IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN.

(In his latest book, "Success. Among Nations," Dr. Emil Reich gives a bird's-eye view of the human forces which have raised some nations ■'; to the glory of success. He lays particular stress upon the importance of women as factors in this national uplifting, and . deals • with the women of tie nations seriatim, ■ • Of the French woman he? says:— ? "It is out of the captivity of years that ihe French girl emerges the French 5 woman. She has the character which will carry her through the numberless difficulties, the numberless ; deprivations, the innumerable selfwbnegatioKs with which her path is strewn. Her character has been bought with a Spartan training in her youth. We have seen the cost .'aft which* English will-power and English virility are purchased. From the 'eg© of ten, by, the system jitic suppression of youth and gaiety, by the* equally searching test of a precocity responsibility, the boy -"it eighteen has become a volitional athlete, without peer in Continental Europe, He can be, and frequently is, entrusted with positions of confidence and responsibility all tea age when the Frenchman is certainly still in parental leading-strings. .' The English boy has his complement, his counterpart, in the French girl, whose training on her side is Equally searching, thorough, and severe." Dr. Reich say that there is one Slavonic tyi--~ which mv.st always;; count in international politics: it is the Polish woman. 'Everywhere she is the determined opponent of* the process of Russification or Germaniyatoon, as the case may be. All the charm of Poland survives in the Polish woman.

' "But all her powei of fascination is counterbalanced by an absolute lack. any capacity foi" her household duties. She is not like the French woman, who can be always charming without disdaining the cares and troubles of her own menage. The existence of the Polish woman is truly that of a butterfly; never did a proverbial expression find a better application. She is brilliant, , dmlingly brilliant, and captivating in the salon, and at times heroically brave, even, on the battlefield. But for the humdrum; existence of every-day which aour-is-bes the stamina, of a nation she has no aptitude, no inclination. Her life is anything rather than home-life." Dr. Reich does mot consider the English woman's role in England ar important as the French woman's, in France. He asserts that: > -■'--• V: - •■ , "As a rule, the English woman seems— end here "she is probably distinguished from her Continental sisters-—more attached to foe*- husband than to her children. With the latter she certainly, in. the case of the sons, does not interfere so as to cripple their personal independence she does not superintend all their affairs, as does the French mother; ; nor. does she exercise over them, ■when married, the irksome jurisdiction of 'the French belle-mere. ' In the higher ranks of society her dignity, : graceful restraint, and distingue manner make her the embellishment rathe* than • the nucleus of social life." • • It is claimed that the English woman is less successful outside these spheres. She is not, in the opinion of Dr. Reich, a business woman, and he maintains that there are few groat firms in this country who would, not smile at the suggestion of a feminine influence being brought to bear upon their direction. Certainly they do these things otherwise in the country of the widow Cliquot. In _ the chapter entitled "Success in America" we are at once and without apoiocv introduced to that endlessly-dis-cussed personality, the American woman. He considers the American nation to be almost the victim of the over-mentalisation of the American woman. . " The old-world naivete of Europe appears to her quite out of date; the retiring,dignity, the restraint, the self-effacement of the European woman is repugnant tc her. Her ambition is to win the recognition of her bright intelligence; she likes to.pass for a pesson of energetic verve, ready at p moment's notice for action of every description. The incessant craving for movement has taken hold of her even more strongly than it has taken hold of the American man. She cannot stand being stationary There is probably little exaggeration in saying that the burthen of latent contempt heaped by the gentry in England upon the middle class is in America heaped by woman upon. man. In both cases we meet with the same passive acceptance, the same absence of all spirit of revolt. . The brighter the American wife, the more overwhelming her conversation, the greatei hei anxiety to augment her knowledge, the more joyous is her submerged spouse." Dr. Reich think? that the American not only submits :to this superiority, bu*, is genuinely proud of it.