SHOULD HOME BE ABOLISHED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 530, 6 December 1928, Page 13

SHOULD HOME BE ABOLISHED

WOMEN SAY “YES”; MEN : SAY “NO” After a crowded audience at the i Essex Hall, Strand, London, had heard I a debate between Mrs. Cecil Cheste7 - - \ ton and Mrs. Dora Russell on "Should ■ the Home Be Abolished?” a majority! voted in the affirmative. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. Mrs. Russell was for the proposal; Mrs. Chesterton against; and the speakers’ remarks were punctuated with protests, or cries of approval. "If we abolish the home w r here are we to live?” began Mrs. Chesterton. "In the workhouse,” came a voice from tiie body of the hall. “Every girl at the bottom of her heart wants a husband and children,” added Mrs. Chesterton, “in spite of the difficulties she has to undergo to get them. (Loud laughter.) "The very poorest and meanest of homes have produced men of genius. Show me the man of genius you can produce from an institution!” Then Mrs. Russell spoke. "Remember it is only the tolerably well-to-do who can afford the little villa or flat such as those represented In popular advertisements.” she said. "There are tw-o kinds of homes In our modern life. The overburdened, overcrowded, working-class home, and the kind of home which produces the sort of woman that turns into a cinema fan. “The home,” she said, “is only fit for babies under two years of age, and as soon as we can X think we should fly from it for our lives 1 .” In the discussion one man jumped to his feet and exclaimed, heatedly: "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.” "What exactly are you proposing to do with us men if you abolish the home?" asked a third man in the audience.