The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1908-01-16
Members of the KenOsha Wo-
mans Club Discuss Unde. :
sirabIe Citizens
MRS. WHITAKER AS ESSAYIST
Discussion Brings Ont Sensational
Facts in Regard to Opinions of
Women of Women-Indolent
Rich Most Undesirable

The members of the Kenosha Wo.
mans club talked of Undesirable
Citizens" at their meeting held at the
Masonic Temple on Wednesday after.
noon and the meeting proved to be
one of the most interesting held by
the club this year and in the discus
sion some points were brought out
and some conclusions reached which
approached the sensational. The
discussion was aroused by paper
read by Mrs. Abbie w. Whitaker.
Mrs. Whitaker is a woman who thinks
and who hasa vigorous expression
for her thoughts and she told some
very interesting facts in regard to
the undesirable citizens in the United
States and her paper aroused the club
women to discussion which while
entirely spontaneous was none the
less interesting.
In her paper Mrs. Whitaker dis
cussed many classes of undesira bles.
She spoke of the emigrants coming
to the country annually and found in
many ofsthem3 the undesira BILE. She
urged that while little could be done
for the emigrants themselves it was
the work ofssuch organizations as the
Woman's club TO look after the chill
dren of these emigrants and make an
effort to have them educated so that
by the time they reached manhood
and womanhood they could be re-
moved from the rank of the undesir-
able to the rank of the desirable. The
menace of the emigrant she found
was not nearly as great as the danger
from some of the undesirable citizens
raised and fostered within their ma.
tive land. She spoke of the saloon
man and found in him the most undo.
sirable citizen, claiming that his bust
ness was the basic element in the
making of all undesirable citizens.
She spoke of the slums, of the hobo
and the tramp as some of the images
of the undesirable which had beer
made by the saloons, of the gambler.
the drunkard and the fallen woman
all of whom she discussed from the
standpoint of the result of the liquor
traffic. She spoke of the prisoners re
leased from penal institutions and de
clared that these men without hops
were most aundesira bic citizens anC
that there was a great work to be
done inEinstalling a new hope int
the breasts of these men and making
them citizens more to be desired. Shf
spoke of the capitalist active anC
sleeping and found in the man who
gave ofEhis wealth for the raising o.
monuments unto his memory while h
gave nothing for the alienation o:
the conditions Of the wage earners
who had aided in making his wealth
one of !the most undesirable of citi
zens.
The general discussion which fol
lowed the paper by Mrs. Whitakel
brought out the fact that the consen
sus of opinion among the members O.
the club was that the most undesira
BILE of ali citizens was the class com
posed of the indolent rich and tina
/ IAS6N NOAlAAOALC(1 1859 l1ldA
any other for the betterment of tn,
nation 'and the people. The saloon
manSwas awarded second place in tht
way of undesirability by the womet
of the club.
During the discussion the question
of drinking among women wa
brought up and the members of thu
club brought out the fact that at tn,
present time more women than mer
drink to intoxicat ton. It was claimed
that the iutexication of women was
rapidly increasing and the clut
women laid the cause for such an in
crease in intoxication at the door OF
the doctors who prescribe intoxicants
for women and in this way open tc
them the way to love of intoxicants
which sooner or later becomes their
master.
Before the reading of the pape1
Mrs. William Howard Robinson rem.
cered very charming musical pro
gram and at the close of the discus
sion there was the usual social hour