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Originally published as:

Chicago Tribune. "Find Girls’ Value Slight." Chicago Tribune 14 July 1909: 2.

Chicago Tribune

FINDS GIRLS’ VALUE SLIGHT
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Prof. Thomas Blames Large Supply for Industrial Evils.
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BASES RELIGION ON FOOD
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Dr. Ames Traces Tribal Rituals from Primal Instincts.
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Women in the industrial world occupies the lowest position possible, said W. I. Thomas in an open lecture at the University of Chicago yesterday.

"The machine," he said, "needs some attention, and those relegated to the task of looking after its needs are the child, the immigrant and the woman."

He declared that to alter the situation women should be removed from the category of tools to the category of personality.

"Society," he observed, "is not wise so long as it treats valuable materials so recklessly. The social organization hasn’t come to the point of recognizing members and taking care of them.

Girls of Slight Value.

"It would be a good business situation to work a horse to death quickly if horse had slight value and were unlimited. That is the situation of girls — they are not of slight value, and the supply is unlimited."

But looking to the ultimate situation, of course, in the opinion of Prof. Thomas, the economic waste is not wise.

Dr. Edward S. Ames, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, spoke in the afternoon on religion, declaring it to be the outgrowth of the two primal instincts for food and sex.

"Seal and fish are the means of life to the Eskimo and these are the central objects of his religion, the activities involved in their capture and use being the models for his rituals," he declared.

Rituals Based on Foods.

The women of the North American Indians cultivate corn and rice. Rice also is the great staple of the Malays, and both of these races have extensive rituals in connection with planting, harvesting and use.

"Religion never gets away from this primal necessity, though it does take up into an idealized and extended usage. The great prayer for Christendom follows the petition for the coming of the kingdom with the prayer for daily bread."

When religions and other social groups appeal to the individual for his favor they use the methods of courtship, so Prof. Ames has observed, "and the individual is moved to respond by similar reactions."

 

 

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