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This is How Women Worked in English
THE HOME RARER
If You Were a Woman Working All Day, and if Your Chil
dren Were Left Alone in This Fashion, Would YOU Be
Peaceful and Submissive?
Copyright, 1913.
You feeble-minded men that oppose woman suffrage, and you
' dear clinging vine" women that oppose the suffrage because
you like to play the part of a petted lap dog, look at the two
pictures on this page.
If you do not know WHY it is that women the world over
are demanding the vote AND ARE GOING TO GET IT, look at
these pictures.
The big picture shows you the life of a working woman in
the English coal mines, as it actually was, only a few years ago.
The galleries in the mines are so low that a woman could
not stand up in them.
The habit was to fasten a steel collar around the woman's
neck, fasten a chain to the collar, running under her breast and
between her legs, fasten the chain to the coal car on steel tracks
AND MAKE THE WOMAN DRAG THE COAL CAR ON HER
HANDS AND KNEES to the mouth of the mine.
e
There is no imagination or exaggeration about this. It is
the plainest kind of history.
Thousands upon thousands of English women were chained
like this to coal cars in mine shafts and pulled like mules on
hands and knees year after year, until the palms of their hands
and the knee caps became like leather.
That was done because men wanted to get out the coal as
cheaply as possible and A WOMAN was the cheapest thing that
could be hitched to the little coal car in the mine with low gal
leries.
You hear fools say that women cannot vote, because they
are not able "to go to war." Is not this woman on her knees
"going to war?” Do you want anything more like war, or more
like HELL, which is war, than the life she leads?
And do not say that woman is all right now because she is
no longer hitched up as in this picture.
English laws have prevented this at least. But they have
not freed woman from slavery, either in England or in America.
Woman is still hitched up, in all countries.
She is hitched to machines of all kinds, and she tugs at her
industrial traces all day long.
It is just as bad being hitched to a sewing machine run by
electricity at high speed or hitched to a box-making machine
driven at nerve-destroying speed as to be hitched on hands and
knees to a small coal car in a mine.
The little picture in this column shows you the children of
the working woman of England—the children of the woman
tugging on her hands and knees.
These children spend the day alone, the older caring for the
younger, a few living to maturity and more than half dying in
childhood.
Of such children there are millions in this world—plenty of
them here in “rich America."
Tens of thousands of mothers must leave their children to
earn the inoney that will barely keep the children alive.
And others, more unhappy, must take the young children
to work in the mills with them.
Do you wonder that women rebel and demand a share in
the lawmaking which controls their destiny?
Do you wonder that the women of England, realizing that
women must do what men have done, are driven against their
will and against their nature to violence and hatred?
•Pity the smug, self-satisfied, clinging-vine, well fed woman
in silks and laces who opposes woman suffrage "because it is
not womanly."
She is, compared to the ardent suffragist, what some curly -
haired. sleek, worthless lap dog is compared to a noble hunting
dog.
The salvation of women must come through the ballot, and
they must defend themselves as men have done, by controlling
those that make the laws.
Give women the vot* and men in office will interest them
salve? 1 in the welfare ol womer and children.
Written For The Atlanta Georgian
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Copyright, 1913, by Star Company.
A QUESTION has been pro
pounded to the editor of
The Atlanta Georgian
which he requested me to answer.
The question, or sfries of ques
tions, pertains to the old, old sub
ject which has troubled the mind
of man since the beginning of cre-
tion. with the exception of Adam
and Eve.
«
1. Has a mother-in-law any
rights that a son-in-law in honor
should respect?
2. If a mother-in-law and son-
in-law have had a bitter quarrel
over domestic affairs, has the son-
in-law a moral right to command
his wife to cease all social or lov
ing intercourse with her mother?
3. If the wife decides, through a
mistaken sen^e of duty to her
husband, to forever remain on
terms of sundered companion
ship with her mother, is she de
porting herself In a proper or filial
manner toward her mother?
4. If the wife has a brother
who becomes a chum of her hus
band under the state of affairs
above mentioned, is that son
showing a proper love or pro
tecting spirit toward his mother,
who it* old and alone?
These questions are entirely too
abstract to permit of a definite
answer. It all depends on the na
ture of the quarrel or misunder
standing. If the mother has been
interfering with the domestic af
fairs of the household, and offer
ing unsolicited opinions; if she
has been officiously Intrusive in
matters which pertained solely to
the husband and wife, and which
they could settle between them
selves; If she has been pouring
kerosene upon flames, instead of
oil on troubled waters, then, in
deed. the husband is right in sug
gesting that his wife choose be
tween a home witl\ himself or
with her mother.
A mother-in-law has been
known to incite her daughter to
jealousy of a most faithful and
kind husband. If he remained in
the office a half hour Inter than
usual; if he chanced to walk a
block on the street with an ac
quaintance of the opposite sex,
the mother insinuated infidelity
and neglect, until the comfort of
the household was destroyed by
her presence.
Bewailed Being Forsaken.
When the daughter, who proved
to be a woman of common sense,
and as Just as sensible, informed
her mother that she would sup
port her away from her own
home, but not In it, the mother
lifted her voice in a loud wail
of being ‘‘forsaken" by her own
• offspring, and the majority of the
public sympathized with her.
Yet the daughter is right. So
is the husband right who takes a
similar stand when he finds that
harmony and peace and love ex
ist in his home when his mother
or his wife’s mother is out of it,
and that they are driven from the
windows in affright when she en
ters at the door.
When a woman marries a man,
when a man marries a woman,
their personal, financial, domestic
and sentimental affairs should be
decided between them with no in
tervention of a third party until
they ask assistance.
Many a mother fails to realize
that it is her place to stand sec
ond in authority, as an adviser to
a son, or daughter, after either
has taken the marriage vows.
If the daughter has selected a
husband w ho has ideas* habits or
customs of which the mother does
not approve, it is her place to
keep silent, since the daughter
has made her choice, and not un
dertake the work of reconstruct
ing their lives according to her
ideals. A word of loving counsel
or admonition is all very well,
but a continual interference and
espionage is quite another thing.
When the brother of the wife
takes the part of the son-in-law
against his mother, the evidence
is somewhat strong in favor of
the husband; it suggests the in
terfering and selfish mother-in-
law\ who can not permit her mar
ried children to direct their own
lives.
A mother who is “old and
alone" is not necessarily lovable
or in the right. A son or a daugh
ter should look after the physical
well being of such a mother and
should be respectful in speech and
deportment toward her, but to co
incide with all her whims and to
adopt all her prejudices and to
uphold her in all her ideas is
morally wrong. The duty to HU
MANITY and to one’s sense of
JUSTICE is a greater and higher
duty than that to a parent, a child
or a friend. It is a pathetic po
sition for a son or a daughter to
stand between a parent and a
wife or husband.
All children are reared to think
mother-love the most selfish and
wonderful devotion on earth, even
in the face of facts which so often
prove it otherwise; and when
they see a mother unhappy they
are inclined to make every possi
ble excuse for her, because they
feel that to take issue against her
will put them in a bad light be
fore the whole established order
of society, and that they will beat
their heads against traditions
wherever they turn.
It is a most pathetic situation
for a man—this position between
a wife and a jealous mother. My
heart always aches for the man
in the case even more than for
the woman who is misused.
Sometimes the wife IS in the
wrong. Sometimes a man marries
a woman who is so narrow and
so selfish and so jealous that she
begrudges the husband’s mother
her son’s affection.
Changed by Husband.
Sometimes a loved and cher
ished daughter marries a man
so selfish, so tyrannical that he
wants to utterly obliterate child
hood and girlhood from her mem
ory and leave only HIMSELF
THE TYRANT for "the wife to
think about.
But I must confess that I have
seen but one such wife or hus
band where I have seen ten selfish
and disagreeable mothers-in-law.
And with what pleasure and
admiration I recall the few beau
tiful and noble mothers-in-!a\v I
have known! I can count them
on the fingers of one hand with
out including the thumb,
i There are Just four whom i
can recall. They really loved their
sons, and loved whatever and
whoever gave these sons happi
ness.
There is a dear old iady living
with her son-in-law to-day who
always chides the daughter if
she disagrees with her husband
on any trivial point. "You have
such a good husband," she will
say, "how can you disagree with
him?” Another mother-in-law
said to me one day, "If ever there
was an angel upon earth it is my
son's wife." The wife was, in
truth, a very ordinary, amiable
young woman, but the mother-
in-law had idealized her into
something angelic.
Would that there were more
like her in the land.
Madame Mother-in-law. so far
as your RIGHTS are concerned,
you have no more right to inter
fere with the domestic relations
of your son or daughter than has
any stranger in your town.
All Entitled to Love.
You are entitled to live, if you
are lovable: to reaped, if you
make yourself worthy of it, and
to respectful TREATMENT at
all events on humanitarian
grounds. You are entitled to
good care and protection from
your children, but this does not
mean that they shall always
make you a member of their
households. If they find it more
expedient to care for you else
where. It does not mean that
you have the privilege of criticis
ing the domestic arrangements of
their lives and homes. .
If your son or daughter asks
your advice, sympathy and coun
sel, give it as wisely as you can.
but keep away from such a posi
tion if possible. Pour oi! on trou
bled waters and soothe and al-
iay wounded feelings whe* pos
sible. Act as mediator and ad
juster of difficulties, rather than
the widening wedge.
And if this attitude does not
make you a welcome member of
your child's home, find another
home as soon as you can, and do
not pose as a martyr. Your own
child will always love you, if you
are lovable. We are not loved for
relationship, but for the qualities
within us.
If you are not obliged to be a
member of the household of your
married child do not be. If you
are try to be an agreeable one.
Atlanta
They Should Worry
EDITORIAL RAGE
r □
I HE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Exempt Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 Earn Alabama St , Atlanta, Ga
1 ntore*l as se^md-class matter at poat office at Atlanta, under act of March 3.1>Ti3
Subscription Prl- . Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall. $5.00 a year.
Payable In Advance.
If These Were Your Children
They do not pull coal cars on their hands and
knees NOW, but they are not so much better off.
Don’t you think it natural that Englishwomen, and
all other women should d emand the right to vote
and FIGHT FOR IT if necessary? — (See Edi
torial.)
Georgian
Coal Mines
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Writes on
Rights of a Mother-
in-Law
HerStanding Depends Entirely
on Her Conduct--She Has
No Right to Interfere Be
tween Husband and Wife.