The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-17
Former DevoteeS of Monkey
 Dinners In New Stunt
GIVES MUCH AMUSEMENT
clashine Ambitions of Rival organi- zations Supply Diversion-"Jelly- fish" and Other Feminine
 Epithets Banded.


 to estimate the returns from the prophecy crop for the coming year, since most of those who rise up each December to pre- dict all sorts of happenings for the en- suing twelve months are careful to con- fine their attention to things which they say will happen in the ensuing December, nearly year away As a result one gen. orally has twelve months to wait before saying. well, knew it would happen" But the prediction made by various per sons that 1909 would mark the beginning of the election of officials by women Is, as can already be seen, poor one. When small group of New York women de- cided to initiate the agitation for female suffrage which has recently been going on in England, not a few persons pre- dicted dire results But between soap box oratory on the one extreme and a society fad on the other, the ballot for women does not seem to have interested the sex to any extent
 An impassioned oratoress remarked last year in public address that the equal franchise would prove balloon to lift women above their present level. But some one in the words of the average woman has stuck pin into the balloon with the result that the suffrage agita- ton here has fallen flat.
 But while 1t is not an economic issue the question is stnl the source of much joy to all persons male or female, equip ped with a sense of humor. In high so- cisty, in which a few women have taken up the agitation as a fad, that is newer than monkey dinners. the whole matter has become chiefly a means of personal recrimination If he Is getting nothing else out of 1t, Father Knickerbocker is certainly getting a good laugh.
 Only recently the city was edified by a formal debate between two women as to whether husbands support their wives. One side was taken by a prominent lady who had never had 8 husband; the other by another lady equally prominent, and perhaps in part because of the fact that so far as can be ascertained, she is the founder of the affinity craze. Incidental ly she has had two husbands. the second of whom she turned over to another wo- man, to whom she believed him to be spiritually mated And just to make the matter complete she also turned over her | child. When to this situation is added | the fact that each debater has an in- come many times greater than the aver age family ever acquires, the indifference of the average woman, so far as the fe- male ballot is concerned, becomes more easily explained.
 The only result of this debate as to whether husbands do or do not support their wives was to show that the answer depends largely on definition and point of view. Some persons may think that just because hubby goes down town, earns some money and buys a barrel of flour for his wife he is supporting her. Not SO, says the suffragette debater, asserting that life Is first supported by food, and that no one can live on raw flour. The wife, however takes it and makes it into bread to support her husbands life. In the face of such arguments, what is poor man to do? About the only solution seems to be to keep on going down town, earn ing money to buy food aI>l forgetting all about the argument in question. It is a very complicated question for him at best, and if he be so old-fashioned as to believe that the husband Is the money getter and the wife the home maker. he is apt to find himself hope 1essly at sea in the face of the arguments hurled at him. The wife, according to the suffragette, is merely a horse. Like that animal, she gets food and shelter And what more does the man get or what more Is there in physical life, replies the opponent. And there you arc. The chief question seems to be what under the sun this has to do with the advance of civil lization, anyhow! The whole thing seems to be huge joke. One of the two deba- ters before mentioned pointed out that in the census department at Washington whenever a wife replied to the question as to her education, by saying that she was a housekeeper, the letters IN. G. meaning not gainful, were put after her name. Whereupon her opponent retorted that woman who was not a housekeep- CT was labelled in the census tables "N G." that is, not citizen All of which while highly diverting, if true. does not conduce to the enlightenment of either man or woman so far as practical good goes, since about the only point in ques- ton seems to be which of two letters a woman shall be catalogued under Alto gether it is a situation calculated to inter est G. Bernard Shaw.
 Women whose incomes run into more thousands than they have fingers and toes may find mental elevation in such discussions, likewise a few socialists. But for the average American wife the home maker, who apparently isn't interested in
 
 Is not much of importance. Ancient phil osophers used to argue as to how many angels could stand on the point of a. needle, and the present arguments ad- vanced by the suffragettes as to who SUD- ports which seem equally irrelevant.
 AS matter of fact suffrage in New York has never appealed to the great middle class. When 1t Is either cham pioned or criticised by women who num- Der in their circle those who call $20, 900 year poverty, women like those awho were mothers to such men as Lincoln can't find much personal application.
 Likewise the personal squabbles between the wealthy workers for the female bal lot are not calculated to advance the cause Only last week Mrs. Harriet Stanton Blatch, one of the most active suffragist agitators, was accused by sui fragist wage-earners of having deserted them in order to ally herself with the wealthy Mrs. Mackay, while the members of the more exclusive organization whisp- cred among themselves that they really couldn't afford to associate with one who was suspected of being a socialist In the suuabble which ensued the suffragette or ganization was characterized by it's mem bers as having "superabundance of jellyfish." So far the movement in New York has not produced any practical re- suits. although 1t has brought forth wealth of invective and class difference, calculated to convince the average woman that she would best keep out of politics.
 There still remain, strange as it may seem, a great many persons who retain. old-fashioned views as to the marital re- lation and the duties of the sexes and feel that woman's sphere Is the home