Show SUPERfLUOUS m WOMAN PROBLEM MAY AY BE SETTLED BY POLY GAl F MOOERS By MARGUERITE WOOERS MOOERS MARSHALL W What are Europe's superfluous women going to do after alter the war Sir Rider Haggard the distinguished novelist has just declared declared albeit albeit ruef ruefully that ruefully that lly-that that In England the superfluous women are in industry industry to stay They wont won't clear out he laments And the men wilL Before the war there was a million and a half of ot women in England and not a a. man to marry them The men weren't there The women were to be sure surer pretty much in two classes Domestic servants and the daughters of ot upper class families whom nobody cottoned to so they just stopped at home The war has Increased them But now they have found something to do Two million women earning wages They'll stay They have gone into factories and other service for forwar forwar forwar war work and they will remain They un undercut In wages It is the men who will leave England But that's only one mans man's opinion I think women are more likely than men to know what women will wUl do And in the first months of ot the great war several well known feminists more or less frankly prophesied that women will return to a state of polygamy after the conclusion of ot the present struggle One of these women whose derive special authority authority from the I fact tact that she has won distinction as a 3 I sociologist and that she has carefully studied the condition of ot women in half halfa a dozen countries is Mrs Mary Austin author of Love and the Soul Maker and m many ny other books So I took to her Sir Rider Haggard's forebodings and asked her what fate tate she thought awaited the women in England France and Germany The war i is s perhaps the one thing that at a blow could strike off the fetters of traditions which have clung to the European woman she said She has been dropped bodily into the ocean of life and she must strike out and swim for herself She will But Buther Buther Buther her method and her goal will be to me tho the most interesting re results results results re- re of the great struggle Of course the very term superfluous ous woman will have to go It has been bestowed upon the woman who was not something in the life of some someone someone someone one man Such a woman Is not really reany superfluous There Is plenty of at work I in the world for he her r to doIn doIn doIn do In primitive civilization there were no superfluous women Nature restored the balance even after the war More babies were born Or the victors took the widows and daughters of ot the vanquished vanquished van van- and made mothers of them thus giving them a function In life Ufe The Chinese you remember when there were too many women to put death th the girl babies But with the coming of Christianity LY there came the problem of or what to do with the superfluous women after the fighting was was over Convents were built for her All sorts of expedients were tried But nothing really settled her Now she Is about to settle herself herse Do you agree with Sir Rider Haggard's Haggard's Haggard's Hag Hag- gards gard's n notion nation that she will drive men out of the Industrial world In Eng Dug land I asked That is extremely probable said Mrs Irs Austin The war will mean In Great Britain the passing of ot the old I maid And bec because use the feeling against women as Industrial workers Is so BO strong their entrance Into rile the trade and business very likE drive out Quantities of ot men iJ In England too t three there e wD wn wico open and re co zed life fi fr titles of ot women No No- matter he lx Englishmen are Wiled killed there m n be admitted polygamy in the thel The English are too hyp for tor that thaU I couldn't help inter Youve said eald it ft Mrs Austin And then they are handle their Belief beliet that love or some tate tute must preface marriage will be no sane sano and ordered by society to provide provid the TO we England with husbands and c cIn cIn In Germany I feel feet son SW ir some form of polygamy polygamy- y yu sanctioned by oy the state J 1 seen what purported tO to ro official communication each German soldier sent cent ho furlough It reminded hilt one of his duties during his bis a a 81 from the front was to prop prof and that In inthe the circumstance considering the tha empires empire's 3 i need of citizens It would bo o b looked If he failed to the usual conventions Wit WI German passion for fOI orderly I feel sure euro that the tho 1 f the tho superfluous woman will left to chance She will bel berthat bit ber that it is her duty to- to product produce dren f J But how can they t reconcile t their religion I questioned are officially Christian andr Jj J How can they reconcile tai tal polygamous Turk as an allY Mrs Austin T Austria will follow fonow German In this matter as In all an else elset else things will be about the same sam are now for the effects of ot th th s be felt by her far tar less l keenly other European nations I d dr 3 there Is any great change In do th of the Russian women for Ruse Rus serves of men are aro well nigh I It Is In France that I 1 Ice loo the sane and sure solution problem of the superfluous w The French are not so hypo r ras as the English and they ar are are intelligent than the Germans Germa have always taken a most i ble bie view of marriage arrange for the good of the the state If necessary the go ment meat will give girls dowers il der to marry them off It will them to the colonies where are needed or it will bring brin bands to France for them j The French are so much moi mor than the English excer very small smaIl group and girls fr tt class marry readily Into or even Into another another race Th The ThIn Thein In France la femme soule th the tho l lon on her own is already socially t r tre ed There doubtless will be re business positions filled by wrner er the war It Is likely that gratitude Frenchmen may gl women complete political and so open to them a host O of p g ment meat positions 9 But there Is nothing for tor t r worry about concluded Mrs l JAi At AtIn t tIn In our modern world there ai aimen almen ar al- armen men industrially emasculated d there are women Industrially d Men are fitted by nature pioneers to clear roads 9 |