Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1912-01-27
MRS. ROBINSON ADDRESSES
QUEEN RESS-

Editor Social Corner. Queen Bess
has touched the tender point of woman
suffrage--the care Of the children. She
does not seem to know that II is for
the sake Of the children, born and I'M
born, that women are clamoring for the
vote.
We seem TO think it is the noblest
self sacrifice to forsake home and 60
away to China or Japan. or some other
foreign country. to teach them our
ways, but when woman asks to spend
a little Of her time to look after the
things outside of the four walls of her
homo which must affect the health and
safety of her husband and children,
they Immediately become unwomanly
and the hue and cry is that women will
neglect their homes II they are inter
ested in politics.
Today so-called politics touches ev-
cry side of the home. Does not Queen
Bess know that II was because women
concerned themselves with politics that
they got the pure food and drug law
passed? Every honest paper in the
country has given this honor to the
women, and when this law was be-
trayed at Washington 1t was the WON
ems clubs all over the country that
flooded President Taft and the officials
at Washington with their righteous
eprotests. know, for I am on the board
of the state federation OF women'g
clubs. What one thing affects your
home and children more than pure
foods and drugs? Please remember in
future when you talk about women
meddllng in politics that It was women
who did NEEDLE in politics that got this
law to protect your children and your
husband, who must eat TO live.
There are thousands Of women weep
ing today because their babies ara
sleeping beneath the sod. They might
be living, filling the home with merry
| laughter. IL their mothers had inter
ested themselves with more things-ths
vital things outside the home-pure
milk, clean streets, etc.
Is It not the business of women TO
know If the tenement which houses
her family is sanitary? IL It not her
business to know whether the streets
where her children are playing are
dirty and fiy-breeding? Is it not her
duty to know whether the shops where
she purchases her meats and milk and
foods are clean and Banitary2 Men
are driven with stress of business al
most to the breaking point. Why should
not their women folk come to their
| help in looking after all these things
which 80 vitality concern the home?
There is only one way OF effectually
| doing it, and that Is to have the power
which lies in the vote. TO enforce laws
as well as make them. We women
| who for years have been working along
| these lines have come to know how
I much of their precious time and en-
ergy Is wasted because they cannot
enforce their wishes through the bal
| lot. II is not woman's fault that all
these things are entrenched in politics
men made politics what they are. It
is for women now to step forward and
purify politics-for the safety Of the
| home. Until they do babies must con-
tinue to die and women must continue
| to weep God does not work miracles
in these days. He has opened to women
! intellectual opportunities II they con-
tinue to shut their eyes and ears, re-
fuse to use their reason, God will let
them continue to reap az they SOW.
Queen Bess, you may spend your
time in teaching your boys not to
smoke, but they will go out into the
streets and perhaps be enticed into
that saloon, and before you know it
they have had their first cigarette and
their first glass of beer. If you had
voted, that open way Of temptation
might not have been there. Think
about 1t.
Before I was married had a free
night school in my own home for six
years, in which my prohibition father
and suffrage mother took great Inter
est, and know what temptations beset
boys and girls as soon as they go out
side the four walls that we call home.
Bless you, Queen Bess, don't you
know that home is not Just the HOUSE
you live in2 The home is the mother
heart and that goes wherever the feet
Of her children must go-in the street
in the school. everywhere, though many
mothers do not trouble themselves to
know about the schoolsl Everything
Is left to the overwUcked men.
If it were true that women did not
have time would not say anything:
but it is not true. Women spend more
time in playing cards, tennis, golf, AZ.
ternoon teas, dog shows, etc. thar
would be needed in preparing them
selves for voting intelligently. Look AZ
the trashy novels women are reading.
How much better II they spent some O.
that time reading up on legislation tina
affects their home life 1t 10 politics
1t is true, politics rules the world
There are good politics and there ar,
bad politics. True politics in the gov.
eminent of the borough. the town, tn,
state and the nation. Who should b,
more interested in it than the mother
OF the children?
MARINDA c. B. ROBINSON
. |
East Hampton.--Wa al Lake 20