Evening star., 1912-04-05
THE DAILY CHIT-CHAT.
By Ruth Cameron,

A friend of mine showed a surprising
fund of information on the subject OF
la Dor unions.
How do you happen to know so much
about labor organizations?" 1 inquired.
L didn't know you were particularly in
| terested in economies
I never was.'' she said. Its just our
Saturday evenings"
And what might that mean?"
why, 1 don't know as it's worth tell
ing about" said she, "but it's lots of
fun and we learn great deal It's this
way You know the crowd that usually
drifts around to my house, or sisters, or
Mrs. C's on a Saturday night There's
sister and her husband and Mr. L, John
and l, Marie and the man she's going
10 De engaged to, Mr.. and Mrs. c. and
sometimes other people who happen in.
sometimes We play cards. but more often
We Just have a chafing dish and talk
Well, one Saturday night at our house
we got to talking about womans suffrage
we all had a lot to say, put when it
came right down to if we found that no
one knew much that was definite. Some
one SAID that women didn't need suffrage
in the United States, because there were
no laws that Disseminated against wom-
en-. and some else else said that there was
a larger proportion Of uneducated women
than men in the country, and some one
else said it was the other way round.
Finally Mr.. l. said, I don't think any
OF us know what we are talking about.
Suppose We all try to find out some defin-
lie facts on one side or the other, and
finish our talk next Saturday We did,
and YOU don't know how much fun it was
to talk on something about which we
really knew a little. We learned lot
100, because every one had found out
facts along different lines.
a1 hot ,terbf
say, Who's going to be the next Presi-
dent?' and sister said, Instead Of arguing
that, let's have a game of whist now, and
leave that until next week. so We can find
out about it, We did and that was in
teresting. too. Every one picked his
favorite candidate and tried to find out
something about him during the week.
and learned more about politics than l
ever knew before. Another night we had
tariff discussion. and last week we talk
ed labor unions, and the McNamaras, and
next week it's going to be socialism and
government ownership in general. You'd
be surprised to know how much fun it is
and how much you learn. You'd better
come next Saturday night. Be sure and
know something about socialism-not just
have an opinion, but know some definite
facts.
My informant said that her Saturday
nights were scarcely worth telling about.
differ most emphatically. Don't you? 1t
seems to me that there is a seed of sug-
gestion in the story Of these little in
formal debates which cannot be scattered
too broadly.
I've no doubt that all those people got
more out Of one of those Saturday night
discussions than they would from hearing
paper read on the same subject at some
formal gathering. Besides, some of them
would never go to the formal gathering.
Intelligent conversation is one Of the
greatest educative forces in the world.
1 wish that this Saturday night club-nO,
l will not call it club, that's too formal,
and the sureSt way to kill custom like
that is to formaize and organize it-these
Saturday night conversations, I'll say.
might be suggestive ancestor for many
such.