after
| A'A his first wife's death that I cxpressel
astonishment, but he explained the situation
| In single word. eyeing mc solonny: "It's
cheaper" said he.
| And being middle-aged. both of them,
it was cheaper for him as there would be no
first wife's children, whereas to pay house .
keeper would have swainped him.
! VI course i'll that case she knew her parn {.
ing capacity and would probably remind hin,
| OF IT II ne were reluctant to come across when
! her building fund interest was due or shc
needed dress. She was worth SI2 week eek
and her board and keep and working clothes
in her last place. 1t Is the women whu
have not had any ''last place" who are nut
| 10 1t to prove their moneys worth.
| heard one Of them tell of her experience
with her father not long ago. and in spite
of being rather maddening, it was also funny
At least she had found It amusing and il had
been rather spectacular triumph for her.
TT APPEARS that one day when she had
i quoted her work to him as SO much h,
had lost his temper aud called her bluff. j
saying that IL she was worth that much n
month to any one to so out and earn il,
and If she could earn it he would consider
| paying it to her.
She was really alarmed but outward,v
bro an. She went sobcrly to her desk and
sat tSlving into her possibilities She kne,y
that for ordinary jobs-housekeepins, secre.
| tarial companion. chap"ron, social service
worker, cta.--there was a crowded morke,
just then and some one younger and mort
scientifically trimmed would get II ahaaI ni