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Show j Dorothy Dix Talks j THE WAGE EARNING WIFE A fine young man and woman of my. 'acquaintance are ory much in lovo j wlm each other. The young man is a 'clever, intelligent, energo'.c teil'jw who earns a senary that jn uur father's lime wojld have been considoicd am-1 pie lo Justify matrimony, and in ourj grandparents' time would have marie, nun a catch in the eyes of managing; ; moth'ers, "but that in our days, witlij the high cust of living, Is too slender ju shoestring upon which lo risk the great adentui-Q. ! This ,young' man will undoubtedly j eventually te p'ispcrous and about; 'the time he is ion.-tiyo or fifty years I old. and has gotten sot in his bachelor i ways, and his heart has dried into du.st :lic will be making enough money upon which to support a wile. Hut twenty-, The is a lung ways from fifty, and you can't dehydrato love's young I dream and have n come out of the can 1 1 rush alter a quarter of a century, and ihe young couple want to marry now while tne bloom is on their romance 'and their hearts throb and quiver, and Info is still a banquet on their lips I instead of being dead sea truit. Couple Asks Advjce, 1 Dut they can't marry unless the girl, who Is also earning u good salary, keeps on with her work, and they have asked niv advice about what they shall do. I say lo them to get married, while they are still young and still can love, mot to wait until life has pressed all of the sentiment and romance out of them. Let the girl go on with her work. She will only be doing what every true wife wants to do. helping her husband, and it matters not how, or where, that is done, whether in an office, or a store, or a kitchen. Traditions Being Scrapped. Of course for a woman to work out of her homo after she is marriod is in defiauco of ancient tradition, but these are the times when all hoary .traditions are being scrapped. Other I times, other mannors. As Mr. Cleveland Cleve-land would say, it is a condition and 'not a theory that confronts us. I Therefore, we had as well face the i fact that the average young man nowadays now-adays does not make enough money to j enable him to support a lamily alone and unaided, and unless the wife also I becomes a money maker, who adds to j the family Income, there will soon be no more marriages, and no more ba-jbios ba-jbios except among tho rich and ihe i elderly. And that will be a bad thing for the jrnce, and for the country. I Only One Alternative. ; The alternative is tor the young lo ' marry, and the girl to add her pay envelope to the man's pa en elope, j since it requires both to support a Jiome. This may not appeal to he girl I since it requires that matrimony is a ; graft, and who looks forward to acquiring ac-quiring a husband as a meal ticket, bu: to tho woman who truly loves j man the prospect of being his business partner is not without its charms. In reality, the objections against a woman continuing ou with her work after marriage are mostly founded on pride and prejudice. A man thinks that It reflects upon him not to be able to support his wife in supposed idleness. idle-ness. The girl fears that people will think that she has not bettered hor-self hor-self by marrying if she holds on to her job, and so for the sake of appearances appear-ances a couple drags out a nerve weiring, weir-ing, and heart breaking Interminable engagement, or else they rashly marry mar-ry and starve when they could be married, mar-ried, and comfortable, and happy if only they had the Independence lo meet the situation Trankly, and for tle wife to continue her gainful occupation. occupa-tion. Women Regret Giving up Business. Most women who have been in business busi-ness regret giving up their work. They are accustomed to tho pleasant routine of store, or office, with its gossip, its comraderle, its excitement of big deals and they are bored and lonesome when they change It for the solitary toil of their own homes. Moreover, they are , trained to sell goods, or do office work i and (hey are bungling and ineomp"-1 teni cooks, and washwomen, and thoy infinitely prefer performing on a tpe- writer to perturming on a gas range. ' For the poor man, when he takes his j wife out of her place of employment does not sil her down on a cushion of j ease. She has lo work about ten times as hard as she over did before, with no pay envelope on Saturday nights as a reward for her labors. In many ways It makes for domestic domes-tic happiness for a wife to bo a money earner. For one thing, it eliminates ;thc financial problem which Is tiie ever present suuree of friction in most households. For another, it gives husband hus-band and wife something ip talk j about. Bolh have had experiences and ! adventures during ihe day that furniih them food for conversation that makes i them perpetually interesting lo each' other. For it cannot be denied that the woman who goes out into the' j world and nibs wits against it cvt-.-y; ; day. keeps mentally more alert and (wide awake than her domestic sister 'whose interest and knowledge is bounded by the four walls of her home. Coming of Children. Of course, the coming of children makes a complication, but even this '.objection to the wife outside of her own home is not insuperable since in practically every family theie is a 'grandmother, or aunt, or cousin whu j knows lar more about raising babies I than any young mother does, and I whose emptv hands ache for just such ja job. I And at its worst, will not tho extra , food, tho superior environment, and the additional advantages of education iJiat the mother's earning will give the child be a far greater advantage , to it than If she had personally cooked jits food, and washed Us little face, land blown its little nose? j Undoubtedly the ideal state Is when a man shall make enough lo support his family in romfort. and when the husband and father shall come home ; to a vine wreathed cottage where his iwlfe and children await his return, j but botweon a no wife cottage, no col- tagc and no kiddies, and a wife who" goes fifty-fifty with the man in earning i the money lo pay the bills I say, let i Mary do it. rr ' |