The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-12-27
WHAT WOMEN WANT THEY WILL HAVE" SAYS
MRS. HUTTON

Editor. Spokane Prcss-I have
peruscd with more than passing in
terest the article in your issue OF
december IS entitled More Babies.
Not More Ballots; also the ex-
tractsfrom Mrs. Josephine Dodge
Dascom's new book In the Border
Country" including your editorial
comments. l also note the picture
showing Artist Gruelle's conception
of what Mrs. Bacon means when
she SAYS: i've found out that no
woman can be happy until she is
married and has children" The art
ist could use his talents with just
as telling effect upon another pic
ture of motherhood, where moth
er has no time to caress her babe
but must leave it for hours each day
at some day nursery, while she
tolls in factory or sweatshop to fur
nish the wherewithal to sustain her
child and self.
Mrs. Bacon designated her
theories as a message to Amerl-
can women. She says her literary
efforts bring her in $4,000 per
annum, which is fair recompense
for setting the world right. She
also states that slte is the mother
of three children, and intends to
abandon her work as writer to
devote herself to her family-what
weight her message will have with
American women is a question.
E1r;,
ever do a great work who could
not have borne great children, and
if she can bear great children she
can do no other great work" Ac-
cording to this acknowledgement,
Mrs. Bacon's writing cannot be
very great, and how great her chill
dren will be time will tell. | agree
with Mrs. Bacon that the home and
the cradle-side is the best place
for woman l will go even farther
and say that a woman who has
never pillowed her own baby's head
upon her breast, felt its tiny hand
caress her cheek, or listened to its
baby prattle. has ever really lived.
No mother need envy any fame or
position acquired by childless
woman. But motherhood in all it's
beauty, and home where love and
contentment reigns supreme, are
luxuries denied the average wom-
an of today. Economic conditions
of today have forced the woman out
of the home, away from the cradle
side, into the world to earn her
bread, and have made motherhood
a burden instead of a joy as God
intended it to be.
Mrs. Bacon is hardly just to such
childless women as Susan B. An
thony, Clara Barton, ane Adams,
Anna Shaw and last but not least
Frances Willard (who was Gales
the uncrowned queen of American,
who have and still are using their
creative genius in devising methous
whereby the prolific progeny of the
breeding class may be decently
reared. and whose work for HUI
manity is honored by all men.
These noble souls can have had no
Bacon interprets a mans love let
ter: Il love you because your eyes
are blue and you have drowned my
heart, because after | have done my
work, which | cannot explain to YOU.
/ lie in your arms and cease to
think. Give me a son with your
eyes, for l shall never understand
you"
l would interpret his letter to
mean just what he says: Il love
you because you think my thoughts
with me, because our work is the
same and we understand each 9TH
en- ct us work together hand in
hand" This is exactly what equal
suffrage means, and what women
suffragists are advocating: to be
mans companion and helpmate, and