Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. “THE WOOD DOVE.” Mary Hallock Foote. United States. (By permission of the Century Company- Copyrighted.) of education have doubled?” The wife, the sister, or the daughter is called in council. It is quite evident to her that the man can not support his wife and his children as they should be sup- ported, and the family must either take a lower position in the social scale, or, as the only other alternative, the women must contribute to the expenses of the household. It is this economic necessity which has forced the vast army of women workers into the higher fields of labor. Now that we have wandered through the pleasant arcades, the quiet library, the busy, energetic Hall of Honor, let us leave the Woman’s Building and the “ White City,” go down to the shore of the lake, look out over its changeful waters, and think. What does it all amount to? Palaces of marble and brick crumble away and leave no sign, to show where they have stood, and this mock- marble city is as evanescent as a dream. With that curious commercial sense which is per- haps our most salient national characteristic, many hundreds of people have asked the same question: “Does it pay?” Of no department in the whole Ex- position has there been so much doubt expressed on this point as of the WOman’s Building. It lias had its enemies from the very hour of its inception; honest and dishonest enemies. It is only tlie former with which we must concern ourselves. These have pointed out the very great outlay of time, strength, and money which have gone to make up the harmonious whole; they have pointed out that a great number of the best women workers have elected to exhibit the fruits of their labor side by side with that of tlieir brothers. These critics ask: “ Is it not unfair to show as women’s work what is only a partial representation of it? ” The answer to this objection lies in the fact that tlie building is among the most interesting features of the Fair. It has never undertaken to show all, or half, that woman is doing. Such an exhibit would be impossible, even were it housed in so vast a structure as the Palace of the Liberal Arts. From the first, the idea has been held by those in authority that the building’s mission