The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-04-26
THEY KNOW
NHUGHT OF WAR
Women's Ignorance of Events
National and Political.
As n General RnIe They Are Con.
tent to Accept Views of Fathers.
BROTHERS and Husbands.

ed kind OF women struggling to under
stand politics when we come to crisi:
like the present gigantic one. says writ
er in the Chicago Times-Herald. For
old-fashioned women are. with all theil
virtues. always trying to grasp the things
| that directly interest men and indirectly
l themselves. and i'm so doing are frauds.
more or less. the grade depending upon
the capacity Of the woman to dissemhle
Now wOman-and when / say woman
I / mean woman, and not a hybrid or fun
gus growth, or a new variety-was not
| constituted to understand either finances
or politics There never was a norman.
/ healthy woman yet who wouldn't prefer
/ cash in hand 10 the best investment that
ever was tied up in paper form. | know
a girl who had a legacy of $3.50 left her.
She wanted il for Christmas presents.
but her father bought mortgage out in
Seattle which paid her large interest.
! The interest was as nothing to console
her: she had lost the mony. And not
until the mortgage was sold. and the
money. with interest, was given her did
! she realize that she had not been cheat
ed out of her prize.
Another young person of the same per
suasion said once to me: 81 can't help
feeling rich with $50 in my pocket. even
If every cent of it is going to pay a bill
the next moment"
AS for banks or national finances tho
average woman's perception of them is
something men would gasp at, IL they
really once took in the colossal igno-
rance that marks il. And not only that.
but the unteachableness of the average
woman in those respects. Sixteen
times has somebody | know had the hor-
fible ratio of Is To ] described to her
fully and in precise detail and in the
simplest language by a master of such
things and today she is as innocent of
any knowledge of the blessed business
as when ii was eXpounded 10 her the
first time And sixteen years from to-
day she will be just as ignorant.
IL l. nOt given TO women to comprehend
thar which man deliberately makes COM
piicated i'm order to daze her. Mary
SomerYille to the contrary notwithstand-
ing. women are not mathematical And
nobody at all-or Belva Lockwood-to the
contrary Notwithstanding, women are not
political. I don't know how much Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton knows of politics,
but Judging from her autobiography, one
would say il was very little. and so bet
ter Tor her. Anybody can want the suf-
frage. child cries for the moon. with
ont IN the least knowing that it's a
mighty engine i'm hand. not portable and
strictly warranted to prove unmanage-
able. Voting for school committees. and
even practicing law at a sheltered bar.
is a far different thing from hustling
roughs for a nomination; but this is not
in my subject. My subject is. or started
TO be-, that women knew nothing about the
present crisis, and especially about war.
They are usually echoes Of their husbands
and brothers and the men they meet casu-
ally. Belinda has been accustomed to
hear the Presidents policy denounced at
home we will say. Belinda, in her heart
does not favor war-that is. che killing of
people. She shoulders whenever she hears
the possibility mentioned. But Belinda
feels that the cause is high and holy
one. ana that we are striking for our
nations Unconstitutional Belinda does not
know exactly what that means in the
present instance. She talks war. though
and gets excited. and says men are cow
ards who oppose il, and all that. And
Belinda meets a man who says unexpect-
edly To her: Isn't il blessing We have
a man al the helm who can't be bullied:
who has stood firm through all kinds Of
coercion. Why. just think what would
happen if some lingo fool had been in his
place, and precipitated war before We had
a thing ready"
But don't you think" Belinda muir
murs that Mckinley has been little
slow ,This is something a visitor VEN
tured upon one day at her uncle's house.
Her uncle IS defender of the President)
SLOW. screams the man. SLOW! Why.
no. A man who has the safety of mil
lions Of people in his hands has got TO
go slow. Would you have him impetu-
Gus and undignified. and dragging the
country into all kinds of complications
Belinda says no. of course not. But
she il not quite satisfied. and asks mild
~ if her interlocuto- does not think the
loss OF 266 sailors enough to make one
cry for vengeance. The gentleman gives
her the orthodox answer-that the court
of inquiry declared the issue doubtful
etc. And after he has talked a long time
Belinda goes home to utter the astound-
ing news at dinner that she has changed
her politics. The men of the family i'm
mediately convert her over again. and
Belinda is war horse next morning as
before.
This, or its converse. has happened a
hundred times. one may venture to state,
in this city within a fortnight.
Now. this is the case. as women and
girls understand it: Cuba has been hor-
ribly maltreated by Spain. has revolted
and has been worse treated since Ev-
erybody on the island is starving. Spain
and Weyler trying TO kill off all the revo-
lutionists by this pleasing method of
death. We sent down a vessel-though
why. l don't know-and il was prompt
" blown up. We didn't do anything
about that but institute an inquiry; and
when the inquiry was over 1t left us
pretty much where we were before. We
didn't know. but we rather thought a
mine had blown up the Maine. The
Spaniards didn't know. but rather
thought the Maine had blown itself up.
So we got nowhere at ALL
This was very tame. And then we
thought how the Cubans were suffering
having got on our war paint-and that
we must relieve them at the point of the
bayOnet. which is fgurative for the ram
of a torpedo boat. So We cast about TO
see how we could manage that-and that |
is as far most of US have got. All |
the Congress wrangles. senators clam |
oriug for one thing and representatives !
for another. and the President standing |
out for something else-all this is a
blank
Now as for war. Some people say that
il means one sharp struggle and Spain
I mean Cuba-is ours. or her own
Some say that that will do no good. for
Spain will be keeping her navay way off |
somewhere to harass ours and ruin our
commerce. Never mind" says one
about that. Only 4 per cent of our COM
merce is foreign, anyway. and let Spain
do her worst.
7 am comforted. but only for a brief
moment. Another man chimes in: LET
me tell you that per cent is a very i'm
portant fraction of our commerce. IL
is a large proportion. and means more