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Show WOMAN'S DEMAND IS RIGHT TO WORK The Pa. Rev. T.ouis Childs San ford. P. P.. bishop of the missionary district of San Joaquin. Cal., in his sermon to the Rowland Hall graduates at St. Mark's cathedral, laid special stress upon the economic conditions which confront women wom-en i':'ay. He t-aid in part: There arc three events of paramount para-mount impnrfince in the lift- of in-dividuais. in-dividuais. bi;-th, marriage and dear':. About the?-:' all the poetrv of the rac I'.is centwed. The foriy-fifth latm celebrates a rowii marriage, but t nave not selected it because it refers to the piMt:;l event of a. ynupg woman's wom-an's life, but bccau.se it t!;ros into relief by contrast the cha nc d a nd cl'anciu" relation of woman to society. so-ciety. The revised vers inn ad"N i wo words w hi'-li makes t i;-- rel4sp clearer: "T'ic kind's d.Tijhter :s hH ciori-Mis wit'un ti.e p.i'ace." T:i t''le til-' P"ei sires of v.'s e-Jdhi', tn t'i w -id for a "'"!!,,!;. aed Cu she -as immured former as a mem ber uf the prirve's. harem. Tier clothing cloth-ing of v. rouglit sold Klittered behind inipcneti-ii,!.- walls. She was to fur-get fur-get per fa 1 i '' s people. As long as bfr beauty lasted -she would be the favorite of the royal bridegroom. When it faded she would sink into tii'- drudgery of the woman's court uf the palace with no Interests save the petty events of that sequestered life. Change Is Evident. Christian civilization has changed ah this. The harem is a relic of barbarism, bar-barism, woman has been accorded, theoretically, a place of equal dignity with man. But it remained for Ihe initiative of woman herself, within the last fifty years, to derna nd that this theoretical equality be made actual. 1 am not referring to tlie suffrage, because the political cmer-cence cmer-cence of woman Is only symptomatic of a much larger movement. The whole attitude of woman to society has changed. Our grandmothers, while not cloistered, still were hedged in by conventions which have been discarded, a woman then, a hundred years ago, might work, but It must be in the home. She might study, but it must be something ornamental. A learned woman was abhorred. The first women physicians were hardly respected. Women were permitted to teach only because teaching was carried on in the home or in more or less homelike Institutions. Beyond the bearing and rearing of children women had no social significance. Now a woman is free to follow any occupation she likes. She can study what she pleases. She has become ,an active social factor. Cause of Unrest. The cause of this radical change in the status of woman is economic. What women once made in the home is now made In the factory. Probably not a person in this church is wearing a single hand-made .article of clothing. cloth-ing. Rven the sewing machine, which was at first considered as a relief to the home worker. Is now crowded out by the phonograph. Since space for industry is no longer needed, the homo is a flat or a few rooms in an apartment apart-ment house, and women who were once domestic servants are now factory fac-tory pirls. A few working girls are employed In offices and some are teachers, but today the real division is into two classes, the underpaid wage workers and the idle rich, who do no real work, but are supported by the profits of their rich relatives or out of their high salaries. The real problem of unemployment is not concerned con-cerned with the numbers of idle laborers la-borers who would work if they could, but with the hosts of idle women who tlo not know how to work and who wouldn't work if they could. These Idle women are as useless and as helpless help-less as was the king's daughter of old shut up in the women's quarters of the palace of her royal master. Women Want to Work. The protest against this condition ts coming from women. The real significance of the feminist movement Is primarily a demand to w-ork. To meet tills changed condition there must be a corresponding change in education, and in this new education religion must have its place, because religion is the one thing which is fundamental fun-damental to all relations Honesty, sympathy, love and a sense of duty and justice are necessary to the success suc-cess of any calling, and all these virtues vir-tues are' religious. Back of all our thoughts and acts determining their character, there must be a sense of our dependence on a loving, holy God, and that consciousness is religion relig-ion and to strengthen It is the function func-tion of religious education. These ideals of education practicality, practi-cality, mental stimulation, religious training are characteristics of Rowland Row-land Hall, and we trust that these young ladies will retain the impress of these influences until the final reward re-ward of life's diploma is given. |