54 The Bulletin. 



require the broadest training to practice successfully. In all this the Woman's 

 Institute may prove a valuable aid. 



A host of women over the State is at work for the schools, improving the 

 surroundings, doing what they can to better the equipment. They are doing a 

 great work. I, for one, deeply appreciate their motive and the» spirit of help- 

 fulness which they are cultivating everywhere. But in some cases, perhaps in 

 many, I fear, they are but doing the work that their brothers are appointed to 

 do, but are neglecting. If this be true, it is a condition of things which should 

 not continue indefinitely. It is not just to the women. It seems to me that 

 there is a position that they might occupy from which they could accomplish 

 as much and more, with less expense of time and energy. Sometimes people 

 can do more by getting into position to do more. 



I can see no advantage in always occupying the position of a suppliant and 

 begging permission to do the drudgery. Some drudgery is a necessity, and it 

 is all right for one to do it until somebody "higher up" decides that that is all 

 one is fit for. If it is all right for women to collect money to build school- 

 houses, it is just as right for them to have a voice in the plan of building and 

 in directing the work of the school. Why not? And nothing keeps you, my 

 sisters, from these more honored positions except the laws, man-made, of your 

 State. There is quite a good deal of sentiment scattered throughout our State 

 already in favor of women serving on school boards, advancing them to a posi- 

 tion of commanding influence. Some time this sentiment' will crystallize into 

 law. It may be within the province of the Woman's Institute to gather this 

 sentiment together. Anyway, it might help to do it. The task will not be 

 easy ; it will not be without reproach from some quarters ; but precious privi- 

 leges come dear. 



I do not mention this subject without deep conviction. ' We tried the experi- 

 ment up in Alamance a few years ago. We have a county superintendent who 

 says that a woman can give a touch to the work that no man can give. In line 

 with this thought, in the establishment of two local tax districts by legislative 

 enactment, six years ago, he named a woman on each board. It raised a storm 

 of disapproval among the men at home. The attention of the Attorney-General 

 even was called to the matter, as to whether or not these women could legally 

 serve. His decision was that they were eligible because appointed by the 

 Legislature, but that no woman could be elected by popular vote to any posi- 

 tion in North Carolina. That's our status before the law. 



There is hardly a school district in North Carolina in which there is not 

 some woman who would gladly give her time and talent to this work. The 

 State Normal has a representative in almost every neighborhood, and other 

 colleges send out annually their contributions of capable, earnest women. A 

 large per cent of our public school teachers are women, and the per cent is not 

 likely to be materially lessened, for the State is educating her daughters to be 

 teachers, and not her sons. If training for a special purpose and experience 

 along that line do not qualify, what does? Is it to be supposed that men, minus 

 this "training and experience, are still better qualified for teachers and school 

 committeemen than women, plus this training and experience? I do not believe 

 in divine favor to that extent, and, unless there is some method of absorption 

 of which I am ignorant, I see odds against the men. There is absolutely no 

 argument against women serving on school boards— only prejudice. When this 

 is gone women will come into possession of their own. 



"Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, 

 Two in the tangled business of the world." 



I am not more ambitious for women than I am anxious for our schools to 

 be under the care of those best fitted to direct the work. Nobody wants women 

 to supplant men in this work. It is not man nor woman, but capability that 

 will best serve the interests of our public-school system. Whether the present 

 legal impediment debarring women from positions on school boards is either 

 wise or expedient, the manhood of the State will in the course of events be 

 called upon to decide. 



