The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1913-02-28


Editor TIMEs:-On the editorial page
of your issue of Feb &c there are OUT
lined various arguments against the
wisdom displayed by Miss Virginia
Brooks in affiliating with the cause of
votes for women.
At the outset is it not apparent that
what had been effected by one pure
womanly girl single handed might be
accomplished with double effect in
shorter time and with less sacrifice of
self respect by a community of wives
and mothers eager for the proper en-
lvironment for the growing child? The
| use of the ballot would OF course
simplify this.
| 1t is shameful that conditions war
rant the publication in any newspaper
| of this country of such words as the
the following. and is it not time that
radical measures were adopted in this
commonwealth to eliminate such con-
iditions-I refer to the phrase 1.-The
ldebasing effects of politics" Pray.
who has debased politics and why
should politics be debased?
/ Evidently West Hammond may be
pointed to modern Utopia now
else why the statement that nothing
iiE her experience has pointed to the
ballot relief for conditions in West
Hammond" No doubt Miss Brooks In
an interview would intelligently refute
this argument for it is evident she be-
lieves in the power of vote, and could
further sweeten her. environment and
keep 1t sweet if she and her friends
among the women had the ballot.
"All men are brothers." and we suff
ragists claim that all women are sis
|lters." The saloonkepers foreign wife
tending the bar, the scrub woman and
the laundress, the woman who makes
her living by the exercise of her brair
rather than her hands, and women ii
the home are equally concerned b,
measures brought forward by legisla
lures and city councils affecting tn,
welfare of themselves, their children
and the home
When a woman undertakes to per
form her public duty recognizing it a.
such. 1 can assure you from persona
experience that the curses of saloon
4 toughs" amount to very litt1e-it is
| case of considering the source.
III We differ with YOU materially in you
/ estimate of the place occupied b.
l politics in the world today, and w
| trust that before many years roll owe
our heads it will be conclusively de
monstrated that polling places are no
to be designated as hell holes of tn
world" nor the selection of public off
lcers as a "debasing' action.
1t is respectfully suggested that to
much is taken for granted as to wha
| Miss Brooks experience has taught he
and it Is to be hoped she does not re
/ sent it.
III Full justice cannot be done to an
| cause unless the critic is thoroug hi
/ posted pro and con. and / have wonder
| ed if the writer of the article referre
l to above had had the time and oppoI
| tunity to post himself Woman
/ sphere of action is shifting every da
as economists well know; the da,
| when her household duties required ht
| constant attention have passed; r
longer is it necessary for the wife ar
mother to spin. to weave nor to fash
l ion garm entss these are done for /,
in great factories by machinery; ar
/ so it is all along the line. She now hs
| time to devote to public matters ar
lit would seem shortsighted polio
/ which would debar her from exercisir
her purifying methods.
KATHARINE SANTI.