Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-09-27
FOR WOMAN
Miss Brehm Makes Argument for
Increased Recognition for
Her Sex.
WANTS EQUAL RIGHTS WITH MAN
In Interest of Morality and the
Happiness of the
Home.

Home.
The annual convention of the w. G.
I. u. OF the Tenth district ended last
evening at the First Baptist church
with an address by Miss Marie G.
Brehm. superintendent of franchise
of the national organization. Miss
Brehn is forceful and interesting
talker and she made strong plea
under the subject, The Woman
Question, for increased recognition
as the means of bringing the world to
q higher moral standard.
In opening her address Miss Brehm
alluded to the intricate nature of the
proposition before her, giving num-
bar OF examples in which the wissst
heads had been bsfflsd in an attempt
to solve the different phases of it.
The gradually increasing recognition
woman is being accorded in the world
was traced in the famous verdicts of
the wise men of old when it was de-
cided first. that woman had a soul, and
second, that she had brain. The
question which is still vexing the
scholars, according to the speaker,
is whether woman is capable of re-
ceiving divine inspiration; that is,
whether she has the right to presume
to preach the gospel. AS in the re-
mote past the que ,tions before the
wise men were decided right, Miss
Brehm believed that the right to
preach and to do all the other things
that men do will be conceded to
/ women.
Arguments For Equal Rights.
Many of the different ways in
which man does homage to woman
in typifying in her all the best and
purest OF life were pointed out in OPP
position to the theory of those who
oppose the extension of the rights of
women on the various grounds they
choose to adopt. The various objec-
tions urged to the granting of the
franchise to woman were taken up
in order and made to appear very in
significant, indeed. For instance, it
is said won en- are not sufficiently ed
ucated. Miss Brehm toog statistics
for it and showed the illiteracy of
men 10 be greater than that OF
women. 1t is said the home will be
ruined. The speaker repeated statis-
tics from Wyoming, the only state in
the union in which woman has had
fequal rights for an extended period,
showing that it is the only state in
which the proportion of divorces to
the marriages is not on the Increase
In the case of Colorado. the political
rights of women have tended to de-
crease the number of divorces. 1t
has been said there should be q bayo-
net back of every vote. The speaker
showed that there is not and never
has been as many fighting men as
voters. To the protest that it is in
expedient, Miss Brehm said it is
never inexpedient to be just.
Old Adage KIdIcuIed.
The saying that the hand that rocks
the cradle rules the world was ridi-
culed by the speaker on the ground
that if men really believed this they
would be rocking the cradle. so great
is their ambition to rule. In fact
Miss Brehm does not appear to take a
\ great deal of stock in the pleasant
fiction that men use in the effort to
convince women that they hold the
balance of power after all. She de-
mands something more tangible
Against the male argument used as
n last resort that those who espouse
the cause of woman are as a rule old
maids and therefore more or less out
of Joint with the world anyway, she
shows that the votes of women would
have q tendency to stop wars and the
| other violent and evil practices that
destroy men and tend to keep women
in the majority, thus saving hus-
bands for the old maids that the pres
ent system leaves forlorn.
The devotionals of the evening were
lead by Mrs. Castleman, of Sterling,
aud the closing benediction was pro-
nounced by Miss Brehm. A pretty
scene was that furnished by the pre-
sentation of the retiring president,
Mrs. L. A. Dunlap, with bible and
several other mementoes by the ladies
who had attended the convention.