The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-18
Older w oman
 Has Business ] Advantage


 Miss Helen Varick Boswell, bulwark of the republican party's fminine wing, lawyer civic worker ad- ministrator of social and industrial pro blems, liaison officer between capital and labor and vice president of the new bank of the Brotherhood of Loco motive Engineers Trust cpmoany.
 Do I? Of course, l do! Every body who knows me knows my age and that I have been in political life ever since I was 9 and I'm still going strong! @
 "One of the foresmost reasons be- lieve in the woman over 3O,' as you tactfully put it, is because the older woman has had contacts in life and with people. Contact in the business world, at home or in any walk of life means experience, and a clever woman can commercialize these contacts. She has a, postgraduate course in life."
 Miss Boswell herself has had plenty of contacts" In fact, it is those very contacts which have given her the hon. or of being the first woman in the ast to be appointed as an officer in a bank. She is president of the Women's Forum, 500 strong, and chairman of the industrial committed of the National Federation of Women's s clubs At one time she was a member of 20 clubs, but now belongs to "only 16." She is vice president of the Women's Nation al Republican club and chairman of the New York County chapter, also very active in the Dixie club and the Manhattan chapter, D. A. R.
 At the beginning of the year when Miss Boswell entered npon her bank duties she told me, remember: II have had all sorts of business experi- ence. have been appointed receiver for all kinds of bankrupt businesses by. supreme court and federal judges and only last summer, for example, I ran gown shop and an ice cream cone factory. In this capacity hvae handled large accounts for creditors, and so I can find my way around banks without being led by the hand. :"
 And so it is these contacts" in life which Miss Boswell thinks make the older woman valuable in life.
 '"The business girl of 30 may be very clever and exceedingly successful" pointed out Miss Boswell, but add 10 or 15 years of more business or social contacts and she will find she is just that more valuable to her firm.
 And that is why I believe the wOm an who has never been in business until widowhood or her own desire to enter the business world forced her out into life is so often successful. The housewife has had her own budget sys- tenn long before banks and experts worked it out for her. Internationally each week or month she has laid aside so much money for food, for shoes, for clothes and for rent. She is the orig inal little budget maker, and. when she gets out into the business world she finds the same principles which applied in the home apply in the busi ness world"
 Self-consciousness is the one quail ity Miss Boswell warns the older woman to avoid.
 If an older woman who has not been long in the business world can forget herself and think of the thing she represents she will certainly get along much faster" declared Miss Boswell. q remember that when I first entered political life I had message to deliver to a very cele- brated politician. In those days a wom- gan was not supposed to enter too much in the political field, and I felt more or less self-conscious and timid
 "When arrived at the political headquarters and saw number of men waiting outside, I couldn't get up enough courage to enter the building There was a little millinery store on the oposite side of the street and I walked past that three times. At last colored boy came over to page me, and when I finally faced the politician he gave me some advice which shall never forget. It was simply this:
 "'YOung woman, you want to forget yourself and think of the message. If you do this you can succeed 7 1 never forgot that advice, and I be- lieve that if the older woman who is timid about entering the business world, even though she knows she has had lots of experience and contacts in life, can just forget herself and get after the thing she wants she yill get it."