Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-19


Frenchman with title and go and live
in his country. Frenchwomen who have
been awakened look to the United
States as shining light and a beacon
of hope reckoning them on in their eff
forts to secure for their sex in their
own land the rights and especially the
Opportunities we have in America.
But the congress of feminine works
and institutions does not take the polit-
ical bull by the horns boldly and d.
rectly. In a talk recently a prominent
official of the organization told me that
in fact she was rather doubtful wheth-
err it would be wise at present to confer
suffrage on Frenchwomen.
The organization of feminine works
and institutions is striving for the add
vancement of women industrially, edu-
cationally and morally; for giving mar
ried women control of their own earn
ings and inheritances obtaining for
the woman child in France such edu-
cation as every high school girl in the
States gets free of cost and sometimes
values all too lightly. The ladies, too,
are agitating for raising French work.
ing women's wages, which are so
shamefully low that it is almost impos-
sible for a young woman in the lower
social walks to earn an honest living.
The convention was divided into Sec
tons, each presided over by chairwo-
man arranged for by a committee of Ia
dies who worked zealously and with the
enthusiasm of women for their partic-
ular branch. The committee consulted
and transacted business in the smaller
rooms in the forenoon, as the American
congressman do In the afternoon they
assembled in the large hall of the noble
and beautiful palace of congresses for
public meetings.
programme of their operations. is
before me, printed in dainty and ex-
pressive French. In our ruder English
the five sections may be designated as
follows: First. philanthropy and social
economy: second, legislation and mo-
rality; third, education; fourth, labor;
fifth, arts, letters and sciences. Under
the department of legislation and NOR
ais one is glad to notice topics like
these for discussions Management of
Woman's Property After Marriage
Equal Rights of the Father and Moth
er In the Children" and especially this:
"Abrogation of All Distinction Between
Men and Women In Regard to the
Standard of Morality If there is any,
thing society needs to "abrogate'' to-
day, it is this distinction between man
and woman as to what is expected of
them morally.
The section of education the nice
French sense of classification divides
thus: Observation-Disclosures, social and
pedagogic. Under the heading of edu-
cation pedagogic we find modest hint
that place should be made for women
in instruction and in the inspection and
administration of all scholastic estab-
: lishments of every grade, a suggestion
of itself calculated to take away the
breath of a Frenchman. Under the la
Dor section among other subjects dis
cussed was that of cooperative pro-
duction, a branch of cooperation that
has hitherto Jagged greatly. In France
much of the labor in the fields is done
by women, the farms being very small.
For this reason any meeting consider
ing woman industrially in France
would deal at some length with the
accordingly, that these excellent ladies
here, as elsewhere. going to the bottom
l.of things, encourage the spreading of
agricultural information among their
sex upon farms. They would have ev-
erywhere schools of agriculture and
horticulture, likewise farm schools,
with half time labor, open to girls as
well as boys. Such schools work for
the advancement Of agriculture In any