SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 125, 30 May 1922, Page 8

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

EMIGRATION FOR BOTH.

(NIOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 21st April. For some weeks the very useful controversy, "What, can we do with our sons?" has been continued in The Times, contributors to it having been men at the helm in every important department in life. Among a number of Lord Mayors who have lately given expression to their opinions, those of the Lord Mayor of Bristol are interesting. Dr. Cook writes: "Our future as an Empire depends on its resources being developed to the fullest extent, and here is an opening for our boys, if they aro well trained, for colonial life. One of our great wants is the growing of more foodstuffs, for, as we know, these islands are very largely dependant on imported food. In. the non-cultivated parts of the world we want trained agriculturists, who will be able to do their share in providing the necessaries of life. I think; : therefore, there should be a great future for youths properly trained mV agriculture. The training should be thoroughly practical in its character and should include a sound knowledge of scientific principles as applied to agriculture. It is strange that tho oldest aud one of the most important industries of the country seems to have very little attention paid to it in, our higher education as compared with other branches of commerce. Therefore, I would advocate an extension of scientific agricultural instruction. Closely al-! lied to this is the necessary development of cheap and efficient transport, and this involves _ training in many branches of engineering. It may sound revolutionary, but it appears to me' that war experience has taught us that for the lower grades of clerical work girls are more fitted than boys, and there is a big wastage through so many of the youths taking up clerkships. These young people would be well advised to take some manual employment as being better for themselves and for,the nation."

I Tho Mayor" of Norwich advocates, a commercial career, holding that it is all right for the brilliant youth, if his father has the means, to take up a profession, but "commerce, no matter how low one starts, is the better thing for tho present-day, youth." The Mayor of Leeds considers that the sons should be given tho responsibility in trade and commerce that they were given in the war. What the ex-Service son may lack in business training is counter-balanced by his knowledge of ; organisation and his experience in critical situations. WHAT ABOUT THE GIRLS? • To this bewildering problem Miss Katharine Tynan has added another:— "What Shall We do with our Daughters?" She considers .this to be a question of equal urgency, for the correspondence about boys has borno in upon her. how very little is done for girls. To the novelist tho question about the employment ,of girls becomes increasingly urgent with every day that passes, especially in England, where the preponderance of women over men, in the, middle classes, is as appalling a fact as .the-" unemployment, besides being a matter which a boom in trade will not set to rights.

"The days have gone by," sho says, "when the praysr of an Irish servant for her young1 mistress, 'God send you m husband able to keep you in idleness,' had any. appeaL The young women of the present day no not want to be kept in idleness. They have tasted the sweets of work and independence, and they know the fruits of idleness-r^ickliness, disoontent,. dreariness, dishonesty, meanness.. Tho bitter cry of the, unemployed men is heard in our streets and on the housetops. The women are silent, but their employment may be at least as great a calamity for them as it is for men. The men of the middle, classes, despairing of finding employment in these countries, are, going in great numbers to the colonies. Their going is being encouraged and expedited. . " "Lord Nortficliffe was crying aloud the need for a, White, Australia. In suggesting this exportation of probably the most valuable class of men in the community, people never seem to realise that, if tho man go alone, there are so many more of, their natural mates lost to women, whose chances of marriage are already so diminished by the war. If there is a movement or encouragement to send out the boys and the men to the colonies, let the girls and women of their own class go as well. oP°n that door to the girls. and the women, who want to take their share in the world's work, and we are , being fitted for independence by all the changed circumstances- of the time. White colonies are not made by white men alone, but no one seems to have remembered the women. To send crowds of white men and boys into coloured colonies is not to realise the dream of Cecil Rhodes when he said: -'I see homes, and more homes.1 It is to court calamity."