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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
and presently along come the laggards round the corner, grateful, though breathless, to find the flag flying after all.
Now this was exactly the position of this queer thing called the woman question in connection with representation at the Fair. The rapid development of women has produced among them the beginning of the close study of the social economic condition of society. No building was necessary to prove that woman is an essential factor in the economic world; that because she is such it behooved loyal citizens, anxious to carry out intelligently the opportunity afforded by governmental recognition, to see to it that a more accurate knowledge of her share of this labor be obtained and daily honored. The time having come when worftan is entering every known field of action, she who is forcing her way to the front in the ideal arts, in the learned professions and in all those lines emphasizing individual progress, should wake up to the disabilities surrounding the women workers of that vast army, whose daily bread is earned under conditions disastrous to that personal development and prosperity which she, the more fortunate, is conquering for herself.
A skeleton exhibit of the work of woman, where she has been or remains a complete artisan, was deemed the most valuable upon which to base knowledge and future organization for the amelioration of the social economic condition. Supplementing this by the exhibition of the enormous work of women throughout the departments, the relative value of the artisan and the human part of a great machine, such as the average workman has now become, is a matter of grave study.
The man or woman who hopes to amend or ameliorate cruel conditions along the material side alone is undermining the foundations of good government, as well as assuring the demoralization of the race. On the other hand, the idealist who would neglect the improvement of the material interests of the individual who would not first aid the attainment of the comforts of the physical nature, is doing much to crush out that respect for the sacredness of human life, without which any lofty standard of personal responsibility and personal purity is absolutely impossible. Consequently, while the board of managers was, undoubtedly, mainly intended to stand before the world for a representation of women, as an economic factor of society, this is not the entire extent of its obligation.
Until there are national boards of labor and a more perfect system of census returns in every country of the globe, the light which statistics logically arranged bring to bear upon the study of social science will in a measure be unattainable. In the present condition of industrial competition an unauthorized, because not governmental, demand for statistical information as to numbers, wages, social condition and the consequent deduction of the result of all three, would be received with jealousy, distrust and absolute mendacity on the part of the employer.
It is well that art and architecture have done so much for the Fair grounds. If it were not for the lovely exteriors and enchanting landscapes, the tremendous force of the materialism expressed by the exhibits would oppress beyond belief. To the multitude there is but one building, and that the Woman’s, which stands for an idea. They may not formulate this into a thought, they may not voice the sentiment, but this truth carries them along in its intangible vortex. Whether the motive be curiosity, intelligent conception of the spirit prompting its erection, or a vital interest in the woman question, they all come. There is not an official, foreign or native-born, who has not desired audience of the president of the board; there is not a keen-eyed politician, though he may be somewhat antagonistic if he has studied logic, who is ignorant of the value of the building and the additional weight given the claims of woman by its existence. There is nothing like an object lesson to impress the popular mind with the importance of a growing idea. Occasionally, along comes some superficial observer who pronounces the whole thing a failure; he does not condescend to inform in what it is a failure, but he has no conception of its real purpose. All criticism is of value as it argues interest. It is only the inconsequent things which escape comment, ridicule, sarcasm. Caricatures are never brought to bear upon individuals or official