The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-23
anti REPLIES TO
BRYANS REASONS
Thinks Men Are Capable of
Meeting the Secretary's
Emergency"
TO MOLD HOME ENOUGH
Woman. She Says. Has Done Sufficient
When She Has Prepared Child
for Battle of Life.
by PREsTONIA MANN MARTIN.

by PbESTONLA MANN hAhTlN.
At this time when the question of
woman suffrage is being agitated in Sec
rotary BryaHs home State. 1t seems
eminently timely TO look into the reasons
which prompted Mr.. Bryan to align him
self with the suffrage movement
In giving his reasons for openly es-
pousing the cause OF woman suffrage,
Mr.. Bryan mentions, first, his convic-
. ton that woman has proved herself
equal 10 every responsibility imposed
upon her. and will not fail society in
this emergency"
Docs a Calamity Impendf
What emergency does Mr.. Bryan re-
fer TO? He seems TO speak as II some
dire calamity were impending over the
nation which men alone were incapable
OF meeting and so are driven to call
women to their assistance. One could
understand routed Republican leaders
turning to such a forlorn hope and one
can quite understand the struggling
Rooseveltians falling into such counsel
of despair, but with the Democratic
party in control Of affairs and Mr.
Bryan himself at the helm Of State, It
is difficult to discover the cause OF a
IS. o. S" cry thus sent across the wat
ers TO women TO save the country in its
emergency. Nor do We anu-sunra-
gists see any reason so long as there are
still sufficient able-bodied men left in
the country to continue pulling their half
OF the load, why the burden should be
imposed upon women.
Mr.. Bryan declared that above all 9TH
er arguments he places the right OF the
mother to a voice in molding the environ
ment of her children"
But in a proper division Of labor "en-
vironment." |. e, the conditions Of the
outside world into which his business
naturally takes him. 1t is mans task to
mold" Woman has done her share
when she successfully ''molds" the i'm
mediate environment Of her children-the
home. 1t is too much TO expect of her
the molding OF two worlds. When she
has prepared a man-child for the world
II is up to him to mold the world when
he gets into it. That is what he was pre-
pared for. Woman cannot do It all He
has to justify his existence. Leave some
thing for him. Woman should not try
to be the whole thing.
Only Man Can Control.
1t is absolutely true. as Mr.. Bryan de-
clares, and one cannot but admire the
acuteness of his observation. that men
and women are "co-tenants of the
GARTH" and must work out their destiny
together" But in the light of modern
science, which declares that all progress
throughout evolution has been accom-
panied by an increasing specialization N
function, II is no less evident that the |
best way to work out their destiny Ito |
gether" is to work It out separately, T. e.,
along their separate lines.
Again, one cannot but note the benign !
and beautiful trustfulness with which I
Mr.. Bryan anticipates the rapid approach |
of that day when the physical force OF |
the male will no longer be needed in the |
administration Of affairs, but the laws |
will be obeyed solely because they are |
the expression of public opinion The |
Secretary's sanguineness Is the more re-
in that almost at the moment |
of his penning these words, news from |
Colorado described a condition in which /
and bedience to law as an |
expression of public opinion" had COM
pletely broken down, and the voting
women of the State with one accord |
were loudly screaming for Federal
troops, men with guns In their hands,,
to come and stay and restore law and
order.
Taking contrary view from that IA
vored by Mr. Bryan, Mr.. Frederic Harri-
son, the eminent English moralist holds
that the control Of government mot the
or discussion or study of gov
srnment but the control of government |,
should remain In the hands Of men for