"FIRST RHODES SISTER"

Evening Star, Issue 14535, 10 December 1910, Page 12

"FIRST RHODES SISTER"

£3OO A YEAR IN ENGLAND FOR TWO YEARS. AMERICAN SCHOLAR. [By Our Lady Coimr.sroNOF.XT.] LONDON', October 28. When Cecil Rhodes introduced his greet educational scheme bv endowing scholarshins that enable Britons of tho Oversea Dominions to come- to England and enter Oxford, he made no provision for women scholar*. This undoubted gap lias not been tilled, so far, by any English educationists, but Americans have taken the matter vp, and there is already an Amencan woman " I'hodes" scholar in London. She is Miss J.diet S. Points, and tho liret winner of the scholarship endowed by the General Federation of Women's Clubs in America.

The idea of an international and intercolonial scholarship scheme, for women, laid down on some what similar lines to the Rhodes Scholarships for men, lias struck more than one woman, hut to Mdinn Thayer, an American lady, must the credit of tho present, scheme be given, since it, ■was the who formulated it, and she who mothered it with wonderful pluck and ■perseverance through the many trying years that it. took to work up tho necessary enthusiasm to set it in working order. The scholarship, which is endowed with £3OO a year, is to cous. : -t ot two year.-:' study at Oxford, Cambridge, or London University, by distinguished women irn'duates, and'it is. hoped that there will eventually bo a " reciprocating side." consisting of "two years' post-graduate study in the States or Canada hy Englishwomen. I was this week fortunate in obtaining an interview with Madame Thayer, win> i«i a delightful Now Englander and a wellknown educationist, and asked her then whether there had ever been any suggestion that. New Zealand and Australian ivomen graduates should participate in this scheme.

"I saw Mr Tlogbcn. of New Zr-:ik:nd. •»3ien ho was in London." Mdme Thayer replied, "ami got his piomise U> by the Kchemo before his Committee. He wrote that ho rind done so, but that the Committee, did r.ot fee the- for such *ehc-larships, as in New Zealand men and irovc.cn shared alike, nod all scholarships irero open to men and women, which showed an absolute ignorance of tho raison d'etre of Mr Rhodes's scholarships, »i:»l consequently of these. 1 am not pL?:icJhig from an academic point of new, lint from .1 much wider, broader, deeper conception of (Lis woTk. This is an age of development, and in this work T maintain that women are a i'.ir "iter factor than men. I plead that as ;ae training of the children is iu their hands a.s mothers and teachers, they should themselves lx> 1 rained and allowed to take their part hj. i!v developncnt of their country. If. 1 at. d scholarships have no value in this work. You want the workers handed together, working with tho same object, animated by the same idea's." " rinw is tho money for the scholarship

provided, and of what nature are tho clubs involved'.'"—"Miss Polnts's scholarship was raised by the Genera! Federation of Women's Clubs in America, and every State contributed to it. The Federation is composed of all the clubs in America, of anv importaneo, federated to work together—BCO.oOQ women in all. It is a.n enormous and a powerrtil body, and if it could be animated oy one ideal it could sweep anything to success; but most women require educating in 'seeing big.' They are too parochial, and wasto +OO mucli time and energy on trivial details and things of no essential importance, and so the greater does not »lways include the lesser. What it is hoped ultimately will bo done is to endow one schokrsliip in each State; but a beginning had to be made, and so Mies Points has como as an 'avant courier,' but before her two years has passed ethers ought, to be over here. The Oversen.s Dominions ought to make a beginning, and so the generous rivalry should go on until real progress has been made."

"When the scheme is complete, will you appoint a. student every year from each State?"—"Xo; a scholar would not be sent from a State until the term of her predecessor had expired." The Rhodes Trust have set the stamp of their machinery on the scheme by allowing candidates to take the same examination dfi set for Rhodes scholars, and the object of tho scholarship is to giv.e to American women tho same opportunity of studying English life as the Rhodes offers to men. A sub-committee has formed iu London, und'-r th<> auspices of th--> League- of Empire, to v.-a'teh trie development of the scheme on this side of th<> Atlantic. Sir William Hall-.Tones. High Commissioner ;or Xew Zealand, is a- vice-president of the Ijoague, and the Sub-committee have for their ■president Sir John Cockburn ; while Mr P. A. Vaile (New Zealand), of the "Travelling Scholarships Scheme." is also on tho r-'ub-comniitteo. New Zealand is si ill further associated with the new departure in that Miss Points, having chosen to study economics, will be under the guidance ef Mr Wm. Peru lie r Reeve.-. "I have chosen London University." Miss I'oinistaid this week, at a. social gathering .acid in her honor at tho Lyceum Club, "because !ho London School of Economics stands before th° whole world ;u; the foremost institution for the teaching of political science, history, economies, and sociology, and because there 1 snail lie studying under a set of men so distinguished that their names aro known all over the universe. Economies 1 have selected because it seems to mo that in taking such a subject I shall como in contact, with the English personalitv and the English point of view, and so," she sniiicd, "shall be armed for spreading knowledge and good influence when 1 zo back to America." Sir John Coekbnm. a vice-president of tho London School of Economics, iu welcoming Mies Points, expressed the hop" that so promising a movement would spread, and that the " First Rhodes Sister," as one of the Rhode? men had. called Mies Points, would have a very happy time at the school. "Women in educational woik," he said, "are a far creater ;if(=,-t than men. since women it if. who mould (heir sons' lives in the most impressionable years. Education is necci?ary for men. but it is doubly mcen.-a.ry for ivomeu, who possess the faculty of passing on their knowledge in a much greater degree than do men, quite, apait from the fact that the mother sees much more of her child than does the father. Education for men is a trivial, accidental circutrstance, as it were. It is a great pleasure to he able to mention a. woman's movement without any feeling of alarm, since we all knowthat the very word ' woman' will make a Cahinct Minister scoot round a corner and make cveiyone instantly search in cupboards, etc.—' chereliez ia femme!'"