he chief work of most women.
Although women are entering many fields hitherto monopolized by men, the
home remains woman's peculiar sphere. The purchase and preparation of
food, the buying and making of clothing, the management of servants, the
care of children--these are the vital concerns of most women. They
realize, however, that conditions outside the home have a direct bearing
on home-making; and each year they are taking a more active part in
civic affairs. Matters of public health, pure food legislation, the milk
and the water supply, the garbage collection, the character of places of
amusement, the public schools, determine, in no small degree, the
success and happiness of the home-maker.

Since the dominant interests of men and women alike are their business
and their home, the special writer should undertake to connect his
subject as closely as possible with these interests. To show, for
example, how the tariff, taxes, public utility rates, price-fixing,
legislation, and similar matters affect the business and home affairs of
the average reader, is to give to these political and economic problems
an interest for both men and women far in excess of that resulting from
a more general treatment of them. The surest way to get the reader's
attention is to bring the subject home to him personally.

Of the importance of presenting a subject in such a manner that the
reader is led to see its application to himself and his own affairs, Mr.
John M. Siddall, editor of the _American Magazine_, has said:

Every human being likes to see himself in reading matter--just as he
likes to see himself in a mirror.

The reason so much reading matter is unpopular and never attracts a
wide reading public lies in the fact that the reader sees nothing in
it for himself. Take an article, we'll say, entitled "The Financial
System of Canada." It looks dull, doesn't it? It looks dull because
you can't quite see where it affects you. Now take an article
entitled "Why it is easier to get rich in Canada than in the United
States." That's different! Your interest is aroused. You wonder
wherein the Canadian has an advantage over you. You look into the
article to find out whether you can't get an idea from it. Yet the
two articles may be basically alike, differing only in treatment.
One bores you and the other interests you. One bores you because it
seems remote. The other interests you