The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-04-24
Local Disabilities Of Mothers.

/ me by the committee on program.
and / will endcayor 90 find some Of
the legal dsabilitios OF the Amcri-
/ can mother.
! viii make the assertion that the
/ greatest legal disability Of the moth
cr rs lisfranchisemaut What is law.
anyway. but an expression, an az
grcgatC OF public opinions put In
the ballot box? When We see every
other interest the railroads. all the
great corporations. the sugar trust
the beef trust. the steel trust. the
liquor interests (brcWcrs. distillers.
saloon keepers and dive kcopers)
c.mc go the ballot box and deter.
mime the legal restrictions under
which IN, youth Of the land shall
be- reared. and then see the twelve
I million mothers of the United states
denied the right TO vote. We most
kcon'y realize the legal disabiItir,
ot mothers"
The time has come when the wom.
/ pu OF this country have the right
. to protest against the iuiquitous con
ditions which surround the home
and child life OF tho land God noy.
or placed upon any human being
an obligation but that lie intended
that that human being should have
the power to comply with the con
ditions and obligations. and when
God laid upon women the obliga-
| tion of motherhood and collaborating,
/ He intended that they should have
[ the power to protect themselves in
their motherhood and protect their
| children in their rearing and If
there are forces today which pre-.
vent this action on the part OF
the mothers, then II is the business
of the mothers To rise up and pro-
test against 1t.
II there is any crime greater
/ than another perpetratcd by a great
! Christian country, II IL the curse
OF protecting the business which
| destroys all the lifc's work of "A
mother. What would men think If
the congress OF the United States
were to enact n law which inter
fered with and utterly destroyed the
results Of twentyone years of wor'S
of all the manhood of this country?
Men would rise up in rebellion
against the government and refuse
to submit To such conditions.
And yet women may put year after
year, five. ten, fifteen. twenty years
Of life, into the rearing, of n boy
and then send him out onto your
streets and he may be entrapped ~
the corner of the street and undo
II. a day all that she has done in
twenty years OF toll and sorrow and
pain.
While ii is the desire of every
wCmans heart to be consecrated--
II should be the desire of every woni
ans heart to be couragcous-'t is
]
every possible bit of power which
will enable her to incorporate into
! the life of society and into the life
of the state that knowledge. that
= consecration and courage which shall
give To the generations Of today q
fair possible chance to become no
q IL a
the world has heretofore known.
Now, remember, the distlller =:
armed with "A ballot: the brewer Is
. armed with ballot; the salOoI
keeper is armed with ballot; the
bartender is armed with a ballot
the drunkard the male drunkard, Il
+ armed with ballot The home
} maker, the child-rearer. is powerles
against such foe. without the bal
lot which determines political con
ditions in this country; and it Il
the crime of our day
Whenever woman has lifted up ne
voice against this ruin and injustic
the answer has come back: "Oh, {
the mothers would keep the childrel
of the street, keep them at home
everything would be all right
the men can make the streets saf
and clean without womeA and still
will not do IL, then the women, al
der God. are bound to go out an
help the men make them clear
whether the men want them 20 o
not
For, II there is any right whic
woman has under God II is tn
right to protect her children tror
any form of degradation and vice
legalized or unlegalized; and II tn
government OF the country legalize
homes of iniquity and vice who's
existence depends upon the dcgrad'
tiOn Of the childhood Il this coul
try. then there Is no mother-heal