The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-29
BRIDES-ELECT THE CENTER
OF MANY ENTERTAINMENTS
Mrs Moodys Reception for Miss RobersonMrs Crawford
Johnson Hostess for Miss Dixon and MIR. Brooke
Prospective Partes-Notes
by MYRTLE MILES

Hon. Robert LaFollette. the United
states senator. is to deliver an adoress
in Birmingham the evening of Novem-
Der at the high school, where he IN
troduces the lyceum course of lectures
TO those who expect to hear him or
have already it will be of interest to
know that his wife. Mrs. Belle Case
LaFollette, is a prominent worker Tor
equal suffrage and spoke this week III
its behalf In Boston. One of the strong
est points in her plea for suffrage was
for the education of children In citizen
ship .sWhere do we find strife amid CIV
ilization?" she asked. In the homes
where the husband and wife have not
had mutual interests. where they have
grown apart and one has outstrlppeo
the other in development"
The training of children, she says, Is
the peculiar province of women. But
how can mothers, who have no knowl-
edge themselves of public affairs, teach
them to be good citizens? MY boys,
said Mrs. LaFollette. "often come to me
to ask about this or that when they
can't get at their father, and Ii 1 am
able to answer their questions intelli-
gently. is not that good thing for
them? Are they not so much better
prepared for citizenship"
Mrs. LaFollette also pleaded for the
women themselves and for the enrich
ment that comes into their lives when
they think of II air own homes as re-
lated to their larger home, the town?
ship, the state and the nation. What is
this government" she asks, that we
women have been taught to think of
as something so remote from our in
terests so unrelated to the immediate
personal preoccupations of our daily
lives? There are three great matters
in which we are all concerned: religion,
education and government In religion
men and women share equally dndeed
men are sometimes willing that wom-
en- should do more than their share).
In education it has come to pass that
both men and women participate equal
ly though that was not always so. 1t
is less than two generations that our
universities and even our high schools
have been open to women upon the
same terms as to men.
But government is considered as
mems exclusive province-a limitation
that has narrowed the lives of the
women. that has robbed the children
and that has reacted most inJuriously
upon the state With what matters does
government most concern itself? Why.
with matters that touch. Intimately
home happiness and home prosperity.
with laws and regulations that guard
and further human lives The smallest
government township deals with roads
and with schools-surely matters well
within women's province. Is 1t not i'm
portant to the mother as well as to
the father that there should be good
roads and good schools to opportunities
, for education and pleasant social cen
Tiers and thus keep the children con-
tented at home and prevent the depop-
ulation of school districts?
"Then the county matters, courts and
jails, insane hospitals and poor relief
are not these peculiarly within wom-
ans sphere? To nurse the sick, to sue
cor the unfortunate have been WON :
ems immemorial function. And have
not our jails and our public charitable
institutions been less humane than they
might have been had women's influence
been felt there as it Is felt in their
own homes? Certainly every woman
will concede that In so far as railroad
rates and tariffs and trusts affect the
cost of living 1t is She who must bear