The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-11
WOMEN DESTINED ID DO GREAT THINGS Sterling Wood Addresses Hiber- nian Women'S Club IRELAND HAS DONE MUCH The Speaker Drew a Striking Contrast Between the Women of 1900
 and of the Present
 Day.
IRELAND HAS DONE MUCH

The Hon. Sterling A. Wood delivered lecture before the Ladies Auxiliary club of the Ancient Order of Hibernians up on their taking up special course of liter ary work which will continue through out the year. The lecture was given at the Knights of Columbus hall on North Twentieth street.
 Other lectures of a similar nature will be given before the club from time to time.
 MT. Wood congratulated the club upon its determination to take up the liter ary work and referred to Ireland's great men and women in every walk of life He spoke specially in regard to practical club membership and among other things he spoke concerning "womans Advance ment" as follows:
 You have heard that women can not talk If a stranger were to come in this hall tonight, and see you listening and me talking, he might leave and report that women could not talk. But we know this is not always correct, and that, if rumors be true, they sometimes do talk, and that when this occurs, they always have the last thousand words. But we shall, for this evening assume this fiction to be fact, and attempt to say for each of you what you would say if you were saying it yourself, however far the mark may be missed.
 A speaker once said that 'women had no rights, only wrongs" but this seems to have belonged, if anywhere, to the things of a century ago, and today it seems that the alleged rights of man are getting fewer and fewer, and the rights of women more and more; and this is in danger of continuing until their so-called rights are identical, except where nature has ordered other wise.
 All agree that this is a wonderful age; all seem to think that the country's ad- vancement in the last hundred years has equalled the proceeding thousand. per- haps six thousand years. And, why is this?
 Force Is Required.
 We are told that victory in battle de- bends on who can send the most unre- mittent force of iron and lead against his opponent Victory is question of force and force alone; such may be applied di- rectly or cunningly; by present movement or by masterly inactivity, but the thing needed to produce this fruit is force, overpowering force.
 The reason Of the army s victory In pat tie, is identical with that of the nation s victory in the arts of peace, and the same is true of the individuals victory in the walks of private or public life all and each resolve themselves into the question of superior force. Our trials in court, our conclusions at the fireside are or ought to be determined by the ques- tion of force Do not understand the force of might alone, rather understand me to say the force of right alone, the force of reason, the force of law.
 As has been stated, this country has advanced in all the arts and sciences; in all matters of whatsoever kind, and we have achieved a great victory, and the reason for the extent of our victory in the march of this countrys progress must be the force which woman has exerted and brought to aid man within the last hundred years; the vast army of women before confined by custom and society have marched upon the nations work and play and caused new alignments And the effect of this movement has been to open up new doors for work to both man and woman, to make the entire work easier and the country better. There are some who would insist that the old order of things was the best, but this can not be demonstrated. Statistics on this sub feet are valuable to aid us in our search for light; some of them are compiled by an eminent authority as follows:
 Situation ia 1900.
 Tn 1900, less than 100 women were em- ployed in factories in the United States. Employment in other lines outside those