paid employees enjoy unquestioningly, and as a matter of course, a degree of leisure such as formed the exclusive privilege of a small aristocracy in earlier centuries. The beneficent social and philanthropic activities of public spirited women and the baneful epidemic of gambling at cards which has run riot for several years and shows no tendency to diminish, are twin offspring of this unearned leisure. "'4

Although less practical than men because of the almost complete divorce of their mental activities from the duties of life, these women often represent a plane of culture superior to that of the men of their class, and possible only when advantage can be taken of intellectual opportunists, associated with leisure. The women are the ones who are able to attend public lectures and places of amusement during the day; and often they alone have sufficient energy to profit by the intellectual benefits which are offered for the public's enlightenment. In every college community where free lecture courses are given for the benefit of the public, the audience is characteristically feminine.

A safe measure of the increase of leisure of women of all ages and of the more prosperous classes is our institutions of higher learning. The proportion of young women graduating from the high schools in the United States is greater than that of young men; and if this tendency continues the same will eventually apply to our institutions of higher learning. This has been anticipated by a few of the universities limiting the number of girls who might attend. What might seem to be sex prejudice may be in reality a resistance to an effeminacy, arising out of leisure class standards, which is fondly designated as culture, in contrast to the practical application of knowledge.

The general tendency of young women to seek education for self improvement rather than for practical usefulness indicates that they benefit by the financial surplus of the family. On the other hand, their brothers are expected to prepare themselves at an early age for the industrial field or the world of business. This is giving to the women of the family greater cultural opportunites than to the men. This is most evident

4 Kelly, Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, pp. 112-3.

where girls consider their brother's associates their inferiors in the point of social prestige.

The women whose husbands are successfully employed in the business world have a large range of social influence, and are so well established in their pecuniary standing that they have no fear of losing caste. By virtue of this pecuniary standing they are allowed a greater degree of freedom than the women of the professional classes. They can afford to make their own barriers and to some extent can, with impunity, break down those imposed upon them by tradition. They can afford to be, and often are cosmopolitan in their habits of life. This is in a measure due to the constant shifting of the business interests of the men of the family, and the often close relation of these interests to all classes of society. While the women may be exclusive from inclination, they cannot help but be affected by the democracy of the business world to which their husbands belong.

Hence, society should appreciate the importance of utilizing the leisure of the business man's wife for the benefit of the community. Her social consciousness has been awakened and she is ready, nay, anxious to give her services. She knows idleness is not conducive to happiness, and purely social pleasures are fast palling upon her. She is a product of a society of business prosperity, highly trained and stimulated by many social forces to a desire for a life of usefulness. She does not want to work for wages-she is not yet willing to violate her leisure-class ideals which forbid her to work for financial re`muneration--but she does want to exercise her trained faculties.

It is well to talk about the sacredness of the home, but there can be little sacredness where there is so much idleness and discontent. When women have been deprived of all useful occupations in the home it is necessary for the welfare of the community that they find occupation outside the home. Work is necessary to any normal person if degeneracy is to be avoided. "A life of ease means lack of stimuli, and hence the full development of but few powers. Power and efficiency come only through vigorous exercise, and strength through struggle."

The women working in our large factories present grave

5 Tyler, Man in the Light of Evolution, p. 109.

problems but society is alive to them, and there is some hope of their ultimate solution; but the degenerating influence of excessive leisure has not yet aroused the social conscience.

Nearly every effort to utilize this leisure has come from within the class itself and takes the form of organized effort supported by women's clubs. This movement, comparatively new, often meets with the restrictions of a conservative society, which thus makes it doubly hard to attain the degree of efficiency needed for the performance of useful services to the community.

Women of leisure are influenced by archaic aristocratic ideals which before the era of industrialism were held by only a small number. With the great increase of wealth and new methods of production the number of women who assume a more or less parasitic relation to society grows with alarming rapidity. The question now is, what is to be done with this increasing number of idlers freed from economic responsibilities formerly imposed by the home? Can they as social factors be neglected without becoming a menace? Can society afford to support an ever-increasing number of women in idleness and allow them to propagate their leisure-class standard of consumption?

CHAPTER VI

STATUS OF WOMEN AND HOME INDUSTRY AMONG PROFESSIONAL CLASSES

The effect of industrial changes upon the status of women is most marked in two conspicuous social classes-the class primarily engaged in the task of procuring a bare subsistence where the lack of leisure and insufficient economic returns allows little play for other than the economic forces, and the class which by virtue of new industrial methods is the recipient of a constantly increasing degree of leisure. Between these two extremes we find the professional classes the prey of a conflict between the newer ideals of democracy and the leisure class ideals wrought out before the era of modern industrialism.

No other class shows so marked a conflict between the older conservatism and the innovations brought about by modern industrial conditions, as the professional classes. The radical tendencies appear in those professions most dependent upon and closely allied to industrial life, and the conservative tendencies claim as their stronghold those fields of activity closely allied to wealth and leisure.

The spirit of innovation is one of the results of an adaptation to changing industrial conditions; and this adaptation is always necessary when a class depends directly for its remuneration upon the individuals for whom the services were rendered. On the other hand, conservatism had its basis in customs arising out of the institutions of the past; can flourish only in a class independent of the general public for its maintenance.

Before the spread of democratic ideals, the field of higher learning was monopolized by the leisure class. Therefore, a high standard of living characterized it, and was essential in maintaining the status of its representatives.

Before the development of industry, the leisure class was synonymous with the nobility or the priesthood. To belong

to the nobility it was necessary to possess the predatory instinct to a marked degree, in order to gain material advantage, especially in an age when wealth was more limited than at present and carried with it almost unlimited power. Sometimes when an individual accumulated much material wealth he was admitted into the noble class, and often into the priesthood.

Although the priesthood loaned its power to the nobility to fortify its temporal authority, it taught equality in the spiritual realm. The greater ease with which the priesthood. could be entered opened a larger field for the ambitious youth whose mind craved stimulation. His economic condition had to be such as to free him from the responsibility of providing for others, as well as sufficient to afford him an education. When he had once attained his goal, and belonged to the priestly class, he reached a status in life exclusive by virtue of its prestige, and in no wise divorced from material wealth.

Learning in the past depended upon the individual's ability to live without productive employment, and a willingness to devote himself to the learned arts which had no economic significance. Here we find a combination of democratic and aristocratic ideals. When marked intellectual ability was manifest, it was not uncommon for one of humble origin to attain a position of distinction in the church. Once in the church he belonged to an exclusive class surrounding itself with rituals and ceremonials.

The nobility of the land received a rude shock from the development of industry, but the church always allied itself to those who were most able to give, and did not hesitate to sacrifice the temporal aristocracy in order to maintain the spiritual one. Although learning "set out with being in some sense a by-product of the priestly vicarious class" it has had to submit to democratic influences which grew out of industrial changes. These influences are most significant in the spread of the rudiments of learning among the common people, and the greater the opportunties for a common school education, the greater the possibility for the individual to enter the field of higher learning when the opportunity presents itself. But to enter this field is to depart from the practical affairs of life