THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931. MUSSOLINI AND WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21366, 20 June 1931, Page 10

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931. MUSSOLINI AND WOMEN.

Signor Mussolini has handled many topics with singular energy. He now announces that woman’s true place is in the home. Many a man who is out of work will applaud this senti ment. The plain fact is that two of the greatest contributory causes of unemployment are applied science and incursions by women into what was once proudly called “man’s world.” Signor Mussolini does not like to see women in factories and workshops. Who does? Yet here again the plain fact is that if machines and women have driven men out of employment they have both increased the output of goods. Moreover, many a girl by her earnings in factory or workshop makes a very welcome contribution each pay day to the family exchequer. Signor Mussolini, as a practical man, must know, despite his ideals for women, that immediate considerations of food and shelter always determine the first course of economic action in a primitive society, and that this course, once established, is not afterwards seriously abandoned. It is true apparently in some primitive races that decoration precedes dress; native races wear their full wardrobe (consisting perhaps of a nose-bone and an earpendant) not to stave off heat or cold, but for personal adornment. But necklaces, even when of pearl, will not keep off frost, unless they have what film-entrepreneurs call “a supporting programme ” —and this supporting programme, in the case of dwellers in cold climates at all events, must have led to the adoption of wearing apparel. Skins of animals would be the most obvious dress. Primitive man got all his clothes ready-made from obliging bears and foxes and caribous. This custom has not died out amongst us, and even the women workers whom Signor Mussolini would remove from the deadening environment of the factory retain the penchant for the sealskin, the eiderdown, and the musquash habiliments, but with a reversion to the earlier motive of decoration.

Signor Mussolini thinks that women should work in the fields, if they cannot remain in the home. It is clear that they cannot all remain in the home. The invention of printing by the German Guttenberg in the fifteenth century and. the discovery of steam by James Watt in the eighteenth century altered the world, The invention of the spindle for making thread probably occurred in Neolithic times; the handloom for weaving the thread into cloth must have been produced about the same time. The spin ning wheel appeared in the fifteenth century. These inventions knit together the family and kept women in the home. But when, in the eighteenth century, the' spinning jenny appeared, as well as machinery for bleaching and dyeing, and the application of the steam engine to the textile industry, the era of home-life for women began to see its eclipse. Signor Mussolini claims that after closely studying the effect of factory life on women he has concluded that it brings irregularity in home-life and a marked reduction in the birthrate. The irregularity as far as it concerns time is obvious. The statement that a reduction in birthrate is due to this cause may be challenged. During the nineteenth century, or at least that part of it when the factory system was most triumphant in England, the decline in the birthrate had not begun. But the decline has certainly been great in recent years. To what cause is this due? A negative answer may be given; certainly not or not mainly to the factory system. The other factor that we have mentioned as of immense influence in modifying women’s life is the printing press. When women have their own books and their own journals, their own political and religious advisers, when they are daily stimulated by press notice to sport and adventure as well as to academic honours, it is certain that they will not only become class-conscious, but will put forth efforts such as women never before had the opportunity of putting forth. It might be better, as the Duce suggests, that women should work in the fields as once *they did and as they still do even in many parts of the civilised world. But the plain fact is that women will not work in the fields, not even with the prospect of being painted in Millet’s “Angelus.’’ Nor do men desire them to work in the fields. Men like to see women neat, active, happy, and healthy. No man would object if all women migrated from their factories and offices back to the family hearth. They are safe there, and their influence there is wholly on the side of good. But they will not return to “ the wee bit ingle, blinkin’ bonnily.” They have chosen. Their will or their fate or that mysterious process called evolution has led them out from the seclusion and comparative dullness of the home to the brightness and the danger, the deadening clash of monotonous machinery, the everlasting click of the typing machine, the tennis racquet and the aeroplane. Man may suggest and advise, —but lo! he is even as Artemus Ward in his attempt to organise Betsy Jane; —he concluded sadly that he must “give her a bit of leeway, which amounts to lettin’ her do ’xactly as she pleases.” Signor Mussolini may dominate the Black Shirts and overawe the bombthrower's; but, when he tries to dictate to women and send them to work in the field, he will have about as much success as Antony had with Cleopatra on the fishing excursion. She saw to it that the only fish he caught were those that her own divers put on his hooks.

CONDITIONS IN THE DOMINION. The Bank of New Zealand earned in net profits £102,720 less in the twelve months, for which the accounts were presented at the annual meeting of shareholders yesterday, than it earned in the preceding year. It has had the experience of all other trading concerns in the Dominion in the respect that the “ economic blizzard ” has affected its profit-earning capacity. It is not necessary for us here, to follow Mr Watson, the chairman of the bank, in his examination of the figures exhibited in the balance sheet of the institution, for its accounts were analysed in sufficient detail in the commercial section of yesterday’s issue. It is usual, however, for the community to look to the chairman of the bank for some forecast of the conditions which it may have to face in the ensuing months. Mr Watson Avas cautiously and judiciously non-committal. “ The period of recovery from the existing depression will,” he says, “ no doubt be sloav and full of hardship.” There must be recovery elsewhere, particularly in Great Britain, the market for four-fifths of the produce that is exported from New Zealand, before there can be recovery in the Dominion. Recovery at Home, lioavever, is dependent upon a variety of factors, the operation of which is not confined to Great Britain. And, although avc learn every now and again of some indication of a revival of industry at Home, although the buoyancy of British credit is unquestionable, and although the resilience of British finance Avas as recently as yesterday illustrated in the application of its resources to the prevention of a probable declaration of bankruptcy on the part of Austria, it Avould be unduly optimistic to suppose that such an improvement in general conditions in Great Britain as would be reflected in trade and commerce in New Zealand may be expected in the very near future. “ Trade revival,” says the Economist of May 9, “will at best be slow, and is likely to prove of little benefit to the banks by the end of their current accounting year”—March 31 next. Recovery, however, is certain. It would be simply foolish to suppose otherwise. Where it will first bo manifested may be a matter for conjecture Avhen all parts of the Avorld are affected. Great Britain will, hoAvever, be one of the first countries to enjoy the advantage of an easing of monetary conditions and of a stimulus to industry. The influence of a development of this description will necessarily be felt sooner or later in Ncav Zealand. Mr Watson yarns the producers of this country that, even when this happens, they must not expect to receive the prices which they received a feiv years ago and which furnished a direct incentive to extravagance of living. The values of the assets of the Dominion must, as he expresses it, be based on the competitive values of our products in the markets of the Avorld, and standards of living must be adjusted accordingly. Moreover, the people of New Zealand must recognise the need for practising the virtue of self-reliance. As a country, we have been borrowing far too much overseas. The commitments which have to be honoured every year in discharge of our liability in respect to loans raised abroad are the most serious of the financial burdens that have to be borne by the community. We shall have to discipline ourselves to the extent of doing Avithout those things which we cannot afford. The more fully we realise this, and the greater determination Ave shoAv to live within our national means, the stronger will be the evidence that the country has profited by the experience Avhich it is now suffering.