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Show Uncommon Sense ?? 'TT By JOHN BLAKE I . Bell Syndleate-WNU Service I I can remember the time when a woman, who to earn her living did anything but make Another dresses, teach Revolution sl1'o1 or 8 0,lt us a nurse was regarded as a little queer. Men made Jokes about her. Women Wom-en avoided her. Had there been such a thing In our village as a woman lawyer or a woman politician, or a woman doctor doc-tor she would have been looked at much as children look at animals In the circus. 'And had anybody in that town suggested sug-gested that woman ought to have a vote they would have been laughed out of town. Things have changed a great deal since then. I think that IT I went back to that town I should find women taking und holding many places that In those days were believed to be the property of men alone, and doing their work extremely well. I Let it be remembered that this change took place before women had the vote. So It was not their political possibilities pos-sibilities that made for them the place thnt they have long since won. They have fought their way up by sheer courage, combatting prejudice, preju-dice, constantly seeking new fields of action, and filling them extremely extreme-ly well when they got them. Women operate factories, they edit newspapers, they fill almost as many positions as men fill. They no longer have to get husbands hus-bands before they feel secure In their positions In life. And It Is to their great 'credit that they at the start, and for many years, fought their own way. A man who offered to widen their opportunities would . have been .looked upon as a crank. Women in public and professional life are no longer thought "queer." They have proved what they can do. Their fight Is won. And they still keep house, cook, sew and do all the things that were once looked down on as "woman's work" and do it very successfully. I don't know what the moral of all this is. But whatever it is, It shows that there is no superior sex on this planet, and thnt the lordly male has learned a lesson thnt will, I hope, xlo him a great deal of good, i Certainly he doesn't think any more that he is the "master of Cre--ation." . A very wise and alert editor for whom I worked was one day discussing dis-cussing the men Don't Ask, under him. ' Find Out 1 spoke of an especial friend of mine who, I believed, was destined for a very worth while future. When I asked this boss if he did not agree with me, he quietly shook his head. "No," he said, "you're wrong. Unless Un-less that boy bucks up his nerve, he'll never get any farther than he is today. to-day. "He ought to, for he knows his job, does plenty of outside reading, and is not afraid of hard work. "But just one thing holds him tack. He is afraid of responsibility. "When some Important situation comes up in the office, where a decision de-cision has to be made, and made right away, he always asks the man above him what to do. "And in a newspaper shop, where things of great importance can happen hap-pen in a minute, and have to be on their way to the readers in a few more minutes, a man mustn't ask, he must act." Often times I have seen these words verified in my own experience. experi-ence. Some question arises in an office that must be disposed of, and disposed dis-posed of in a few minutes. The man in charge has to know whnt to do, or at least to feel sure that he knows what to do, or the Instant for action Is lost If a newspaper executive goes from one superior to another, and calls them into consultation, the big moment will be gone, and some rival sheet will score a "beat." Ilesitators, falterers, may be very well in the ordinary run of business. But in a crisis they must be ready to act. Now and then hurried action goes sour. But even if it does, better a small mistake than the loss of a great opportunity. Men who are really equipped for their jobs learn how to make judgments judg-ments rapidly and accurately. They do not know this instinctively. instinc-tively. They learn It by alertness of mind and long experience. You would not think much of a fire-foreman who, arriving at the scene of a conflagration, telephoned back to the engine house to ask how much extra apparatus he ought to call. Don't find out. Make your decision de-cision and stand by it. |