Evening star., 1937-04-24
By NC. r.
~ HE reviewer has had occasion,
several times in recent months,
to comment on articles given
L over to lamenting the passing


L over to lamenting the passing
OF privilege and authority from the
possession of American men to that
OF American women. Scribner's Mag
azine has had one such article, and
later published a reply to it. The
American Mercury has also fnourned
in its pages for mans vanishing glory.
And there have been other stories on
the same theme The reviewer, on
reading most of them, has put them
down as appeals for popular reading,
since, as every one knows, there is no
argument so intriguing to most people
as one which raises, in light and in
offensive form, the question Of rela-
tive sex merits.
Now, in the May Forum, Struthers
Burt takes up the subject once again,
and 1t may be that the Forums edi-
tors are being no less canny than
those of the Mercury and Scribners.
But 1t seems to the reviewer than Mr..
Burt is a great deal nearer to talking
sense.
4AC lIldU VIC VI SStlkC vi LIlC
American male is in no way endan-
gered by The bestowal upon woman
of certain elementary human rights,
and admits frankly that the COM
placence which derives from this
prestige Is even thicker In America
than in countries where women do
not have these rights. This opin-
ion, he admits, is not generally held,
but in its support he says he will
have "one multiple element, the in
telligent women of the United States. 4"
And he continues: Take them
aside sometime and get them to tell
the truth Cthey won't do it, Mr..
Burt)-those, that is, who are not so
completely enslaved that they are to-
tally unable TO separate the letter OF
the law from its reality. Ask them
what is the response Of the average
American man, intelligent or other
wise. to their opinions, unless these
happen to coincide with his. Ask
them what is his attitude and tone of
voice if they happen to contradict
him. Ask why it is that all
business and professional women, ex-
cept those who have definitely arrived,
and wives and mothers and fiancees
as we'll, have to bear in mind a tech
nioue utterly unknown to the male
consciousness. Ask any woman in
business what, at all events, her earlier
experiences were. Ask any of these,
ho OF oil l,F,
they will tell you that every apparent
proof Of feminizat ton in the United
States is, in reality, a proof of un-
conscious male domination"
And Mr.. Burt has said a great deal
with that little three-syllable word,
unconscious" For it is quite true
that men do not deliberately "domi-
nate" That takes a kind of force
which few people want in their per-
sonal and domestic affairs. 1t is too
firing The truth is, and Mr.. Burt
tells it, that women, from the cradle
up, so encourage men to this "domi-
nation" that they are in it without
knowing it. 1t is the old domestic
technique that dates from the first
cave household. The modern compli-
cation is that men have gotten so &C
customed to it in home relations that
they expect 1t in the new relations
of business and the professions A
woman who, coming into profession
as an equal with its men, speaks her
mind impartially and without false
reverence becomes an object Of down.
right improperly; she is "unwomanly." d"
But why should she be "womanly"
in business or professional conduct?
Why introduce sex there? Is that
proper-really? The reason is not
that very many professional or busi-
ness women want to. but that they
cannot get on with their man asso-
ciates unless they do.
Mr.. Burt is lucid on these points
and still others and is throughout
amlabIy amusing And while he is
much more encouraging as to the fu-
ture of men than other writers on this
that fewer men will agree with him
than with those others. But, as he says
himself, intelligent women will.
THERE is an interesting article on
the late Rudyard Kipling in the
May Harper's Magazine. 1t deals with
the famous feud which the writer had
with his American brother-in-law,
Beatty Balestier, the feud, which,
the article says, was the reason why
incidents Of his youth and his own