the male worker is often thinking about his sick wife, his ailing child, what Mary asked him to bring home, or how he can sneak off early for golf or the baseball game."

At this last a sly look came into his eyes and he glanced at his watch. "Your opinions are very interesting," he said, politely, trying not to be sarcastic. "Sorry I can't talk to you longer, but I must be off-have a date to-er-important business."

ONE

NE day I was in the office of a man who declared that he would not employ any married women, because he thought they kept the jobs away from single girls who needed them.

"I want to be fair," he said, “and I think the poor single girl with no one to support her should have preference over 7 the girl who has a husband."

I could not help showing some impatience. "Why is it," I questioned, "that every single girl is classified as a poor single girl, with no one to support her? What has become of the doting fathers? Don't you think that a girl's father, having reached middle life, is often better able to support her than a young husband?"

"A couple should not marry unless the man is able to support the woman," was his quick reply.

For a minute I groped for an answer, for I knew it would be of no use to mention love to him.

"Nevertheless they do marry," I

said.

A few weeks later I discovered that this man's daughter, after an expensive education, was a high-salaried statistician, and so, from his point of view, taking the money from some girl who needed it.

This idea of keeping a job from some one else is undoubtedly based on a false economic conclusion. Not many years back it was believed that the entrance of women into the business world would take work and money from men, but a few short years have proved quite the contrary. Business has made enormous strides, and there is a place for every one who is competent and willing to work. A careful survey of economies discloses the underlying law that "the more people there are who want to work, the more work there is to do"-in normal times of

course.

I once spent a most enjoyable hour with a jovial man whom I actually had the pleasure of bringing around to my point of view. My usual method of procedure is to find out what a man's pet aversion is when it comes to having married women in his employ. Having

once discovered this, I proceed with my ruthless attack. This particular man said, quite seriously, that he believed a married woman neglected her home too much if she worked, and so caused discomfort and unhappiness to those around her. I agreed with him that many married women carried a career too far-just like the man who can't forget shop. "But," I added, just as he believed he had me cornered, "how about the women who neglect their homes for bridge whist?"

He laughed. "I know many of that type," he said. "Some neglect their homes for bridge and golf, and others from sheer laziness."

"You had better bring them down to the office," I advised.

"I'm afraid they'd be of very little use here," he admitted.

"On the other hand," I followed up quickly, "I'd like you to visit the homes of a number of young women I know. They hold down important jobs and at the same time have real homes."

"I'm afraid I can't visit them, but I'll be glad to give some of them a job on your recommendation," he ended.

"You're a regular boss," I told him as I left, and so he proved to be.

The weakest argument I heard presented against the married woman is that her husband may have an evil influence over her. Is there no possibility of his having a good influence? As a matter of fact, I know of many husbands who help their wives to increase their efficiency and ambition. Then, too, it seems rather unfair to regard women as so colorless that one cannot even credit them with a mind for thinking out evil for themselves. Doubtless there are even wives who exert evil influences on their husbands, modern Lady Macbeths. Should all married men, therefore, be obliged to stay at home?

FOR

'ORTUNATELY, I came in contact also with a number of broad-minded men, many of whom were impartial in their attitude toward the married woman in business, while not a few preferred the married worker.

One of our big bankers and human employers put it this way: "Marriage is accepted as our most sacred institution. Young people are taught to regard it as sacred-most boys and girls desire early marriage-yet economic conditions are such that early marriage is in most cases impossible to the business girl unless she continues her work. She has the alternative of waiting about five or six years before marrying, and thus being robbed of the early part of her romance.

"Then one phase that I believe em

"I know this to be true," I told him, and related the following incident: A man who is one of the biggest importers of hair nets relied a great deal on his secretary, an attractive young lady who had married while in his employ. Shortly after her marriage she gave up her position for another, and he, very much incensed, advertised for a secretary, who must be single. The position was soon filled by Miss T, who proved to be very competent, and soon he established the rule never to employ married women.

I was seated in his office one day, listening to his story, when a low laugh sounded across the room.

"Really," said Miss T, "it's such a good joke. I must admit I was married when I took this position."

For a minute the man was incredulous. Then he asked, "Why did you answer my ad, which expressly stated single girl?"

"Because," said Miss T, "the salary and position sounded very attractive and I knew I could fill the job."

Her employer had to admit that she filled it admirably.

"There are probably many such cases," said the banker, laughing heartily. "In fact, making a brief survey of business and home life to-day, we may draw a few conclusions. There is already a large army of married women workers, who refuse to be discouraged in their endeavors, and by having rules against them employers merely label themselves as 'old-fashioned and pigheaded.'"

"Do you think this large number of workers presents an evil social problem or threatens future generations?"

"No," he laughed. "If they have children, they usually drop out of the business world, and so the menace to posterity is overcome.”

Another executive summed up the case this way: "For my part," he said, "a girl's home life is her own affair. As to efficiency, I prefer a married worker to a single worker; most employers prefer men who are married, because they think they are steadier-I think the same is true of women. They are less frivolous and more mature.”

"What do you think is at the bottom of this prejudice against married wo

men?" I asked. "Do you really think employers swallow all they say?"

He laughed. "I honestly believe that most employers who advocate a 'no employ to married women rule' do so, not because they believe the married woman is not efficient, not because they are at all concerned in her home life or the interests of posterity to any great degree,

but because they still cling to the belief that a woman should work for her husband only. Many a man will say to you, 'Well, I wouldn't let my wife work,' by which he generally means he wouldn't let her do brain work that pays, though she may wash, iron, cook, and scrub all she chooses."

"Even so," I reminded him, "many a

woman might prefer to keep house if she had a house to keep; but, after all, one room and kitchenette is hardly a thing to get wildly domesticated over."

"Exactly. With living conditions as they are in our great cities to-day, family life is bound to alter also, and the human employer must take human conditions into consideration."

Oregon and northern California to save ten billion feet of merchantable timber from the relentless ravages of the Western pine beetle. During the last ten years this tiny beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) has destroyed a total of 1,500,000,000 feet of timber in unquestionably the finest stand of yellow pine on the Pacific coast of the United States. The diminutive ravager seldom exceeds three-sixteenths of an inch in length. In spite of size, his habits are nefarious. He works under cover on the inner side of the bark of trees, goes about his destruction ardently, and his toll is death--certain death to the trees he marks as targets for his unrelenting attacks. The epidemic spread of the beetles in the region determined the Federal Government and private owners to unite in an effort to check further spoliation in the magnificent stand. Already the destroying insect has cast his spell upon 1,260,000 acres of Government and private timber. Two hundred skilled operators are working furiously to prevent the spread of the Western pine beetle into an adjoining 3,000,000 acres of pine timber which as yet has not suf fered from attack.

The Western pine beetle is fastidious. Once he has killed a tree and the bark begins to cleave from the trunk, he seeks new objects of endeavor. Thus he trav els from tree to tree, sapping the vital energy of the forest Titans as he goes. With fifteen per cent of the infested timber of the district rendered commercially valueless and the hosts of borers increas ing yearly, the yellow pines of Klamath and Lake Counties, Oregon, and Modoc County, California, faced complete ruin.

Then the United States Bureau of Entomology and the Forest Service went into consultation. The case was quickly (Continued on page 635)

Where the Farmers Stand will be the concern of both politicians and statesmen. The story of our farm problem, many chapters of which have already appeared in The Outlook, will be continued by such first-hand records of arm opinion as "What Says the Farmer?" by Ernest Cordeal. Another Farm article, "Ill Blows the Wind That Profits Nobody," by W. H. Kirkbride, ells the story of the "billion-dollar banlit," the boll weevil, which, like Robin Hood, gives as well as takes. One phase of the financing of the American farm is lescribed in a remarkable article by George M. Rommell called "Banking onCharacter." It is more than an article on finance, it is also a tribute to the ntegrity of the American farmer. The problems of the farmer in the Middle West are presented in two articles, one by O. M. Kile and the other by Hugh J. Hughes. Both men were born and rought up on a farm, and both are auhoritative writers on farm subjects.

+

Prohibition Has Its Good

Points and Its Bad

The Outlook has steadily and heartily upported the enforcement of the Voltead Act. Needless to say, it will coninue to do so. Its desire to see the law nforced will not prevent it, however, From giving space to the views of those vho believe that the law is an injury to pur democracy. The friends of any

neasure should be the first to listen to und learn from the men who oppose it. That is why we are glad to publish an article by the well-known essayist, John Jay Chapman, who does not believe in prohibition. And this is not the only article on prohibition that awaits publication; another from the pen of Charles Forrest Moore, called "The Eighteenth Amendment," presents the other side of he question.

Aviation

Since the day when Wilbur Wright made his first brief ascent into the unconquered air The Outlook has led in the presentation of the problems of aviation o the general reader. The National Aeronautic Association is authority for he statement that The Outlook's "ediorial policy indicates an exact knowledge of the fundamentals underlying military, aval, and commercial aeronautics in this

country to an extent rarely seen else

where."

The Outlook believes in beating rec-T ords, not living on them. Among the articles on aviation which will appear in

Sherman Rogers

Industrial Correspondent of
The Outlook

will continue during the year to represent The Outlook on the lecture platform. He will also present to The Outlook's own audience a series of articles covering the development of employee representation and the new policies and personalities of the American business world. When these articles will appear we cannot definitely say. Sherman Rogers has a lightning-like mind, and, like lightning, it is not always easy to say where he will strike next.

The Outlook during the coming year are "Fire-Flying in Canada," by Lloyd Roberts, and another in which LieutenantCommander Fitzhugh Green tells the value the Nation may receive from establishing air routes across the Pole. There is a hint of mystery in this article-a gambling chance that the northern flyers may discover a polar continent warmed by volcanic springs and harboring descendants of the lost inhabitants of Greenland.

This prophetic possibility may not be realized, but another prophecy of an Outlook contributor has already been

See Christmas Order Form on Page 653

fulfilled. Over two years ago Laurence La Tourette Driggs in The Outlook pro-, posed the use of aviation as an aid to fisheries, and Robert H. Moulton in his article "Catching and Canning Sea Chicken" tells how and where this is: done.

Teachers of

Young America

will again be able to find in The Outlook some of the latest and best of modern educational doctrines. We have ready for. publication a group of articles by Charles K. Taylor, whose views on heightweight standards for children-first given publication through The Outlookhave revolutionized the practices of hun-1

dreds of schools and received the indorsement of the United States Bureau of Education. Mr. Taylor's future articles: are Socratic dialogues between teacher and pupil in which the pupil is led to evolve his own fundamental concepts of life and history.

Literature

The Outlook would not be The Outlook without a full share of literary delights. Well over a hundred pages of next year's Outlook will be devoted to a description and criticism of the best of the new books. Reviewers will be selected whose appreciation and understanding are best suited to particular volumes.

Essays play a large part in the field of literature. Shaw Desmond has given us two on "Irish Wit and Humor" and "The Irish Renaissance." Florence Mary Bennett, the daughter of a long line of Nantucketers, tells the story of the men who made Nantucket famous, and she tells it in a way that seems to turn the printed page into the quarterdeck of an old whaler.

Poetry

The only journal in the country which has broken away from the traditional space-filling habit of putting verse at the bottom of its pages is The Outlook. Many lovers of poetry have declared that The Outlook's plan of putting poetry at the top of its pages has been more than justified by the quality of the verse which it has secured. One poem which awaits publication will start at the top of one page and run beyond the bottom of the next. It is a remarkable group of. dramatic monologues from the pen of