The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-05-04
UNWR|TTENL
SOUTH'S FAILING
Due, Says Mrs. Breckenridge in
Address, to Absence of Statutes
on Sex Questions.

OH ScE !lueStiOnS.
The reason that the South reports
annually more deeds OF violence under
the so-called 'unwritten law than the
other sections OF the country" said
Mrs. Desha Breckenridge, OF Kentucky,
addressing the Equal Suffrage League
last night. lis that in the South our
laws on sex questions have not kept
pace with our evolution in morals"
The South. more than any other acc
tlon or the country, has failed to real
lie that something more Is now needed
to protect Its women than the native
chivalry Of its men. There was a lima
"nen mat was sufficient I belong "a
large class Of Southern women who
have suffered from the fact that thar
men have sought at all times to shclter
tneih from every care and RESPONSE
pility. L have. therefore, a great re-
spect Tor the chivalry which through
OUT the history OF the South has nro-
tected its women.
but there has come a new class OF
southern women who arr agaaed a.,
Yarlous iorms OF Industry and who need
e"e feinu Oh protection that only the law
can give them. They need laws ,b,t
WIZ protect them at their work Ard
that VIII safeguard them when not M
work. The denial of these laws bas
done more than any other one thina ~
create the social Ills from which tba
South suffers"
Crowd Hears Address.
Inc address was heard BY crowd
mat more than half filled the large
auditorium OF the John Marshall Uisb
school 1t was strongly prosuffrage in
complexion and frequently interr'n+an
lT.,Iz
president of the Equal Suffrage Leaeie,
oi virginia presided. She presented
KEY; IA: d c. Maclachlan, ID. d., pastor
OF the Seventh Street Christian Church
who introduced the speaker
Mrs. Breckinridge supplemented an
easy congregational style with pro
minute address. which touched upon
the mooted questions related to the
suffrage issue. She lost no time in
theorizing, diving at once into the
spoke with the utmost frankness. deal
ing clearly and uncompromis ingly with
questions of morals and public vice and
their relation to minimum wage.
Opposing woman suffrage at every
step, said the speaker, is the venerable
argument that women should not be
given the ballot because they cannot
fight. 1t Is the position that is taken,
she said. by Lyman Abbott and the rest
OF his ELK" The idea. said the speak
er. was born In the early days of man
suffrage. Wnen brute strength was the
unit of government and the ability to
bear arms a real attribute OF citizen
ship.
Enemy LIZ Within.
The enemies are now no longer
without the city, bur within" said Mrs
Breckenridge. There are no besieg-
ing armies 10 rcpel. The foes are in
side the walls-dlsease filth, ignorance.
vice. In this women must fight
side by side with men. Their interest
in we'll governed city and in n we'll
administered state and nation is
equally keen, since they share equally
the Ills that follow from city, state
or nation that is administered.
The making of the home has ceased
to be peculiarly the womans work
However careful she may be In the
preparation of the family's food, 1t is
useless IL the city has not provided
officers to see that the milk that comes
into the home is free from tubercular
infection and that the water is free OF
typhoid. The typhoid bacillus makes
no distinction I'm sex, and attacks the
woman, without stopping to consider
that she had no voice In granting the
water franchise
Mrs Breckinridge drew upon reports
OF the various metropolitan vice com
missions to support her position that
theer is direct connection between
morality and wages. The fact that so
per cent of the girls employed I'm New
York City work for sum smaller
than Sc n week. while competent au-
thorities place the minimum wage for
decent existence at between IS and So
she thought showed plainly why so
many girls are driven into another sort
of life.
The ballot in the hands OF women.
Mrs Breckinrdge admitted. will not
he q lever powerful enough to bring
about radical change in wage con
ditions II Is not. she said, a panacca
which will at once remove the disabili-
ties OF the present economic system.
'.When the alien comes to our
shores" said the speaker, "he makes
all haste to take out his naturalization
papers. He knows that his chance .as
n workman is improved Immediately
he becomes a voter. 1t is'not too much
to say that the woman who Is able
TO bargain with her man employer as
n person possessed of n vote will make
better terms than the woman OF the
present day WHO deals with him in
her disfrnnchised state"
Mrs. Breckinridge took the South to
task for its backwardness in raising
the ago of protection for girls and
for the antiquity of its laws on the
right OF the mother to tho possession
Of her children. The state of Ken
lucky, she said, was tho only one In
the South that has passed coguard-
a tsl In Ia w T.. . - u