300 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
lemand separate institutions. Many teachers of shorthand are now 
sndeavoring to produce this result, and their efforts in the end will be 
successful. This demand, which I have outlined, for a divorce of the 
shorthand department from the business college, will force an acknowl- 
sdgment of its importance. It is not acknowledged ; it is treated as a 
sub-department. True, its revenues are large; but it is not given that 
literary standing which it, in and of itself, bv virtue of its mere theary, 
lemands. 
[ take the broad stand, therefore, that shorthand writing is a profession, 
requiring just as much study, research, and practice as any other profes- 
sion. Unlike most professions, however, remunerative employment awaits 
she novice, and he may either climb or remain an amanuensis. 
THE WORLD'S NEED OF BUSINESS WOMEN. 
3Y MRS. SARA A. SPENCER, PRESIDENT OF SPENCERIAN BUSINESS 
COLLEGE, OF. WASHINGTON, D. C. 
[An Abstract.] 
SHINING landmarks in the world’s history, commemorating new civili- 
zation, are known as ‘“ The Age of Pericles,” ¢“ The Renaissance,” “The 
Nourt of Queen Elizabeth,” ¢¢ The Reformation.” 
This period of time and events known over the earth as the Columbian 
Quadricentennial, the Golden Wedding of the Old World and the New, 
will be better known in history as ‘“ Woman’s Era.” ¢ Columbus discov- 
sred America, but the American Congress has discovered woman,” said an 
American queen, Mrs. Potter Palmer, at the opening of the World’s Con- 
rress Auxiliary, October 21, 1892. 
As the centripetal force of humanity, the essential brooding spirit of 
this new civilization, the mother heart whence the arteries and veins, and 
thence the nerves, muscles, bones, and sinews of a new life grow, it is 
right, fitting, and inevitable that, in this supreme hour, woman’s position, 
Jevelopment, purposes, outlook, and general relation to the world at large, 
should be announced. studied and discussed from every conceivable point 
Of view. 
What the world needs of her is the special topic of this paper. To 
begin with, one may safely declare that the world needs more bread- 
winners. 
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, implies the right 
to the means whereby to live and to secure liberty and happiness. But in 
woman’s case a gigantic obstacle interposes, and unless we can demonstrate 
that she is needed in remunerative fields of labor, her own needs will count 
for little. The serene, superior, boundless confidence man has in his ability