The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-31
EVENING CHAT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

THE gambling element has been de-
feated in Nevada. The gamblers have
been beaten down gradually through
the work of the church, the University
of Nevada, and the woman's organiza-
lions, which combined, brought legis-
lative enactment
That is quoted from one of the
largest and most conservative papers
in the United States
Doesn't it make you proud, women Of
America?
Doesn't it make one of those lovely
awful thrills creep up your back-the
kind you feel when you hear the bugle
call, or when the hero on the stage pro-
claims his intention of dying rather
than forswear his allegiance to the
flag and the orchestra plays softly,
''Oh say, can you seq
1 think it ought to.
For it means that your sex has won a
full recognition of its right and ability
to help houseclean the city and the
state as we'll as the home.
The tribute that the great newspaper,
more or less unconsciously, gives US, Is
but one of the many that are contin-
ually being paid the power of the
awakened woman to get good things
done for her state and country.
Here are a few of them.
The president of the American Civic
association, in his book on his expert
ence in that position, has this to say Of
women's work, "I firmly believe that
judging from my experience, national
of communities, it is only through the
action of women that efficient final
and satisfactory work for civic regen-
GRAFTON can be brought through"
In a recent magazine articles it is
stated that when Henry Turner Bailey
lectured on art at the last biennial, he
voiced a plea for the mountain laurel
as the national flower, assuring the wo-
men that their support was the one
needed factor
And again, that a we'll known poll
tician said: when a good woman
makes up her mind that something
ought to be done, you'd better make up
your mind that she's going to see it
through, and when a hundred of them
get together you might as well try 10
stop a steam roller with a toothpick
as to put a spoke in their WHEEL
All this seems to me a state of af-
fairs no less natural and inevitable
than desirable.
Women as a class have more leisure
than men. In the home If there is any
little social obligation to be settled, any
matter of the children's education to be
attended to, in fact any little bust
ness outside of the general routine of
the home to be dispatched. it is usually
the woman who attends to it because
the man of the house is too busy in
Why. then, shouldn't it be the most
natural thing in the world that any
neglected business of civic betterment
should become part of women's inter
ests.
1t is the most natural thing in the
world, and as such it has come to pass
and Is coming to pass more fully every
! day.
Women of America, I congratulate
| you,
May you ever be burningly en-
! thusiastic for reform and passionateIy
| eager for the right. without crossing
/ the line into sentimentality and hys-
| teriai
May you justify the belief of those
| Who think you capable of considered
and farsighted. as well as a1truistic
| actionl
May you disappoint the SCOTS oi
| those who think you will always be
swayed by shortsighted sentimentality
| and emotionalism.
| In word. Women of America, may
| you be worthy of your great oppor-
/ fxy1