The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-01-15
HOBSON BECOMES SSUFFRAGETTE.
Repays kissers OF Old by Joining
Their Numbers.

|
the Merrimac at the mouth of Santi-
ago harbOr, thus bottling up Ceveras s
fleet, made him the recipient Of the
kisses Of the fair sex from one end of
the country to the other (much, it
must be confessed, to that gallant of
ficer's annoyance and dismay), has
I reciprocated.
The captain has become an ardent
suffragette. In recent speech on the
| floor Of the house (the captain is now
representative from Alabama) Cap
| tain Hobson mentioned his CONVEX
sion to equal suffrage.
Il have come to believe" he said,
that women suffrage will solve many
of the problems in national life"
The new champion of the fair sex
in it's struggle for political equality
| was not, however, won to his present
frame of mind by the memories Of
those osculatory tributes which dis
puted with the laurel for place on his
fervid and youthful brow. Indeed no.
Nor did any aspostle of votes-for-wo-
men pin badge on his coat and lead
him captive to the suffrage ranks.
The captain, who resigned from the
navy shortly after the war to enter
politics, has become a very serious
minded person with q real aim in pub
lie life. With singe- hearted purpose.
he is working to make the United
States dry within the living genera
ton. He is Demon RUNS arch enemy
And it was in his investigation of the
liquor question and in the solitude of
his own study, that he became con-
vinced that woman should have the
ballot.
Alter his recent confession Of faith
in congress- Representative Hobson
said in an interview:
THE average standard of the char
acter of a nations electorate deter
mines the efficiency of it's political in
stitutions. In standard of character
II.
five per cent Of the inmates Of penal
institutions are women; while over 60
per cent of church members are wo-
men. Therefore the absorption of wo.
men would substantially raise the
character of this nations electorate.
From my study of national prob
lens l have come more and more to
realize that nearly all the laws of
States and the nation relate to busi-
ness, and that very little provision
has been made for the humanities.
Property has monopolized the atten-
ton of legislators to the exclusion Of
problems Of living.
This one sided condition is due in
nerently to the fact that men make
the laws, which Of necessity reflect the
activities in which their makers are
engaged-they cover the business part
of life. To equalize this condition, to
make proper provision on the part of
the government for the other half of
human activities 1T will be necessary
to give the vote to women.
"Of course, men pay some attention
to the humanities, and women pay
some attention to business, but each
sex has great sphere exclusively it's
own, and both spheres must be con-
sidered with proportionate interest of
the part of the government to get the
best results. Clearly this cannot be
accomplished without enfranchisng
women.
Il do not think that the enfranchise-
ment of woman would take her out Of
her sphere, but it would simply project
her sphere into full public considera-
ton. The franchise would not cause
woman to usurp mans business but
it would insure justice to woman
whenever she engages in business in
competition with man. 1t would make
the sphere Of woman more interesting
to man and the sphere of man more
interesting 10 woman. a man would
not only naturally have more consid-
Grafton for the rights of his wife, but
he would be more interested in his
wife's activities 4 wife would not
lose respect for her husbands work,
but would take a greater interest in
it.
so that husbands and wives in
their dual nature attack together the
problems Of life in both spheres with
greater happiness to both and with
more efficient results than are now
obtained"
At Work on New Road.
n IL