Evening star., 1932-02-28

<<VT is no mere happenstance," say
- my friend Adela Rogers st
John. who likes to coin wore
4 now and then, that the world
greatest era of unrest, diScon'
tent. crime. religious unbelief. in1mor-
ality. divorce and lawbreaking has
conceded with the era of so-called free
dom for women.
Woman was not born to be free
She was born to great and noble duties
Her first business is to have home,
husband and children. and to take care
of them with her whole soul and
strength.
Anything she can do after that
okeh.'
These platitudes-later on in the
article she characteriZes them herself
as platitudes-about the home, babies
and husband, are reviewed every little
while by some writer or another. and
of course We all agree with them.
But to thousands of women today,
perhaps to a million women in our
country alone, this smooth summary
of everything desirable in life is much
as if one attempted to impress upon
men the other side of the ideal.
"A sweet loving wife, my dear boy,
two dear little sons and two BABY
daughters, a nice 10-room house with
two good servants in it, small motor
car, a steadily increasing income. club
memberships, an occasional trip to New
York; now, isn't that nicer than to live
as a selfish bachelor, waste your money
on gold-diggers. and in the end die with
nobody to lament or succeed you?"
x X x
IF marriage meant to the average
l. young woman what the great and
noble duties mentioned by Miss st.
John seem to indicate, meant protec-
tion, affection, companionShip, leisure
and plenty in which to bear and raise
her children, the world would be differ
ent today. But unfortunately it doesn't.
In our economic scheme it is as nat
ural for young girls to find lucrative
jobs as for young men to do SO, and
once working and independent. girl
Is automatically raised to higher scale
of expectation than her grandmother
ever knew.
A hundred years ago, if she were
one of clergymans seven penniless
daughters, the gentle Lily or Alice
leaped at any sort of suitor. He might
be so, unattractive, or he might be a
curate of 10, on a salary of S700 a
year; it made no difference. Alice's
parents rejoiced with pitiful COM
placency, one of the girls at least was
off their hands, In the old diaries
and letters, in the novels of Miss Carey
and Miss Yonge, Thackeray, Trollope,
the Kingsleys, George Eliot. we f1nd
this shameful situation over and over
again.
The world is different for women
today, but am very far from agreeing
with Miss ST. John that it is less
moral, a less happy world. Many a
seasoned old abuse that has been long
decourously hidden behind closed doors
has been dragged into the open, it is
true; we no longer speak sympathetic
caly of our sons sowing their wild
oats" or of the double moral code. Even
SO years ago good parents turned their
daughter over to men who made no
claim to sobriety or morality. That
isn't done now. 1t is because women
are freer, and wiser, and less flnan-
cially dependent, and they may some
times make their own terms.
EVEN 40 years ago a certain English
- earl, dying, was able by law to will
away his unborn child to a bachelor
brother, should that child be a son.
The baby was a boy, and the brother
and his mistress delightedly took pos
session of him. The defrauded little
widow was completely dependent upon
this brother-in-law, and she had
nothing to say.
Not much justice there.
Then also in England, until a few
years ago, there was primogeniture, the
law that gave the Oldest son everything.
Unouestionably the increasing power of
women put a stop to that. Who but
men could have sponsored a law that
put the preservation of the property be-
fore the rights of sons and daughters?
One California woman I knew years
ago married an earl, before this law
was changed, real live earl, with a
monocle, and walrus mustache. She
bore seven daughters before the son
came, and then the law was changed