The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-23
Do WE WANT ROOSEVELT
FOR ANOTHER TERM?
A Woman From State Where Women
Vote, Says No.

To the Editor of The Globe.
As "a woman and an American citizen,
I protest against the nomination of TheoJ~
dore Roosevelt as our next president. /
consider him unfit for the office on the
grounds of working against the interests
of twe-thirds of the American people.
The women and children constitute about
that proportion and 1 consider him a foe
to both. We expect in our highest official
certain qualities, among them, humanity,
observation-disclosures and desire that the
future shall be blessed by what transpires
in tie present, and in this question of race
suicide. Roosevelt shows himself lacking
in all three. Had he been a close student
of our social. financial and industrial Sys-
tenn, he could scarcely have failed to real
lie that the great need Of our country is
not more children more and yet more,
but that each family should have fewer
and those better born and better reared.
All the poverty and crime of the world
can be traced directly to the fact that
human beings, as children, are born
lacking in physical or mental vigor. with
perverted moral traits, and that their ear
" years lacked in wise guidance and suit
able environment. Will Roosevelt's adj
vice, more children" remedy this state Of
things?
Is it a great inducement for American
women to spend their lives rearing sons
simply because Roosevelt fancies lid
need some more in the army and navy?
Has he. ever visited the factories where
small children are employed? From east
this evil. Has he visited the breaker
boys of Pennsylvania, the glass blowers Of
Illinois and the girls and boys in our
great textile mills? These are not only
children Of eleven and twelve years but
little tots of five and six. Our little ones
of that age We regard as mere babies.
These less fortunate ones are frequently
employed on the night shift and come
home wet with sweat, thinly clad in the
wintry morning air. AS Roosevelt looks
upon their haggard faces and pitifuIly thin
little bodies how can he advocate more
children as boon to the race?
He may say that large families are ali
right-that 1t is our industrial system
that Is wrong. Cut down the size of the
family and the social and Industrial sys-
tenn will rapidly improve. for the simple
reason. that fewer children mean better
health and more culture, and such a child
growing up will not tolerate the evils
that the tenth child of tenth child views
with Indifference or is powerless to rem
edy. Social reforms require not only time
step forward when parents. as individuals,
realize that their first duty Is to them
selves, to develop to the utmost their
physical, mental and spiritual natures
and to see to 1T that their children are as
we'll If not better, endowed. =
A child'S natural right Is to be we'll I
born-strong- bodied, clear Drained, loving,
joyous and eager. Can a mother give
birth to such a one when toll and dreary |
surroundings have broken her health and |
duIled her sensibilfties, when she cannot |
has; when she looks forward to the fu-
ture' with direful forebodings; when she |
has no thought but of hate and anger for |
this unwelcome, intruder forced on her |
against her will? Every family is not sit |
uated financially as well as the Roose- |
VeltS.
From the sIu1ns of the great city. from |
the small towns where parents brayely |
struggle to keep the wolf from the door, |
from the overworked farmer s wife, comes
the same cry: I'VE cannot rightly provide |
Roosevelt never counts the cost
Home to the wide awake earnest
woman means the center of all things, but |
not the circumference. Home remains, as
it has ever been, woman'S joy and pride, |
but the circumference bounding that
home has immeasurably widened Today |
she has thousand hopes and aims where |
fifty years ago she had but one. The |
nervous condition of American women
being what it is, it is impossible for her |
to attend to the manifold duties and in
terests and at the same time rear large |
number of children. One thoughtful |
souled child. tenderly loved and wisely |
to the state than are the children of an !
harassed, faded creature whose whole life |
is summed up in the fact that ten chill
dren call her ma
The physical and spiritual energy re-
quired to give birth to and rear large
number of children is incalculable. Since
we are suffering from overpopulation |
rather than from the lack Of it, this en-
ergy could better be turned into other
channels It is not only an unnecessary
waste but binders the development of 7
woman and thus of the entire race. 1t fills |
our charitable and penal institutions and |
gives problems that the yet unborn must |
solve.
Every one knows what childbirth means
to a woman. Inconvenience, i'll health, is |
olation; long hours of gloom and fcrebod |
ing and, at the last, that torture. that
agony indescribable which every woman |
must endure when she becomes a mother
There is nothing that can compare with
the terrifying horror Of it all. Surely If
there is anything on Gods green earth
that should be decided for ones self it Is
this. Surely of all things woman herself
should be allowed to say when and how
alone who must suffer. 1t Is she alone
who may die. No man has a right to
say to the, frail woman who so bravely
faces DEATH This great suffering you
must endure and the care and RESPONSE
bility of it you must carry all your life
long" Even the husband, not matter
how honorable or loving he may be. In
this matter can say no word. How much
less right. then, has an outsider to de-
clare what she must do! Roosevelt should
attend to his public duties and let these
those concerned. Yet he hastens to add
that those not holding his views he
'tholds in scorn and contempt" 1. for
one. am not fool enough to vote for a man
who so regards me.
Itaseems strange that man supposed to
be broad minded enough to fulfill the du-
U
that moral and intelligent people should
differ from him In any way. Is he oar
reason, our conscience, or mentor in all
things?
1t seems to me that a grown woman is
quite as capable as Roosevelt in deciding
as to what her greatest honor ana glo-
ry'' consists in! o religion! how many
crimes are committed in thy name But
it may be well to remember that, in
many cases. many 49,, children 6,n represent.
not religious duty, but animalfsm What
n nPf he fv1aTln
of his sex since he believes that half the
population of the earth cannot attain
unto their greatest honor and glory
without being associated with him! In
CHANGING backward over the ages and
contemplating tho achievements of man
kind, does he exclaim out of the fullness
Of his heart: "a mans greatest honor
and glory consists In being husband
and fatherP' Ono, indeedl That would
be too ridieulousi He well knows that
IT Is not the number Of children that |
has 50 vitality influenced the world. but |
the thoughts he has thought and the |
deeds he has done. But woman-he evil |
IDENTIFY regards heF In the light of q hui |