The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-18

' hhNSAihS WtlS 4ia loOeiOHf %AA S'
 c. r. Orr, Mrs. Herman Saks, Miss Mar
 tha Dabney, Mrs. Charles Frement, Mrs. Sellers, Mrs. Vassar Allen, Mrs Clar-
 ence Bonnam, Mrs. Robert Hemphill. Mrs.
 Evans Dunn, Mrs. Ed s. Moore, Mrs. Solon Jacobs, Miss M. E. Robinson, Miss Lou Abbe Chambless, who gave splen- did extemporaneous talk on educational
 affairs following the debate; Miss Bu- chanan, Mrs. Jack Bowron, Mrs. T. IL. Joy, Mrs. William Hood, Mrs. Leslie Full enWider, Mrs. George Tarrant, Mrs. B. 5. Lester, Miss Willie NJ. Allen, Mrs. G. H.. Harrington, Mrs. N. H. Gillespie, Mrs. A.
 H. Ford, Mrs. Felix Blackburn, Mrs Vic
 tor Hanson, Miss Ella Hubbert, Mrs. Will
 liam Sibley, Mrs. J. b. Penney, MISS
 Amelia Warrington, Mrs. Steve Smith, Mrs. W. S. Lowell, Mrs. J. D. kirkpatrick,
 Mrs. Caldwell Bradshaw and others. In the interim between Mrs. Reeds ad- dress and the debate, and afterward
 during the delberation of the judges, when the debate was closed, Miss Rosa
 Fabian, the gifted young Birmingham vl-
 olinist, who has studied the past two years under Shradick, gave two groups of violin numbers with Mrs. l.. Block as
 her accompanist on the piano. Miss Fabian's rendition of the Minuet G Major, by Beethoven, the Berceuse, by caesa Cui and The Bee by Schubert, ably Justi- fled her admirers highest expectations
 and contributed to the excellence of the afternoons entertainment.
 The audience had the privilege of lis tening to four of Birmingham's ablest clubwomen in debate. The subject was, Resolved, That our women's clubs should lay more stress on the investigation and
 solution of present day problems than on literary and self cultural study" and
 Mrs. Sidney Ullman of the Council of Jewish Women and Mrs. T. O. Smith
 of the Highland Book club on the nega- tive and Mrs. Sterling Wood of the Cad | mean Circle and Mrs. John D. Elliott or the Clionian on the affirmative side or the question, brought out each point in
 her conception of the argument so well
 that it gave the judges great difficulty ] to decide in favor of either side. The l judges, MT. James Weatherly, MT. Henry Pitts and pr. Morris Newfield, brought in however, a decision in favor of the negative. MT. Weatherly, in his happiest vein, gave the decision, and there was great uncertainty in the minds of those who listened as to what the final outcome | would be, for the subject had been bril- l lantly handled by the four women. 1 Mrs. Sideny Ullman, who was the first speaker handled the affirmative side of the argument deftly, cleverly and with a l familiarity both with the subject matter
 and the approved method of delivery which reflected great credit upon her club. In the rebuttal she was especially | clever, responding to the amiable criti- l cisms and humor of her scholarly antag-
 onist, Mrs. Sterling A. Wood with a read
 mess and wit that was captivating. l Mrs. Woods presents her arguments with no reference to book nor paper,
 and with voice whose resonance carries 1 it to the farthest corner of the audi | torlum. Her argument was as different | from that of her opponent, Mrs. Elliott, as one subject is different from another, | yet both were magnificent. Their team work, indeed was excellent, Mrs. Wood | taking the practical view and Mrs. Elliott ! taking the aesthetic side of the same proposition.
 Says Mrs. Wood:
 | Our opponents do not propose to change clubs entirely to study modern problems. | they propose to leave us the outer shell of | our present clubs-but to poison their high | ideals and singleness of purpose by intro
 ducing the bacilli of unrest and changed
 and ever changing ideals, which treat 1 ment can have but one resultr-the gradual
 sicl<ening and final disruption of the clubs. | Let us bear in mind:
 They would change literary clubs, clubs | such as those studying the drama and | trying to purify and uplift the stage, a | field where work Is so urgently needed,
 into general clubs with scattering objects l They would change the Music Study
 
 great work in orystalizing the interest | and elevating the standard of the city in musical matters into club to study mod | ern problems. o, worthy judges would l you-could you--give a favorable verdict
 to side which advocates requiring the | Music Study club to devote half of its
 time or even a fourth of it's time. to the study of such problems as the smoke nuisance or the best way to screen the | fruit stands on the street corners? Such a course would sound the death knell of the Music Study club. Such vandalism would succeed in killing half centurys S
 work of women's clubs.
 My part is to prove that womens clubs
 should not all pursue the same line of thought and action They should be varied and specialized. To do this have but to point you to this vast universe-the ex- pression of the infinite mind which teaches
 us the law of variety and specialization. In the mineral kingdom did the Creator say There shall be no diamond with it's brilliant rainbow scintillations--no pearl
 with its soft luster, There shall be only something strong-somethng powerful ! only iron, and copper, and coal, and gran ite, which shall serve for utilitarian pur- poses?'
 In the vegetable kingdom, in addition to it's countless array of practical remunera- tive life sustaining products, do we not find trees and shrubs of merely orna-
 mental value? Even among the flowers, do we not find separate families bearing separate messages-t may be of sweet ness, of modesty, of purity, to the recep- tive heart?
 The same law of variety and specaliZa- tion is observed in the animal Kingdom on
 up through man-both in his natural en- dowments and in. the manner in which he acquires his education.
 The young boy of IS or IA, entering the high school, four years removed from col lege work, and eight years from probable entrance upon his life work. is urged to
 then and there decide upon that life work
 and focus all of his high school and col lege training upon the securing of fitness and intelligent preparation for that work We might learn a valuable lesson here from mems clubs. A mans club is all ways for one object. The Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade, the Bir- | mingham Bar association, the Young Mems Hebrew association, the Good Roads association, the park commission the Anti-Tuberculosis association. When did you ever hear of one of these clubs | studying problems belonging rightfully to one of it's brother clubs?
 | The General Federationof Women's
 Clubs has a membership of AZ state
 federations-5312 clubs. so0,O00 mem bers, eight affiliated organizations, seven foreign clubs representing 300 members, one foreign federation, repre- senting IS clubs.
 These thousands of clubs form an ag- gregation of every conceivable motif of thought and action which addresses it. self to womans mind. There are clubs for the study of art. of music. of civics.