Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-15
Woman Succeeds i'm Industry
d.. C. VISITOR STARTED WITH
BY GRETCHEN SMITH.

- TARTING In business with q cap
ital Of SOS, accommodating more
than 10000 times that amount
~ In six years, and yet a few years
later becoming president Of the
company, employing from $50 to 500
persons and doing an annual business
Of approximately $750,000, has been
the remarkable achievement in the self
made career of Mrs. Sophia Delavan
Cowles. president of the Woman's As
ISOLATION Of Commerce and the Illinois
Women Manufacturers Association,
who has retired from her business in
Chicago. and has come to Washington
for a visit of several weeks.
In 1905, Mrs. Cowles began her career
as a manufacturer of notion novelties,
building up an extensive wholesale bus
mess with q line of chain stores
throughout the country. Born in Al
sace-Lorraine Of French German par
entage, Mrs. Cowles brought to her bus
mess a thoroughneSs, a perseverance
and a charm of personality, which car
ried her to heights of success in her
career. In addition to her ability as
business manager she possessed a de-
gree of ingenuity which enabled her to
place upon the market several articles
of her own design, sold under her own
patent rights.
In 1922, Mrs. Cowles retired from the
novelty business to succeed her husband
as president of the Cowles Fire Escape
Works. with factories in Chicago. Last
Fall, Mrs Cowles decided to retire from
business to take her first vacation In
% years. Her last contract was for ell
the iron work and fire escapes used in
the construction of the new Chicago
Board of Trade Building, completed a
few months ago.
has come to Washington to rest, her
keen and alert mind will not permit
her to remain idle, and while in the
Capital. she will occupy much of her
time In conducting research work to
assist in the preparation of lectures on
the subject of women in business, which
she will deliver before women groups
throughout the country.
II hope to devote my time in the next
ave years." she said. Ito advising women
In business. I will place at their dis
posal my experience of past years. adj
vising particularly at this time, when
hundreds of women have been thrown
out Of business by the depression, how
they can best recover themselves and
succeed in the future"
Mrs. Cowles takes an optimistic view
of the depression.
II think we passed the crisis q year
ago." she remarked. THE trouble is
that people refuse to accept a new order
of things. They refuse to take any
work they can get, thinking that by
waiting, they will get something better,
or that the old times will come back.
They will never come back We have
been living above our means in every
way. Now, we are arriving at saner
mode Of living. Wages have been re-
duced everywhere, and prices will have
to be lowered In keeping with the future
earnings of the people"
Mrs. Cowles is an accomplished
speaker and during the war, through
her addresses before union labor meet
ings, she obtained more than 10000
members for the Red Cross. She was
the only woman to make an address
before the United States Chamber of
Commerce in Washington, on produc-
ton.
Petite and feminine, always smartly
attired, Mrs. CowleS, despite the years
which she has brushed up against q
hard business world, has retained her
love of domesticity. Interested in
beauty Of all kinds, as vice president
of the All-nlinois Society of Fine Arts,
she has done much to encourage the
works of artists In her city and State.
Mrs. Cowles was accompanied to
Washington by her only daughter, Miss
Victoria Raphael Delavan, and will
make her home while in the city at
1901 Columbia road.