The Washington times., 1911-04-27
Freak Clothes Sufficient Ar
gument, Says Cyrus Town
send Brady.
MUST LEARN HOW
TO REFORM SELVES
Half q Thousand Feminine Backs
Stiffen as Speaker
Proceeds.

There are 500 arguments in this hall
against woman's suffrage" said the
Rev. Dr.. Cyrus Townsend Brady, cast
ing his eye over those assembled in
the Church Congress at Continental
Hall. There was Immediately a per-
ceptible stiffening, of the back of some
half-thousand women delegates and vis-
itors, who had listened for several hours
to 2 rather academic discussion OF
Woman Suffrage AS Affecting Our Re-
Hgious and Educational Institutions
Then DR.. Brady proceeded to address
himself to the arguments" against
woman's suffrage, going into such de-
tails as hats, hobble skirts, waists that
button in the back ,and Partisan styles.
DR.. Brady is a celebrated author and
divine, and he is, In addition, quite a
satirist at times.
A great many women delegates to
the Church Congress came to the hall
today, rejecting upon what the Kansas
City minister had had to say with re-
gard to woman's suffrage. DR.. Brady
spoke late yesterday afternoon. just at
the close of the discussion on suffrage
as related to church work.
Best Arguments.
Look at the women in there" said
DR.. Brady, as he stood in the rotunda of
Continental Hall this morning and
watched the busy delegates as they ar
rived and took their places. 'I told
them that women themselves. are the
best arguments against woman's suf-
frage.
Mote those hats, those dresses
Women are born slaves, slaves to the
dictates of fashion. They cannot reform
the men until they reform themselves.
mo woman can do anything without
help. She cannot buttop her dress
without the aid of man or some other
woman. II they had the right to vote
they could never get to the polls un-
aided.
Yes, 1t is true that I regard the hob
BILE skirt as Just another indication of
woman's unfltness for the ballot. Wo-
men can't be taken seriously in their de-
sires for reform as long as they affect
freal1ish things and show no disposition
to begin to reform themselves.
Not that any of the women whom l
addressed wore hobble skirts, but the
of their sex and perhaps are worn by :,
some OF the would-be voters.
Illustrated in Hats.
Look at the hats you see every day. |
How many conflicting styles and ideas. |
No uniformity, divergent ideas, different /.
tastes, but all dictated by fashion. en-
phasizing the fact that woman is
to be and always will be a
slave to such things. Suffrage Is not In
her line.
IT told them that we had agreed at
our house that my wife was ann entitled NO to
In life has been to get my half.
The other day I had a suit made by |
a tailor Not many Western ministers
ever have a suit made by tailor, but /
I tried It. When the suit came
I found that the vest buttoned up the |
back. 1 called up the tailor and said:
Here, you have destroyed every yes.
tige Of my supremacy in the household.
The vest that DR.. Brady wore this
buttoned down the front and It
was apparent that he did not have to
call for help when donning it.
woman's Sphere.
"Seriously, however" continued the
Rev. DIT. Brady, Suffrage is not the
thing for womankind.' Her function
Is in the home. Her God-given heri-
tage is the rearing of children. moth
erhood, and the solidifying of the
nome ties Is the function Of the gen.
tier sex. Let woman make the home
brighter and better and let men work
and vote.
"Women are naturally unified for
suffrage and they should not seek It.
They should all realize in the begin
hing that a man cannot take serious
v a woman's talk of reforming the
opposite sex when there are so many
things In the reform line that the
woman might accomplish by work
among her own kind. Freak styles,
lobble skirts, shirt waists that but
.on in the back, woman's general
lelplessness and dependence upon
Iome one else, even when 1t comes to
lressing herself, are unanswerable