The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1912-07-30
JANE adams
WANTS TO VOTE
Chicago Settlement House
Worker Writes Of Wo-
mans Suffrage.

~ LiOo1 doC4ui CiCl1CIls Says.
For many generations ithas been
believed that Woman's place is with
in the walls of her own home, and
It is indeed impossible to imagine
the time when her duty there shall
be ended, or to forecast any social
change which shall release her from
that paramount obligation.
"A woman's simplest duty, one
would say, is to keep herhouse clean
and wholesome, and to feed her
children properly. Yet if she lives
in tenement house, as so many of
my neighbors do, she cannot fulfill
these simple obligations by her own
efforts because she is utterly depen-
dent upon the city administrations
for the conditions which render
decent living possible.
She cannot even secure untainted
meat for her household, she cannot
provide fresh fruit, unless the meat
has been inspected by city officials,
and the decayed fruit, which is so
often placed upon sale in the tene-
ment districts, has been destroyed in
the interest of public health.
IF women follow only the lines of
their traditional activities here are
certain primary duties which belong
to even themost conservative women
and which no one woman or groupof
women can adequately discharge un-
less they join the most general move
ments looking toward social anchor
alton through legal enactment.
THE first of these, is woman's re-
sponsibility for the members of her
own household that they may be
properly fed and clothed and sur
rounded by hygienic conditions. The
second is responsibility for the edu-
cation of children:
"(a) That they may be provided
with good schools;
"(b) That they may be kept free
from vicious influences on thestreet;
"(c) That when working they
may be protected by adequate child
labor legislation.
''The duty of a woman toward the
schools which her children attend is
50 obvious that it Is not necessary to
dwell upon it. But even this simple
obligation cannot be effectively car
ried out without some form of So
cial organization, as the mothers
school clubs and mothers congresses
testify, and to which the most con-
sentative women belong because they
feel the need of wider reading and
discussion concerning the many prob
lens of childhood.
More than one woman has been
convinced of the need of the ballot
by the futility of her efforts in per-
suading business man that young
children need nurture in something
beside the three RS.
Because many thousands of those
working in factories and shops are
girls between the age Of fourteen
and twenty-five there is a necessity
that older women should be inter
ested in the conditions of industry.
the very fact that these girls are
not going to remain in industry per-
manently makes it more important
that some one should see to it that
they shall not be incapacitated for
their future family life because they
work for exhausting hours and under
insanitary conditions.
Woman would fulfill her tradi-
tional responsibility to her own chill
dren if she would educate and pro-
tect from danger factory children
who must find their recreation on the
street;
IF she would bring the cultural
forces to bear upon our materialistic
civilization; if she would do it all
with the dignity and directness fit
ing one who carries on her imme-
mortal duties then she must bring
herself to the use of the ballot-the
latestimplement for self-goyernmenti
!,