ABOLISH THE HOME.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19462, 8 November 1928, Page 2

ABOLISH THE HOME.

WOMEN'S VOTE IN FAVOUR.

PROTEST BY MEN.

(raou otxb own cohbzspokmsht.) LONDON, October 5. Should the home be abolished? Mrs Cecil Chesterton and Mrs Dora Russell debated the question at a crowded gathering held under the auspices of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. At the conclusion of the meeting a vote was taken, the majority voting in favour of the home being abolished. Airs Chesterton spoke in favour of the home. "1 don't care what you say," she said, "but every girl at the bottom of her heart wants a husband and children in spite of the difficulties she has to undergo to get them. And every girl wants a home ; though not necessarily through marriage. A bed-sitting-room is a 'home.' It is the lack of enough homes that is the trouble. What we want is a change in economics. Then we should have better homes. If you do away with the home you deny the right which exists in every woman, the right of some little personal possession."

Brick Boxes. Then Mrs Russell took up the cudgels. . "There are two types of homes in our modern life," she stated, "the over-burdened, overcrowded workingclass home, and the kind of home which produces the sort of woman that turns into a cinema fan." She maintained that shutting women up in brick boxes with only one child and little to do would inevitably result in a surplus of empty-headed women who would become the curse of our modern civilisation. She admitted that one of the strongest oppositions to the abolition, of the home was the "tyranny of father, who liked to think he had his people at home all nicely bottled up together. The home is only fit for babies under two years of age, and as soon as we can I think we should fly from it for our lives." In the general discussion one man exclaimed heatedly, "I tell you if you women are going to try to abolish my home you are up against something!" Another man said that he felt the men had been held up to "hatred, ridicule, and contempt" during the debate. Listening to such debaters, comments the "Evening News," you can but conclude that civilisation is composed of curses of civilisation. Reading the reports of such meetings you are left wondering what the abolitionists of home want. Would they turn the wives out of their brick boxes and on to Hampstead Heath and Clapham Common? Even then the first act of the wives would be to buy tents and make new homes. The 1 story of Robinson Crusoe himself is romantic, not because of the shipwreck nor of the desert island; but because on the island be made a home. It is wiser to laugh rather than to be angry at last night's resolution. While it was being passed by the, women clerks and secretaries in Essex Hall, some hundreds of thousands of women in "brick boxes'' were happier in playing with the baby and listening to the wireless by a warm fireside than : they would have been in hearing a futile wrangle in the brick box of Essex Hall.

ELLEN TERRY'S WILL.

ESTATE OF OVER £22,000

HOME A NATIONAL MEMORIAL

. (FKOU OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) , LONDON, October 2. It is estimated that the gross value of Dame Ellen Terry's estate is £22,231, with net personalty £19,697. All the bequests are to members of th» family. Mr James Carew, her husband, ■ cerves £2OO "as a token of good will." and £IOO goes to Nelly Gordon Oraig, her little granddaughter. The oldworld little cottage at Smallhythe. Tenterden, has been lert to her daughter, Miss Edith Craig, with one half of the residue of the property. The - remaining half of the residue ot the estate is divided into two, the income going -to Mr Edward Gordon Craig, Dame Ellen's painter son, and his wife, Mrs Elena Gordon Craig, respectively during their lifetime, with remainder to their children, Nelly and Teddy, in equal shares. Subject to these trusts, the. capital ultimately reverts to Miss Edith Craig or to her estate. An American Citizens. An interesting disclosure in connexion with the will is that Dame Ellen was an American citizen, as she was legally domiciled" in Indliana, U.S.A., owing to her husband owning property there. As soon as the will is proved, steps will be taken to secure the Smallhythe cottage as a national memorial. » "Pleas for its preservation have come jfrom admirers of my mother in all parts of the world," said Miss Edith. Craig. "A scheme is on foot for the purchase of it and some of the furniture so that it can remain as far as possible as my mother knew it. It is too early to disclose the scheme, but I am willing that the cottage should be acquired by some nublic hody." A sale will be held at Christie's which, in addition to furniture, will include several famous pictures. One of these is Watts's painting of the actress in her early married days. A monochrome of Dame Ellen as Lady Macbeth, painted by Sargent for her jubilee performance, will also be offered. It is the hope of the family that these paintings may be purchased by someone for the National Portrait Gallery.

A golden wedding ring was lately swallowed by a cow at Rotherham. The ring was recovered when the cow was killed.