| Show DOROTHY DIX TALKS By T DOROTHY DIX th the World s 9 highest r M Woman writer Write WOMEN WHO SCORN HOUSEWORK AND PITY THE GIRLS WH WHO WORK IN OFFICES FAIL TO SEE THAT THE HAPPIEST WOMEN ON EARTH ARE THOSE WHO ARE BUSY IDLENESS BRINGS DISCONTENT WHY HY do we wo 9 hold the theory that work Is a a. blessing to men but a a. curse to TV women omen We Wo know beyond all questioning that the tho necessity of or earning hi his bread by the tho sweat of his brow was the consolation prize that Adam Adar Ad m was handed h along with his eviction papers when h he was turned out of or Eden We know that the only happy man Is the busy man We Wa know that only In construe construe- constructive tive labor does doel a man find an Interest that 4 never palls and a game In which there Is a r i perpetual thrill We know that work Is the greatest anodyne for sorrow and the best r protection against ag temptation IN We know that as al Stevenson says if a aman ft man loves the labor of any trade apart from any question of success suttees or fame the gods iJ have hae h called tailed him and Is he-Is he ls of all II men most If x a r enviable t t F r SO CO 0 MANIFOLD are the benefits that men derive DOROTHY DIX DI O from work so salutary are its effects upon them that thal we have ha a contempt for tor the Idle purposeless man and feel teel that no DO matter how much money he has he has no right to spend his life In loafing We Ve are eager to get our boys to work s so that their restless young youns energy may find a legitimate outlet Instead of being employed In devising new Dew forms of or dissipation for the young yount man must have havo something to do and if H ho he Isn't bending his back it In honest bonest farming he be will be breaking his neck In sowing a wild oats crop Our attitude however toward women and work Is diametrically diametrically diametrically opposite We do not regard work as a good thing for women On the contrary we consider It a misfortune for a wo- wo woman woman woman man to have to work We Gave jave ave even coined a phrase for It and speak of the woman wom ln who must earn her er own living as a poor working woman woman Worse still the Woman who works pities herself The mother whose daughters go down to business every morning bewails their fate and feels that destiny has dealt most un- un Unkindly un unkindly unkindly kindly to them The woman who must do her own housework and look after her own babies and make her own clothes cloth s sheds barrels of tears tear over her lot lotEN EN also accept this view of or the situation that labor Is a curse to tc MEN Ell women omen and work themselves to death In order that their wives anc and laughters may ma live li In parasitic ease with servants to wait walt upon them and ind nothing to do but kill time In fact the consensus seems to b be that hat the Ideal state for a woman is that in which she never performs any useful labor but merely sits on a silk cushion and feeds upon strawberries sugar ugar and cream All of this Is a wrong and distorted view of the situation Women need to work just as much as men do Idleness has just as disastrous an effect upon the feminine character as It has upon the male and among women as among men the only on I happy contented ones are those who are so much engrossed In some useful labor that they the haven't leisure In which to con con- consider consider sider alder whether they are satisfied or not her daughters who have to OTHER poor Marys and poor Sallys MOTHER JV M earn carp their tl living but nowhere else will you jou ou see healthier happier Earls than you find holding down good jobs in stores and offices Nine Mmes Limes out of ten the girl behind the counter Is brighter more alert and finds linds life lIfo a far more entertaining proposition than does docs her purposeless Idle sister before the counter Nor Is the domestic dome tlc woman who has to do her own housework en en- entitled entitled titled to shed any an tears of or self pity on our necks There is no more reason eason why a husky young woman shouldn't do her share of or the work or of the domestic partnership than there Is why her husband should not do Jo his It is no more of a hardship for her to have ime to work than it is Isor isor tor or him and many man a rich old woman who sits now with empty hands that ache for tor occupation will tell you that her happiest days das were the thebus busy bus crowded ones when she got gal up at 5 o'clock to cook her hus hus- husbands husband's husbands husband's husbands husband's bands band's breakfast before beCore he went to the factory and sat up until 11 o'clock washing and patching his clothes so that he could make a decent ap ap- appearance appearance appearance the next day It Is a significant fact that the women who fill sanitariums and enrich nerve specialists are not the overworked hard hard- driven wives and mothers They are the middle-aged middle and el elderly el- el elderly elderly derly women who have have nothing to do but to canvass their ss s's systems systems for symptoms of every disease they read about In the magazines It takes leisure In which to develop Invalidism Busy people keep well because bec use they haven't time to be sick Cit EARLY every mans man's ambition is to keep his wife in Idleness and he NEARLY thinks that he is being a good husband when he can boast that she hasn't a thing on earth to do but to amuse herself It Is pathetic that tho the thing that so many good husbands strive for is their undoing For It is the idle women who are the peevish fretful dis die discontented discontented contented wives It is the idle women who run off with all sort of fool fads and fancies It Is the Idle women who decide that their good honest working hard-working husbands husband are not their real soul mates mites and who get Into scandals with Jazz hounds and elope with romantic-looking romantic sheiks that they have picked up In hotel lobbies The idle woman is never a happy woman Having nothing to do but to think about herself the she Is sure lure to prod around In her mind until she finds grievance Having nothing to do she Is sure to get Into mischief Having no Interesting occupation occupation pation she ahe begins to hunt for thrills And the net result Is II that she works harder trying to amuse herself than she would at scrubbing floors and the only re reward re- re reward reward ward Is that life Is flat fl and stale and unpalatable In her mouth ET us hope that the time will soon come when we will have enough L LET intelligence f fit to perceive that work is a womans woman's salvation even as asIt asIt It Is a mans man's and when we will congratulate the woman with a Job instead of or pitying her DOROTHY DIX Cj cp 1 Copyright by Public Ledger Compan Company |
