Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1941-08-28
OUR WOMEN
THE PART
THEY PLAY
(By Susan White)

Any housewife knows what
"neighborly" living means. 1t
means being at times charitable,
at times not, knowing if your
neighbors can afford new fur
coat, when Mr.. Higgins bought
his new car-and just how much
he paid for it (as well as just
how much he still owes), gossip
ing over the back fence, passing
the time of day with kindly and
sometimes barbed comments
about everybody and everything
in the district.
But, much as the men may
jeer about our gossiping and
prattlings we get information
out of it that points the way to
the remedying of many evils,
long before our doctors and
scientists stumble on the same
truth.
For example, there is lady
sharp tongued and sharp featur-
ed-who lives not far from our
humble home. She has been the
subject of much scoffing and in
deed of much anger. She shouts
at her children, slaps them at
the slightest provocation, holds
herself aloof from the rest of
the women, and generally walks
about the world and neighbor-
hood with an diversified chin on
her shoulder.
Our general comment about
her has been that she never
ought to have had children; that
possibly she should never have
married.
Imagine our surprise, then,
when, a few days ago, she came
on the street smiling and beam
ing, talking volubly to all and
sundry. What had happened, we
wondered. She told US that her
husband had got a new job, at
twice the wage he used to get.
She proceeded to tell US of all
that it meant to her; Of how
now she could buy cod liver oil
for her youngest boy who, as she
told, had been diagnosed as suf-
fering from a definite vitamin
deficiency" (She quoted the
diagnosis as though it were some
classical disease.) We women,
being neighborly and gossips, did
not hesitate to ask her how much
her husband had earned prev
iously. Twelve dollars a week
we were told, and, to make us
see what the increased wage
meant to her, our neighbor told
us-without apology-of how
both she and her husband had
always been tired and irritable.
Everybody in the house had to
go short of everything with an
income so low. The parents went
short of food, and the children
short of necessary vitamins.
81 couldn't stand the noise"
she told US, "of the children
playing in the house. | never
Slept properly, and | hit the boys
when / shouldn't have. Then I'd
be sorry afterwards, but just
couldn't stand it. | was always
hungry and my nerves were on
edge"
There is no way of telling how
many mothers are in exactly the
same position; how many are
irritable and easily aroused to
anger, just because they couldn't
afford-or are not sufficiently
wise-to buy the proper types of
food. The number is bound to
be vast-sufficiently vast to
make it urgent that something
be done about it.
We have spoken often of the
need to eliminate poverty. The
whole world harps on that same
theme, but we have conceived of
poverty as something lurking in
the darkest of our slums, and not
in our decent appearing neigh
borhoods. We have conjured up
pictures of the poor as man and
women forced to beg their bread
from relief authorities, and not
as those whose husbands are
working but whose wages are too
low to buy enough for everyone
in the household to eat properly.
Yet this sort of poverty, this
absolute lack of sufficiency of
nourishment, is easily spotted.
Schools examine children. They
ought to do it far more thor
oughly and more frequently.
When they find as in this case,
that the children are under
nourished, it ought to be the
work of the authorities to find
out why-and to do something
about it, whether the head of
the household is employed or
not.
It is impossible for mother
and father to be as chronically
undernourished as these parents
were without evident symptoms
appearing in the children. Those
signs should impel us to extend
relief, to see that everyone in
that house has enough of the
right things to eat.
At the same time, it ought to
be reported to the proper peo-
pie that the fathers employer
in this case a world-famous New
York hote1-iS having wages SO