The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-13
AmericanWornen Not Equal
 Of Men

The following article taken from the New York Evening Post foreign service will be of interest as the question of women being mems equals is ever prev alent:
 LONDON-"The American woman {: undaunted, fearless, unquestioning. The English woman: l: timorous, apolo- getic, uncertain"
 This is not a taunt, but the reasoned conclusion of an American writer, IT, ma Kraft, in an article taken seriously enough to move Rebecca West, the nov elist, to answer it with five columns in the London Graphic. Miss West, re- gently an American visitor, is full of praise for American women, and she names Fannie Hurst in particular, who, she says, is mot only fine writer, but dominant personality, opulent and dramatic, like some character strayed from richer period in history" Ameri- can women, too, are "the most easy housekeepers in the world" and "rise to supreme heights of picturesque per sonality."
 But she warmly defends the English woman, and she questions Miss Kraft's accuracy in her claim that American women are the accepted equals of men in land of free and brave women.
 It may accelerate the blood circula- tion of American men to find that Miss West gives them a smart broadside of praise. American girls, it seems, have a better time than their English sisters. because "the American man has much better manners toward women than the Englishman.'
 The essence of the English attitude is demand that woman shall be at tractive and amusing" she says, with an enormous capacity for despising her if she is not, but for taking it stolidly for granted if she is, coupled with a complete lack of any sense of obligation to be reciprocally attractive and anus ing on his part. The American man is much more modest and much more alive to the fact that males as we'll as females are under a necessity of justify ing their existence
 Miss West then admits the American man gives the woman a better chance in the economic world than does the Englishman. But as for American wO- men being, as Miss Kraft had said, .'partners in every sense, with an open field and no favorites," Miss West points out that no woman has ever been President of the United States, or sists on the directorate of the Standard Oi lcompany, of J. P. Morgan & Co.,, or has been editor of a metropolitan daily newspaper ,or president of Harvard, Yale or Princeton. As for politi al in- fluence, she gives the Englishwoman ope-sided victory.
 "I was speaking in San Francisco" she continues, ''and touched on the need for women to express their ideals in pol itics. The next day one of the leading newspapers came out with a Header" requesting me to keep my unpleasant English ideas to myself and telling me that American women were far too pure and womanly to be interested in poli- tics.
 And the fate of the right of women to sit in congress is interesting" she continues. Tt has practically fallen into desuetude. They had a first-rate congresswoman in the person of Jean- cite Rankin, a delightful personality, who would certainly rank level with our Margaret Bonfield first British woman to become a member of the ministry; she is parliamentary secretary of the ministry of labor). The papers lied about her very tediously. When she voted against the intervention of the United States in the war, she was false ly represented as going into mysteries on the floor of congress. Finally she was railroaded out of her seat by the intrigues of politicians.
 "Our sex is now represented in con- gress by an elderly lady who relies chiefly on the guidance of prayer to determine her voting. I say this in no spirit of cynicism concerning prayer, but it is incontestible the Lord gives us the power to think as we'll as to pray, and there are evidences that this lady trusts too much to the latter.
 "In England we have our network of women's political associations all over the country. We have every party anx- ious to conciliate the wOmen's vote, partly because of their power at the ballot and partly because, of their ef- forts at election time. Women have not yet the political power theJ ought to have, but they have eight women sit ting in the house of commons.
 ''The League of Women Voters all over America are admirable, but they have not yet any influence on the politi- cal parties worth speaking of"
 THE NEW TUNIC BLOUSE
 The tunic blouse has reached a point where it is seriously considered in the l. ee