The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 58

2 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YORK. SUNDAY. APRlt 25. 1909.

OTHER OF THE SUFFRAGE QUESTIOI BELINDA EXPLAINS THE DIFFERENCE "Betiveen A SUFFRAGIST AND A SUFFRAGETTE 1 you, naturally, and think you are nice anyway. But when women are working for 'votes for then they want to Influence everyone and of course that means being at your best all the time. Wasn't it Jennie Snipem you were talking about Just now when you said no one liked to take her to places because she never looked nice? where do you think I saw her the other day?" "Where?" asked Eudocia eagerly. "At the hairdressers and what do you think she was having done? Having her hair curled. Yes little bobby curls at the back of her head so they would show when her bat was on, and her hat had little rosettes of tiny roses with forget-me-nots around them at each ear, quaint and old-fashioned, and my dear, she looked sweet.

Yes. she did. Her hair is blond you know and she said she was a suffraglBt. now and she wanted to convert people snd she had to look nice. MRS.

GILBERT JONES 1 J1 I the spinster proclaims that she cannot be of use In this way. She is mistaken, for she can rear and care for some young life. The foster homes are more and more within the reach of the many and the agencies of the Children's Aid Society can easily tell anyone how they can educate or support some little child and thereby help the state in securing a better citizen and all without the ballot!" "Men have put their trust in women for the morrow, the future, the new generation Cannot women trust the men for the present, the everyday, business of the government? We women have the whole social world to direct, so let us put our faith In men and let them con tinue to have the political field entirely In their own hands. Finally, I quote Montesquieu as a word of warning: 'Upon tbe manner of regulating the suffrage de pends the destruction or salvation, of Dead of Fright. Our friends from Missouri had for their mess cook a Swede named TSliien, who was so arrant a coward that some desperate necessity must" have driven him to enlist, writes a contributor to Harper's Magazine, in detailing a number of Incidents connected with the siege of Vicks-burg.

The old man, in his shirt ileeves, as usual, was one day busily engaged among his pots and pans, when a shell burst near the cooking tent, and a small piece of it struck the thick curly hair of a handsome young officer who was standing nea- by, seriously wounding him but so numbing all sensation that he did not at the moment realize that he- was hurt. Another piece of the shell grazed the cook's back just below tbe shoulder blades, so neatly that It cut through his Buspenders and shirt without drawing blood. Throwing himself upon the ground In abject terror and writhing in apparent agony, Talllen gave vent to such dismal howls that we all ran from the cave to hia assistance, fearing that he was mortally injured. The wounded officer also, dazed, as he was, sought Instinctively to help the unscathed cook, but in making the effort he fell unconscious and was hurried to tbe hospital, where, as the result of his wound, he lost bis handsome curly hair and later his eyesight, but afterwards, as we were delighted to learn, strangely enough. Ue recovered both.

Talllen, on the contrary, never recovered from the panic into which he was thrown by having his suspenders cut by a fragment if shell. He received no other apparent Injury but soon died. A RAILROAD Mrs. Gilbert Jones, Organizer of the National League, Gives Her Rea sons Why Her Sex Should Not Be Accorded the Right of the Ballot THE present moment tbe topic of all topics Is woman suffrage. It Is on every tongue, but with the much speaking there, is sometimes great confusion of Ideas.

The ant 1-suffra- gists do not lift their voices to quite the pitch as the suffragists and so what they have to say Is apt to be drowned beneath the bab-ble. While the ear of the publlo is keenly alert and strained for points pro and con it is Interesting to hear the arguments of the "other side" as they are presented by one of the leaders, Mrs. Gilbert Jones, organizer of the National League for the Civic Education of "Women, which is the only organization In the country that has gone systematically and broadly to work to investigate the woman suffrage question with the motive of proving its fallacy. When seen the other day at her home in Madison avenue. Manhattan.

Mrs. Jones outlined the history and purpose of the league that she represented and dealt generally with the question of suffrage for women. "I organized the National League for the Civic Education of Women," said Mrs. Jones In the first place, "with the hope that I could make women better understand what they are doing when they ask for the ballot. The league was formed for the purpose of giving the women of the state the best possible means of obtaining information bearing on their rights, responsibilities and economic position in the community.

Its Objects will be to make clear the reasons urged against the woman suffrage movement, and to endeavor to get from the silent woman an expression of her opinion, the Importance of which can scarcely be overestimated. It hopes to give the most ample means for education and en-' llghtenment on all questions affecting the political, economic and social position of women. "In the fifteen years that I have been studying the question I have never heard one Strong argument on the suffrage side. After attending over one hundred and fifty woman suffrage meetings, I realized that flattery to women filled up the greater part of their speeches. It is delightful to be told as a woman that you are superior to man in every respect, and when you hear women showering bouquets of this kind at one another annnaai almnnt Inevitable.

Men receive few compliments at these woman (suffrage meetings; they are told that they are unjust and maltreat their women. "drones." "drudges," "downtrodden," are words constantly used In speaking of a woman's state of life, and it Is sometimes beyond one's Imagination to believe that American women are the subject of discussion. That this abuse of men and flattery of women is utterly inconsistent sever seems to strike the Buffraglsts." "Why are women not wanted as voters?" Mrs. Jones was asked. "There are fundamental reasons why women are not wanted as voters, and If any one will study the principles of government he will And them out.

Uncle Sam does not need more votes from men and women. On the contrary, ha needs the restriction of votes, and, with the flood of foreigners arriving In our ports, there a growing danger that too many can vWe, Instead of too few." "But will not the individual woman gain by her vote?" "The constitutions of our different States do not lay stress on the expression of individual opinion, by means of the vote," was Mrs. JoneB' reply to this. "This country is not ruled by votes, but by a majority of votes. Class rule Is thus avoided, and the poor man has absolutely the same power In the government as a rich man, but never individual power.

"To give tax-paying women the ballot because they pay taxeB would create class legislation. At an early period of our history tax-paying women were allowed to vote In several of our states. A moneyed aristocratic, privileged voter was thus created, but it was not long before this kind of suffrage was abolished and manhood suffrage substituted for It. If the tax-paying woman should have the privilege of voting, why not give the nonresident, the alien, the corporations, and minors the same privilege? Certainly large estates -are held in trust for children many years and very often pay large taxes. Corporations pay enormous tax.

and in the eyes of the law they are per- AM anirt frnm So ennlrhnlilaB t.uu awi ni.uiuc TtllU I tiufio FJ WCB 111 OIHLCB where they own property but do not re-ide. Mr. Rockfeller pays taxes In every State in the Union, yet he can only vote In one. Aliens or foreigners pay taxes are never allowed to vote, until they 'become naturalized Americans, but many never become naturalized and still pay taxes. So.

if it is unjust that a woman not have the vote because she pays taxes, it must be equally unjust to deprive all of the above mentioned from having the ballot. And again, if some women should vote because they pay taxes, why should not every one vote? Because every i one pays taxes directly or indirectly, as on Bilks, rents, and a hundred other things. "It cannot be said that there is any spirit of hampering women, of depriving them of their freedom. In this country. More women have Individual bank ac- counts In the United States 4han in any other country in the world.

There is absolutely no restriction put upon women in entering the professions or the trades unless it is her physical restriction. They perfect freedom in religious expression; perfect freedom in the use of the pen; perfect freedom to live out their Jives as they think best! "In fact, it seemB that women are becoming dangerously emancipated. When one realizes that (here are about five women wage earners in this country, one thinks twice when one hears the report that there are five million unemployed men. A strange coincidence. Are the women more easily persuaded to work, or are the men shirking their real 'responsibilities? I personally should liko tell me, Belinda," aid Eudocia, with a strong emphasis on the do, "do tell me what Is the difference between a suffragist and suffragette." That Is perfectly replied Belinda, "the tuflra- gette means a bonnet that la a little 'more so' than the bonnet of the suffragist." "You mean," said Eudocia, still puzzled, "that while the suffragist wears a bonnet that is perfectly horrible the suffragette wears one that is even more so?" "Not at all." replied Belinda, didactically.

"I hare always said, Eudocia, that you really ought to read the papers a little more and try to understand poll-tics. Every woman, now, understands politics and would know better than that." "But. Belinda," said Eudocia, "I do try, and the other day I was looking at some pictures of a woman 'carrying a big well, something, and said 'Votes for Women' on it, and Belinda, she was so thin, so so- well, you know It wasn't the the well, the Empire-town thinness, but the kind that you -are born so, and can't help It. And her hat! Well, no man would wear a hat as had as that. I didn't like to look at her vary well and I wondered what she 8." "She was nothing at all," said Belinda, with a tone of superiority.

"She was a figment of the masculine brain. You see when women first began to be. suffragists they couldn't afford to wear pretty hats for it was so queer for women to do anything that If they had had a pretty hat on it would have been just like some one to have gone and thrown something at it, and they wouldn't have liked that." "No, Indeed," said Eudcocla sympathetically, thinking of a big. big round box occupying the very center of her room, the perfect dear of a hat In It covered with roses and forget-me-nots and wistaria and a few other things, and the big, big bill that went to papa with It. "Well" continued Belinda, "those women not being able to wear pretty nats got to wearing anything that was convenient and sometimes they were pretty bad and then-there were all sorts of reforming people who tried to be suffragists, too, it was not nice at all and people began to draw funny things then, and they have never stopped.

YOjU know how queer and iguorant men are about women's hats." "Yes, Indeed," said Eudocia with a little giggle. "Why, Belinda, do you know, even papa, with all his experience, Just before EaBter gave me a nice big check: 'To get your Easter hat, little he said, and he had paid such a big bill for my hat a whole month before. As if anyone had Easter hats now! I'd wear mine before if I had to wear earlaps to koep my ears from freezing. But then papa is such a dear!" "Yes all nice men are like that," said Belinda, "but when it is their business it leads them astray and the poor picture-making men always make suffragists wearing funny hats. They' wouldn't be so different from other women wearing pretty ones and those poor men, don't know that suffrage has become fashionable.

The milliners do. though. What do you suppose my milliner told me? I never saw her so smiling and happy as she was this year and she was so anxious to get me the prettiest hats that I had ever had and I asked what made her smile all the time when usually in the spring she look3 anxious. My dear, what do you think she told "What?" asked Eudocia excited. "She said," said Belinda, "that all her customers had got the woman suffrage craze, were working for 'votes for women' and that they couldn't have hats enough, they had told her to be ready to make new ones later and that she should work hard all summer and make lots of money." "How do pretty bats help them to vote?" asked Eudocia.

"Why. because they must look pretty themselves to make people do what they want and to Interest the men to say that thay can vote if they want to. You know, Eudocia, that no man would want a frumpy looking Toman to go to the polls with him." "I don't know just what the polls are," said Eudocia, "but I know that men do like to have women wear pretty clothes when they are going to take them out. Some of the men I know have told me about one of the girls who is very clever and bright and the- like her. but they won't take her to the tneater or the opera or even a football game, because she does wear such funny clothes.

It seems' mean, but I suppose, they can't help it, and I suppose if they Invited women Co go to the polls with them they would want them to wear pretty clothes Just the same." "Yes." said Belinda, "and If anyone asks you to do anything and they look very pretty why you say yes before you think." "But if the suffragists wear as pretty hats as there are how -can the suffragettes wear hats that are more so?" "It is this way," explained Belinda. "You see the suffragettes are what they call the militant suffragists. Oh, so, they don't fight, not over here, but everything they do is a little more bo than anything the suffragists do. They-speak on tne streets, you know." said Eudocia. "Yes, it is hard with very big hats in the high winds.

I knew one of them whose hat was so blown about, when she was speaking near a high building, that she had to turn it around and wear It hindside before ever after. But it didn't make a bit of difference. It looked prettier than ever and no one knew the difference. There is just same difference In what they wear as in what tbey do. If the suffragists are wearing peach-basket hats and hats snd flower-basicet hati and Jispixn nats, why the suffragettes wear hats that are a little more peach-baskety.

more scrap-baskety and dishpanny. Of course, they are always pretty and thev look well in them, but they are always a little 'more Then if I see a woman on the street who is wearing a very, very big hat I can be sure she is a suffragette?" Ye-es," said Belinda, hesitating, or else," she continued more connaentiy. you Ian be sure she is going to be one." 'Dear me," said Eudocia, "I never knew before that hats have anything to do with politics." 'Yes," said Belinda, "politics is very queer. vinen you gei miu never know what else you are getting In to. It is very exciting.

You see ordinarily women and girls like to look nice for their particular friends and that Is not so. very, many people and they like I llillll to see these five million women taken out of their wage-earning life, and put all of these five million idle men in their places, for it Is said that 'that is the best country where the fewest women and children are at Let us Imagine that a law should be passed forbidding women from doing work in professional trades. If all the women lawyers or doctors were suddenly withdrawn from their occupations, should we be the least Inconvenienced? Again, If most of the wage-earning women In industry were suddenly relieved of their arduous work, would industry No; and I feel sure that the vacancies would soon.be filled by men. But Imagine for a moment that a law should be passed, by which all men should stop working in professions and trades. Try to calculate what the result would be.

When I hear women suffragists say that they are equal to men, I think of this one single proposition, and I am aghast at their presumptions." Mrs. Jones continued: "The suffragists, have no convincing arguments, and their greatest mistake, I believe, is the manner in which they have inflated the power of the vote for either men or women. Certainly, manhood suffrage cannot claim the success that they anticipate for woman suffrage. There is not one objection to manhood suffrage that cannot be urged concerning woman suffrage, and 1 think the great minds of the day sincerely believe that manhood suffrage has many serious faults. To plunge women Into the same kind of political life that men now have would indeed be a calamity to this country, and in the four suffrage states where it has been tried we can hardly find anything that is encouraging.

The election of Judge B. B. Lindsay in Colorado was nothing like the political victory we had in thl state when the men elected such a man as Governor Hughes. As a state, we are proud to say that we did not need for this victory the assistance of 'women and the "It would seem to me that if we had to resort to this latter method for good government we should not be Improving matters, but that we should be developing a very much weaker form of government. No state in the tJnion has so well-developed a political machine as Utah, through the Mormon Church.

Woman's vote In Utah counts for nothing. She does exactly wTiat her husband or the Mormon elder tells her to do. Wyoming has not one single object lesson to teach us in the way of politics, and yet women have voted there for forty years. Idaho is also unimportant. Colorado cannot boast of any purer politics than other states in the Union, and from the investigation our league has made we should deplore a state of affairs that obliged dozens and dozens of women to tell ns, one after the other, that they do not believe In suffrage as it has worked out in Colorado, but implore us not to mention their names, as they would have to live the life of martyrdom if it were known that they had told the truth.

If there were no otner argument against granting women the ballot than this, I consider it quite enough to condemn woman suffrage. Kansas has granted women municipal suffrage for years, and yet the suffragists thre cannot obtain full state suffrage, though they have tried over and over again. The question was put: "You say you, as a league, are not fighting woman suffragists?" "No, indeed. Our league is not fighting woman suffrage, but is investigating the question. I think this must be tbe reason why the suffragists have advertised -us so tremendously and why we have aroused their enmity.

Before our first lecture took place, December 4, we were somewhat disturbed for fear that the league might not be known or heard of, but after the fS jAud she never cared for anything but brains before. I always tnougnt pontics was Important, but I never believed it would work such a wonderful revolution." "But aren't there people who are called 'antis' and do they have particular kinds of bats, too?" asked Eudocia. "Yes there are antis. I don't know whether they are that because they don't want the others to' have 'votes fot women' or whether they don't like them to wear such pretty clothes. There are people like that, you know.

The antis' hats are pretty, too, for they have to work against tvotes for but you see it Isn't as important to them. You know you may not want to do something very much, but you are never half so much Interested In not wanting to so something as in wanting to do It. You can't get up any enthusiasm. Perhaps the antis' hats are the ones with the feathers, standing out that are always hitting you and seeming to say: 'No you shan't come any farther this "I could never be a suffragette," said Eudocia, "because I am so little that I never could wear one of the big, 'more bo' hats. I am afraid I never could be, a suffragist, either," she continued mournfully.

I could get. the hat all right, my new poke Is really too pretty, but I don't know anything else about politics and I am afraid no one would ever invite me to go to the polls." "Oh, you needn't wait to be invited," explained Belinda, hastily, "In fact If you are a real suffragist you will want to go and you will have to go to cast your vote. It will be just as as to go to a matinee and it won't take fialf as long. All you have to do Is to put down what side you are on." "But I wouldn't know bow to 'cast a vote," said Eudocia, decidedly. "I am not sure that I should know what side I was on and then I never could write it down anyway.

I never could do written examinations at school, and I would know all about it, too." "Oh this is quite different," said "Quite, quite different. At school of course everyone knew how to write well, but tor voting the politicians, who are very clever, have arranged it so that no one will have any' trouble at all. You see there are a great many immigrants who don't know how to write at all or not well and the politicians have fixed it so they can do as well as anybody. You don't have to do anything but make a cross and you don't have even to think for that." "Well. I suppose I could make a cross," said Eudocia, "but Belinda, what Is.

woman suffrage anyway?" "Woman suffrage woman suffrage is it is" Belinda hesitated a moment, then a gay little twinkle came into her eyes and she finished triumphantly: "Why, woman suffrage is the rule of the bonnets." Edward Rice and Old Jim Case. Edward I. Rice, author of "Old Jim Case of South Hollow" Is probably one of the best known men in Syracuse. He did not have to write his book to become any better known in his native city than he was a year ago. He made himself popular in Syracuse by staying out of politics and getting into people's hearts.

Every time they get talking about Ed. Rice for some office he leaves town and word that he has gone to the Bad Lands to hunt silver fox. When the danger blows over and somebody else is nominated for Mayor or Assemblyman, he comes back and does something nice for somebody. The children of Syracuse love hin as they do Santa Claus. That part of Onondaga county, N.

which Is the scene of his story is historic ground. It figures in all the legends of the Iroquois nation. The white man who came after has added to its traditions, by developing a race of people among whom quaint character Ib the rule. It Is on this material that Mr. Rice has drawn his story, 'With the result that ha brought forward more than one figure besides Old Jim Case, who really lived and had a being.

Readers of his book will recognize that be is tilling a new Seld of corn after so much has been written of New York and its people. Mr. Rics does not make fun of them, but in a most felicitous way lets them make fun for him and those to whom he Introduces them. He expects to go trout fishing through South Hollow next summer, to gossip with the neighbors at the hotel steps and chuck the children under the chins. He knows them all as friends, and as a friend he will have to go back to them, even if he has become an author.

His story Is consequently written in a kindly, appreciative spirit, but with an insight into character that proves Mr. Rice to have too long kept his pen off paper other than business stationary. Strikers in Egypt. Owing to a queer provision of tbe law. strikers in Egypt on the street car lines are enabled to adopt a very novel and effective ruse for gaining their ends.

The law states that no officer may touch private individual in a. public property. Thus, when employes have trouble with a street car company in a city of Egypt fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have such facilities as street cars, they put all the lines out of business by posting pickets in a recumbent position ccross all the car trackB of the city. The result is that traffic is entirely suspended until company and employes reach an agreement. Policemen may be summoned rn squads, but they are of no avail In such an emergency.

Though they may seize the goods and even the families of the offenders, they have no means whatever of budging tbe culprits. They gesticulate and threaten, they swing their clubs as near as they dare to the noses of the employes, but all the response they to theli endeavors is a sleepy emilav ism carries woman suffrage along with it, but as a single issue woman suffrage is not advancing. Read Mrs. Helen Ken-drick Johnson's book, 'Woman and the and you will learn all about the woman suffrage movement and Its history. Women have been agitating for sixty years, and the ballot has not been granted them yet, and in the last twelve years they have met with an average of one defeat in every twenty-seven days.

And yet legislatures are showing great interest in the bettered condition of women and their rights. Do these defeats show success?" "You seem to doubt many of their statements." them? That is a polite word. Two-thirds of what they say about Colorado is not true. Utah is the blot on our escutcheon, yet the suffragists brag of it as a sample of political purity. Politics Is desperately corrupt in Colorado.

Women wage-earners do not receive better wages, as they all claim, and women teachers receive 10 per cent, less than the men, and yet the women vote. I could cite hundreds of instances where the suffragists exaggerate and misquote, but have not the time." Asked whether she had ever received discourteous letters from suffragists, Mrs. Jones replied, a little Indignantly: "I have received a great many. Suffragists and suffragettes have little tolerance for other women's political opinions, and reports from Colorado prove this conclusively. Some have poured their full wrath upon me.

A president of a 'Political Study and Suffrage Club' signed her full name to the following remarks: 'Treacherous, deceitful and cowardly liars, you league members are a disgrace to the nation and to a civilized ege of progressive thought, with Justice and equality to all What political views will this presiding officer give her members when excitement runs high at our elections? Women do not investigate the fundamental principles of government. They act according to their impulses and emotions. Women work best through their finer sensibilities and they have been given the greatest opportunity In the world. The whole new generation is In their hands, the shaping of the destinies of all youth to come. This Is a great task and no woman should shirk it or attempt to do it halfway.

She has the blessed happiness of caring for her offspring, and it will need all of her intellect, courage, character and affection to make her task a successful one. But OF A MAN -ANB lecture our fears were all dispelled. The public then learned that a small, new league had been formed to educate women in civic matters. It also learned that the President of the United States was very lukewarm about woman suffrage; that the Secretary of State had indorsed an educational movement to investigate suffrage; that the president of a great university had consented to appear and speak in behalf of an educational movement; that one of the ablest ministers of the country was willing to make a speech for us; and that one of the most distinguished of our poets and presided. This was news indeed, and was circulated from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, "We are now studying the woman suffrage Civic education can hardly be completed unless we investigate what the ballot means to both men and women, and I am surprised that a new women's society, just formed, asks lis If we are correct in our title.

Surely the vote is a civic question and so Is woman suffrage. The purpose of the league is educational, the work to be undertaken will consist of lectures, disseminating literature, recommending speakers for private meetings, women's clubs, and other organizations, and to coach men and women and boys and girls for debates In their own institutions, or communities." To the question, "Are there many anti-suffragists?" Mrs. Jones replied: "Everyone Is an anti-suffragist by virtue of not being a registered suffragist. We do not caVe whether men and women sign our anti list until there. is a need for greater activity.

At present there is little danger of the suffragists winning out, and while the question is before the public our league will try to educate those who are interested enough tolearn what the whole subject means. We will give instruction on the constitution, taxation, representation and the ballot, tbe use and the power of the vote. In fact, we will be prepared to teach much that pertains to civic duties. And voting is one of the most Important of all, especially for young men. "There are few antl-suffragist associations, and there is little use for more.

There rre few associations that really oppose suffrage, and ours Is the only league that is investigating the woman suffrage squestion." "How do you account for the claims that the suffragists make about their great success and progress?" "They say they are succeeding, but they are not," answered Mrs. Jones. "Social THE STORY helped to bring Brooklyn Rapid Transit to the point where it is about to pay a dividend. If you should ask Mr. Winter concerning it, he would in all likelihood tell you that economical and systematic business methods were the cause of the change.

He would probably tell you that the elimination of politics and political pulls had much to do with it that watching every point, sue as taking the supply of oil out of the bands of favored friends, and contracting for the bulk amount at reduced rates that savings iu insurance; that the stoppage of leaks, and the improvement of the system were the chief causes of this transformation from the junk heap to the positiou of a real rnilroad. But if you know the man quite well if you know his life outside of the shop if you know of his love for pictures and books and the things that are worth while you will realize that all these have helped him in his study of psychology, and. therefore, iu his study of men, which is the Eecret of good business. Continued From Page 1. responsible for his final dismissal, having been repeatedly warned of its approach.

The welfare work among the employes helps to cement the bond of sympathy which exists between the men and their employers. Several clubs have been established for the employes of the road, and they have proved very successful. These clubs have been very useful in bringing the men and the heads of the departments into close touch, and have resulted in general good will and harmony. Another enterprise looking toward the comfort of the men was Jhe establishment of lunch-rooms in the neighborhood of the car barns, so as to obviate the necessity of the employes going into the saloons to get something to eat. In ways like these the men and the railway officials are brought Into friendly relations, and both men and road are the gainers.

So such methods as those just recorded have.