Omaha daily bee., 1905-04-30

CLEVELAND lndulses III
II hcart-to-heart talk on woman's
club IN the current number Of the
kW Ladies' Home Journal Mr.
Cleveland says the trend Of woman's clubs
is discomfort with home life and mother
mood, and all the consequent labors and
sacrifices. He regards them as auxilisries
In the movement to secure for women the
right to vote and otherwise participate in
public affairs Mr. Cleveland says:
Let II here be distinctly understood that
no sensible man has fears of injury to the
country on account OF such participation
II is its dangerous, undermining effect on
the characters Of the wives and mothers
Of our land that we fear. At recent meet
ing Of these radicals high priestess Of the
faith declared. No matter how bad the
crime a woman commits. IL she can't vote,
and IL classed with idiots and criminals and
lunatics, she should not be punished by the
same laws as those who vote obey
This was said when advocating united
action on the part OF the assembled body
to prevent the execution OF woman
proved guilty of the deliberate and aggra-
waited murder of her husband. The speaker
is reported to have further announced as
apparently the keynote OF her address; If
we could vote we'd be willing to be hanged
1T is a thousand pities that all the wives
found in such company cannot sufficiently
open their minds to see the complete fitness
Of the homely definition which describes a
good wife as a woman who loves her hus-
band and her country with no desire to ruin
either And what a blessed thing 1t would
be if every mother and every woman could
realize the everlasting truth that the hand
that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules
the world
Il do not include in the club movements
those which amount TO nothing more than
voman's association or cooperation in
charitable, benevolent and religious work.
I speak more especially Of the womans
clubs Of an entirely different sort so nu-
merous that in the interests of their consol-
idated management a National Federation
Of Woman's Clubs has been created
II sneak also of the vast number of asso-
Citations less completely organized, but not
less exacting of time and attention, whose
professed purposes are in many instances
the intellectual improvement or entertain
ment of the women composing their mem
bership.
The danger Of self-delusion lies in their
supposition that they are consulting the
need OF relaxation or the duty of increased
opportunity for intellectual improvement,
when Ia point of fact, and perhaps inn
percepLbly TO themselves, they are taking
counsel Of their discomfort with the hum
drum OF their home life.
"t1nuuestionably this tendency is partly
due TO the widespread and contagious fever
for change or Encouragement which seems
to leave no phase OF our peoples life un-
touched. l believe it has also been largely
provoked by the increase of club life among
the husbands and fathers, resulting in the
neglect OF wives, thus creating n condition
of mans guilt which tempts retaliation in
kind
NO woman who enters upon such a re-
taliatory course can be sure that the man
she seeks to punish will be otherwise af-
fected than TO be made moro Indifferent to
home. and more determined to enlarge the
area OF his selfish pleasures. Cheerlessness
will invade her home, and children will bo
deprived of the wholsomeness and delight
of an atmosphere which can only be created
by mothers loving presence and alb
sorbing care.
1T must be abundantly evident that, as
agencies for retaliation or mans punish
ment, woman's clubs are horribly misplaced
and miserably vicious"