The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-02
Job Holding
WifeReduCeS
Relief Rolls
Family Kept From Char
ity and Maintains
Self Respect.
BY DOROTHY d. BROMLEY
Times Special Writer.

THE masculinists who would shoe
i all women back to the kitchen
forget, among other things, that
more than a few working wives are
keeping their families off the re-
lief rolls.
One such woman writes:
Il am sure many married women
who are working because they have
to support their families would be
only too happy to remain at home
and care for their children if their
husbands could be assured of work
She adds, a little bitterly, that she
has to pose as a single woman for
fear of losing the job that means
so much to her family.
This woman's case is not untypical
of a good many. Her husband
formerly "a high executive" has
been out of work for many months
While she has a job, The suffers the
humiliation of having to be sup
ported by his wife" He can't even
busy himself at a work relief job
since he is not without some means
of support.
Certainly it would be risky for the
wife to give up her job and take the
chance of her husband getting a re-
lief job. In any event this wife. like
so many others, has too much
pride to do that"
She might have said "too much
self-respect." She is only doing fol-
her husband what she would expect
him to do for her-"in sickness OF
in death"
But no matter how great a wife's
fortitude or how deep her under
standing, a stay-at-home husband
finds it difficult to look the world in
the eye.
Such a mans psychological di-
lemma was pe~netratingly described
in an anonymous article published
in Harper's Magazine about a year
and a half ago. 1t is the best dis
cusSion I have seen of a depression
tragedy that is as acute as it il
frequent.
Mechanism Thrown Into Reverse
The writer, as I recall, told of sew
eral marriages that had broken VI
when the wife became the only
breadwinner. In each instance thu
two loved each other-or though
they did-but for this very reason
perhaps, the husband could not le
his wife support him, and so he
cleared out.
It's easy enough to say that
profound love should withstand any
and all vicissitudes. But we mus
recognize that a mans whole nerv'
Gus mechanism is thrown into re-
verse when he is not playing the
role that has been expected OF me-
for centuries. So any work a MAJ
can do that is something more thar
pinch-hitting with the mop and thu
egg-beater for his business wife may
save him from a descending de-
spondency curve.
If the family a move to a small
farm within committing distance o.
the wife's job, that may be n solu'
ton. Another woman, writing
anonymously in the September Cos
mopolitan. tells of such a venture.
Her husband had been an archi'
tectural craftsman, Boosting sever
years of expensive technical educa'
ton. With the caving-in of thu
building industry his talents wer'
about as much in demand as the.
would have been in the South Sci
Islands. But he wasn't willing tina
his wife, who had a modest secre'
tary's job, should give him his breat
with or without butter on it. A
that moment, by a stroke of lucl
that sounds almost fictional, the.
had the offer of a down-at-the
heels farm ar hour and a half from
New York.
Work His Salvation
SO the architectural craftsman
turned himself into a dirt farmer
and the pair have eked out a poo
but proud existence for themselve
and their children. The craftsman
hands now look like farmers hands
But the hard work, his wife writes
has been his salvation. He is max
ing mans elemental fight agains
cold and hunger, taking care of hi
family, teaching his hands and brain
new tricks"
If a man can keep his ~self-respec
and turn his hand to a new venture
these days, perhaps he is lucky
These few pictures from behind thu
scenes in the lives of unfortunate
couples will mean nothing to tht
theorists who talk fables abou
women being the first and last cause
of the depression. But to many O.
us they are significant human docu.