New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1914-05-02
WOMAN'S AWAKENING.

Miss Jean Gordon of New Or
leans set the ball rolling on tn,
field of the Woman's Suffrage
question. That she is one Of thu
cleverest and most forciblt
propaganda on the list of its
women defenders. is to say the
least. The address delivered last
Wednesday night at the High
School auditorium was an array
of common sense and advice and
summary of a deep study of the
rights of women in a new eco
homie age.
The suffragette movement is
not a new movement and is mere
Iy a crystallized protest of the
Intelligent womanhood of the
world against unjust and imag-
mary disabilities surrounding
the status of woman in this pres
emf dav civilization. The changed
economic conditions that the in
tense industrial age has produced
has forced woman into position
where competition and rivalry
with man, without mans rights
and privileges is not only a living
fact to be considered but a grave
question affecting the human
race to be righteouslv and NOR
ally solved. There is no doubt
that woman is closer to child life
and it's development than man.
Commercialism makes man think
in terms of dollars and cents in
material success; woman thinks
in terms of love. of character Of
sentiment. When the great in
dustrial octopus grinds I'M its
man annually large percentage
Of the childhood and the girlhood
Of the Nation, scorning the fu-
ture Of the race, it is high time
that the mothers instinct crys-
tallized in concrete form, through
the ballot comes to the rescue.
1t is the appeal of the child, the
boy and the girl, that generates
the frantic efforts of woman to
gain the ballot.
It's the mothers voice, it is the
woman's life pleading for the
health and protection of the hui
man race. Some men sneer at
these woman missionaries and
treat the crusade with hearty
contempt. A study Of the biolog-
zeal significance of the movement
will convince any fair-minded
man Of not only the failure and
the short coming Of the social
polity in this modern industrial
system, but find some elements
of a radically wrong nature that
either require modification or en-
tire elimination if we are to
nonsorx-A-- zsao-nf-------a and
women that will maintain the
high standard of citizenship. It
is the infants ery in the cradle
that steelled woman's nerve to
exaa from man legislation.
beginning of series of child
labor laws that will at least
mitigate and better the heavy
hand that lays the industrial load
on the childhood of the. Nation.
Miss Gordon aptly described
her first experiences with the
Hobbies at Baton Rouge, La,
during session Of the Louisiana
Legislature where laws and con-
ditions are being manufactured
that govern the industrial activ-
tiles Of our State. The lobby rep
resenting the Conservation Com
mission or Conservation idea
which means the outstanding, pro-
tecting and developing in a nat
ural sane orderly way the resour.
ces Of the State of Louisiana,
was the most powerful and inter
esting she met at that time. The
shrimp up to certain size the
oyster up to a certain age are
now protected due to that effort.
But when she appeared before
the same legislative committee
and ask for protection of boys
end girls up to a certain size and
up to a certain age as it had been
agreed upon in respect to oysters
and shrimp she was met by a