Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-05-17
Mrs. Dodge Says the Race VIII
Degenerate If Movement
Continues.
She Asserts That Morality Is
Affected by WOman's
Dress.
LIBERTY TURNED into LICENSE

IN striking statement made
public at the national headquarters
of the Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage in Washington last
Sunday Mrs. Arthur NJ. Dodge, of
New York, President of that associa-
ton, used a new line of attack on
the equal suffragists. She says: "In
view of what is happening in various
parts of the country, it is high time
for every thinking man and woman
to realize that back of the woman
suffrage disturbance is the question
OF sex-or rather a distortion of the
sex question" Starting from this
point Mrs. Dodge develops her idea,
and says that if the movement is not
checked ''it will degenerate the
race"
The only sure manner of estimat-
ing the real meaning or strength of
the so-called suffrage movement"
she continued, "is to see clearly the
moves and underlying reasons back
Of it. The suffrage disturbance is
in plain words a sex disturbance.
Many women who are suffragettes
do not realize this, but it is a fact
nevertheless just as the tendency of
some other women to take up fool
ish fancies and unnecessary move
ments is the result of that uneasi-
ness and straining after artificial
happiness and unnatural enjoyment
which indicates an unsettled and an
unsatisfactory state of mind. We
who oppose woman suffrage are con-
vinced that woman suffragettes sup
port their cause because they view
the whole situation from an un-
natural angle. One morning in New
York I heard a young woman dis
coursing with great eloquence on
how she and her sisters could i'm
prove the morals and manners of
-paep.vif, thex. were a ken tss hallot.
That evening this same girl -
fashionable dance. She was
gowned in an extremely decollete
fashion, and the way she danced and
bore herself was suggestive, to say
the least. l do not believe this girl
ever realized that while her vote
would be powerless in an election,
the cut of her gown, the manner Of
her dancing and the words of her
conversation could be made a
tremendous influence for good
among her friends, men and women,
and thus throughout the whole COM
munity. She was misled, as many
other women are, by the mirage that
good morals and good manners can
be legislated into men and women.
Morals and manners are the fruits
Of women's minds, not the voting
booth. And Just so long as women
clamor for political rights and yet j.
dress in garments that are the def4A
milton OF bad taste all the votes in
the world will not change the trend
Of sentiment in society and through
out the whole population of the
country.
eve are in the midst of re-
markable period of our history.
There is more immodesty in dress,
more looseness in conversation and
more impropriety in dancing than
has ever been known to the Ameri-
can people, either in so-called high
society or among those who are in
other conditions. Back of these
revelations of the lowering OF
women's ideals and conduct there is
the same reason as that which actu-
0tes the suffrage disturbance. There
was a time not so long ago when
young girls demanded more freedom
and liberty. an escape from the close
scrutiny of the home and watchful
eye OF the chaperon. They obtained
this liberty, and suddenly we are
now confronted with the realization
OF how terribly easy ii may be for
this liberty to be turned into license.
By the same line of argument
woman has sought a freedom unpar-
alleled in the history OF the world.
Having secured freedom and equal-
ity in the arts, in the industries and
In commerce, she seeks what she
calls a political liberty which would
bo periiously close to license. II is
a pathological fact that women, as
a sex, must respect and revere the
divine mission of their sex, which Is
motherhood. The moment they out
rage or distort or deny the purpose
for which they were created they
become shirkers and drones. Misdi-
rected government Is a bad thing.
SO bad that the men of this country
can be relied on TO correct II when
ever necessary, but misdirected sex
Is national tragedy, which II It Is
not checked will degenerate the
roca -