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SHOULD IVES BE PAID WAGERS?
BY WINONA WILCOX
"Think of the industries included
in keeping house!" admonished Mrs.
Francis Neilson of England, in a re
cent lecture in Boston. "Child rear
ing, cooking, baking and preserving,
cleaning, laundering, mending and
pressing, sewing and first aid.
"Marriage is the hardest way theB"i
is of earning one s living.. Marriage
is an occupation, Mrs. Neilson there
fore argues, and wives ought to be
paid wages.
The above list, however, suggests
that marriage is ten occupations and
the question flashes, "Ought a wife
to draw a salary for each?"
If not, which employments should
be eliminated altogether?
Of would it be wise to throw a
few extras in for good measure?
Or should they be paid for by the
piece, so rrhjch for a new baby, so
much for nursing Johnny through
the measles, so much for canning
the. tomatoes, and so much for the
Christmas bother?
Or should employment be grouped,
as any two for $5 a week, or 50 a
month for half a dozen assorted?
This, subject never gets tiresome,
because discussions about money
cause a large per cent of divorces
and most of those marital troubles
which make pay day look like a na
tional calamity in many a home.
But no matter how much it is dis
cussed, it never gets settled because
nobody has been able to answer
questions like the above, while any
body can add a dozen "occupations"
to the list In fact, that is just the
trouble. When a wife starts out to
compute the worth ofher services
she treats each household art, as if
it were quite unrelated to any other,
and as if she were compelled to carry
all of them on every day of her life.
But no woman in her senses bakes
the-day she washes, nor does she can
fruit in the Christmas season.
Child bearing is, of course, a spe
cialty, but who is brave enough to
set a price on it? The mother who '
can do so certainly ought to have her
money, for she is not qualified to ap
preciate the finqr rewards of mater
nity. Wages for wives? Wages for hus
bands are not enough to include a
fair salary for a devoted wife and
mother. The best men know this,
the best wives never think about
wages at all.
But all men are not good to some
a wife is a slave. And some excel
lent women wh,o wouldn't think of
questioning a husband's honesty,
never let their husband open their
own pay nevetepes which Is slavery
foFhim.
Wages will never reconcile a wife
to scrubbing floors. -Taking the
cooking out of the kitchen will not
satisfy any women who believes'
marriage is the hardest way of earn
ing a living. Living in a family ho
tel never .yet stopped domestic dissensions.
Y ' Finances never yet made trouble
between a man and a woman-who
l6ye .each other. What the sad mar
riage world needs is not wages for
wives, but more ideal love.
o o
BOYS' BROTHERHOOD PLANS TO
PUT CHICAGO ON TRIAL
The Boys' Brotherhood Republic
elected the following officers for the
coming year: Mayor, Ralph Good
man; city clerk, Saul Bragen; city
treasurer, Joseph Willens; city judge,
Oscar'Nudelman; chief of police, , Hy
man Rosenberg.
It has been the belief with agreat
many pf the brotherhood boys .that
"if tried before a iudge and." jury of
boys the city of Chicago would be
found guilty of a crime against boy
hood." The newly-elected city judge
plans to carry out this idea through
a trial, by boys, of Chicago, in th
near future. ,
