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Show 1 0)(D Years Ags HVodlay mmm mmm mmm m mm a-- mmmmmuamua Women's lib in the 19th century All men (and women) are created equal. A woman is not merely her father's little girl, her husband's ward, her own children's nanny. Women, like men, are capable cap-able of great thoughts, great deeds, great contributions to mankind. Representing more than half of the human race, women should be recognized for the great natural resource they are. Gloria Steinem speaking from a podium today? No, Susan B. Anthony working for women's rights more than 100 years ago. In 1883, Ms. Anthony (she surely would have approved of the modern title), proclaimed that America was on the eve of a new era the age of the happily-unmarried woman. Women today are more self-determined and independent, inde-pendent, said Anthony. They do not need to marry to exist. Women may be more, self-supporting, but there is no evidence to prove that they are less apt to marry, sniffed the Park Mining Record in a front-page story on Sept. 23, 1883. Anthony's conclusion "ignores the influence in-fluence of affinity and affection affec-tion which have generally dictated matrimonial alliances," alli-ances," said the Record. But it agreed that self-help in young women "makes ill-fated ill-fated unions less probable," and in social relations puts young women on a par with young men. If, in fact, marriage is on the decline, said the Record, it will be found among the wealthy, who are bound by social decorum, and can afford to wait for the "brilliant match." "That intelligent, self-supporting self-supporting young women show, as a rule, any such disinclination (to marry) is! nowhere manifest," concluded con-cluded the Record. Sharing front page space with the women's movement was a story about the monetary state of the Union. For months, mining camps like Park City had worried over the declining value of silver and the very real possibility that the metal would be eliminated as a monetary standard in the country. Ironically, Susan B. Anthony's image would, decades de-cades later, be pressed into a silver dollar. The silver . question had polarized the country and sent it into panic. The Record ran a story that accused the banks of being alarmist and creating the hysteria that resulted in reputable and sound businesses busi-nesses going bankrupt. Because Be-cause of the uncertain financial finan-cial outlook of the country, the banks suddenly stopped extending credit, even to its most valued customers. As a result, depositors believed the banks were running low ' on cash, , and in great swarms withdrew their money mo-ney before the supply was gone. : . The panic could have been eliminated, the Record story claimed, if the banks had been equal to the emergency. emergen-cy. The banks should have loaned money on good security, secu-rity, despite the uncertainty of silver. If necessary, they should have paid a high premium for European gold and deposited more bonds and issued more currency under the national banking laws. With the country in full stampede, the banks now promised to cease being scared and to resume their function, said the story. "If the hoarded money should come out of hiding while Congress is still talking talk-ing (about the use of silver) and go into the business channels again, we will have outlived the treatment for the immediate convulsion, and the important question will be that of a deliberate monetary policy," the article arti-cle concluded. For Parkites, the silver question hung as a black cloud over the camp, and the money hoarded under mattresses matt-resses instead of sealed away in banks created problems not only for businesses, busi-nesses, but for individual citizens as well, as evidenced evi-denced by a Record item : "The numerous hold-ups and burglaries reported throughout the Territory indicate that the times are getting very hard." |