The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-24
APOTHEOSIS OF WOMAN AT THE CONGRESS

INSCRIPTIONS 1t may be in form monarchi:
! cal, despotic or republican. 1t must be one OF
! the three or affairs will go haphazard
! Now If the family is the unit OF the state, II
I from the home issues influences which shape
! the polity by which that state is to be gov
| erned, what should be the character OF the
| homes which possess such almighty power?
| When father and mother are in intelligent &C
| cord, when they teach their offspring that the
| basis OF all public law is private virtue, that
| the love Of home is the foundation OF love OF
country, that to defle the body by the falsely
so-called "smau vices of alcoholism and to-
bacco poisoning is to fetter and clog and
destroy the nerve channels through which a
healthy sentiment should flow without any
distractions, they do more for the anchorage of
our beloved national union than aught else.
Mrs. McComas of Los Angeles told the
audience about an interesting young gen.
tleman OF % who told her as a reason that
women should not vote that no one was fit
to hold the ballot who could not back it
with bullets. Miss Severance narrated an
anecdote about young man, consump-
lively inclined, who had said the same
thing. "And his lungs were in such a
| state that think l could have fought bet
ter myself" said Miss Severance Mrs
Armstrong said that from the remotest
| periods of history women had shown that
they could fight, if necessary, and Mrs.
Cruzan added words to the same effect.
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper then introduced
U. G: Hubbard of Columbus, Ohio, the
president of the Peace Association of
| Friends in America.
"Apropos of bullets" said this gentle
man, II have been lecturing for the last
| forty days in California in the interest
OF arbitration versus bullets. 1 have also
been offering peace literature gratis to any
| student who would write on peace and ar
bltration." Mr.. Hubbard then offered
documents on the same subject gratis to
any lady of the w. G. T. Union who would
study, write or speak on peace and arbitra-
| ton.
eff you read the documents you'll very
soon come to the conclusion that it is very
foolish for human beings to be splitting
one another s heads about boundary lines,
and when the women vote we shall have
no need for bullets-we shall have ballots"
Mrs. Eyster then told of dream she
had OF legislative Utopia, where legis-
lators promptly passed good bills and re-
pealed bad ones, and hoped that the day
would not be far distant throughout the
land when that dream would become a
reality.
The appearance of Miss Anna Shaw,
reverend and bachelor of medicine, was
greeted with loud hand-clappings and
waving OF handkerchlefs, and every person
present settled herself and himself as
comfortably as possible to hear what she
had to say on The City and the
Home"
1 know of no institution, said Miss Shaw,
more dependent upon just and righteous gov
eminent than the home. Whatever tends TO
degrade government tends to degrade the
home; and especially is this true in regard TO
city government-municipalg government; and
one of the interesting features of the present
hour is that all over our country in the ma.
TONS municipalities women are organizing
themselves together in good-government clubs
to devise ways and means by which the city
can be better governed. This is preparation
for the time when they will have some power
and some voice in the government of the city.
The home is the only institution in the world
| in which the people having its responsibilities
| and obligations upon them are absolutely left
| without any power to control or regulate its
| conditions. All men engaged in various kinds
| OF business have the power of the ballot, by
which conditions can be regulated, controlling
! the life OF their business, while women, whose
| principal business is the development OF home
| the rearing OF children and the development
| OF society at large, are left absolutely without
the power to direct and develop the home in
| the same way.
Now, then, if it is the uniform business of
| women TO rear homes and bring up children, 1t
| is the right OF women to have the power of
building up homes and to rear children. But,
IN this country no person has that power who
is not possessed of the ballot
I'VE IN Phfladel phia, continued Miss Shaw
ana Il want TO show you that men incapable
OF managing and controlling city governments
by themselves. l am not assuming that thew
are not just or that they are not honest or
that they do not try. believe they are honest
ana just and that they do try. But they have
made egregious failure. and the failure is not
through want of endeavor, but through lack of
dp1Ilty
Then Miss Shaw went on to show how in
her own town of Philadelphia the men,
bers of the Board of Public Works had
failed utterly to comprehend street-sweep-
ing, and she argued from this that women.
who knew how to handle either end of the
broom with equal facility, would bring
about desirable and remarkable change
In this direction if given membership on
such boards. The new Mayor of New York
had shown his wisdom in this particular
by appointing two women on the Board of
Street Commissioners. Had he appointed
twenty women instead of two said the
speaker, he would have shown a great deal
more wisdom.
For the reason that women knew more
about the training of children than men.
Mlss Shaw argued that they should have
places on all school boards, and she in
stanced the case of Mrs. Clafln of Quincy.
Mass, and showed how that woman had
brought about some remarkable reforms.
In the Police Department women are GER
Miil more interested than men, continued
MISS Shaw. Take the city of New York for in
stance For years the policemen of that CITY
nave Deen hll1ng their purses with the lowest
wees OF the women OF the city. A gentleman
you viii have TO be policemen" and said I
have never asp1red 20 office in my life but II
wanted favor or could make my selection T
would rather be policeman in the CITY Of
States.
There has been one Office have longed for
and that is the office of policeman. What we
want IN san francisco ana in every other citv
boards. If they were there there would nor
be one-thousandth part of the immortality
We have got TO have women on the police
board before States will be purified. The city