The Alaska citizen., 1915-12-20

The N oman or AlaSka ana feI Influence on the Future of Alaska was the title of the paper read by Dr Aline Bradley at the regula. meeting of the Woman's Civic club of Fairbanks last Monday and is hereby given in full
 When our thought and considera ton turn to the influence of wo- man upon the progress of ciyiliza- fir. i 4urdictcly there springs be fore our mind the comic film of male creature, dandlins upon his knee a bowling infant. of mother wildly pinnins on her hat as she rushes to catch a train or car ana flys from one club meeting to an ether. Next on the mental film is displayed the motto: "A woman's place is her home
 When We picture the public-spirlt- cd woman. historic or modern, We think of Joan of Arc, saving Franco
 .t r enemies of Frances Vii lard. saving the drunkard's child and wife: of Jane Addams, leadin9 the ignorant into light and knowl- edge and the world into peace.
 Three women. without family ties, laboriag nobly to redeem some small portion of downtrodden humanity from the inevitable outcome of mans methods of managing public affairs,
 We shiyer little as we think al tEe illusuIous Joan was burned at the stake, because if her teach ings were allowed to continue. they would uproot the plum tree from which the fattened grafters of those 1svs: kings. nobles. and high digni- taries, and their followers.
 We tremble again when We re momt~r how Frances Willard was ridiculed, and even slandered. while the Temperance candidate was the butt of the Sunday comics. Today. prohibition does not even bring forth a smile of derision.
 Even in these days of progress, we ever think of the public-spirited woman as a more or less objection able reformer, since reformers al ways upset things. and reforms are only public spasms-short lived and of questionable usefulness ever, l say, We picture the public-spirited ", T sweeping out the Augean stables, where man has been breed ing the pureet stCck of corruption; We see her ever redeeming sinners from vice. and relieving the attend ing suffering.
 Yet even these things we think should be done by the husbandless. homeless. childless woman.
 We still whisper: the wife and mothers place is at home.
 In the shadow of this first mental silm, of the tinehonored mother, who restricts the sphere of her wo- manly interests within four walls, moves the film of the outside inflences and impressions to which her son and daughter are sub iectcd. which she ignores. but which her children with natural youthful eagorness curiOusly investigate. This pure lovely mother will not know that the sweet young lips pressing upon hers a fond goodnight kiss, will smile in dreamy recollections of the thrill which swept her frame when the town roue pressed her in his arms at :ke public dance, where her blood had been set aflame b. the rum-laden punch. Yet We say, the mothers influence should be in the home.
 Then let me ask: What is the home? Where is the home? Where does the home begin and end, within which her influence should be exercised? Upon what does its maintenance and honor depend?
 Is the home bound by the four walls which protect the human fam fly from the inclemency of the weather, and the prying eyes oi neighbors? If so. the bear with her cub is equally the possessor of home.
 If the home stops there, what do the terms Homo town, Home county, Home state. Homeland mean? Do they bring no bigger, wider, lar ger, higher thought than the four walls within whose protection we eat and cleep'
 No country has made as much of home life in all it's purity. culture and sweet teachings as has Germany. There woman's influence has hee:, strictly confined 10 house, food, and clothing limits. What mar velCus mother the German woman has been.
 What must the mother of Germany feel when she wakes from her frght- full nightmare of today to the full realization that all these centuries she has been but a breeding breed irg female of the human spe- cies-a breeder of highly cultured, hiehly-trained, highly specialized caa- non fodder.
 A breeder of scientists whose masterly attainments have been di rected to evolving masterly mo thods of murdering the offspring of female human breeders of less high ly specialized. far inferior, yet hu- man cannon food.
 Had the mother of Germany had a voice in affairs of state would she have been content to breed can non fodder" Would she not have endeavored to breed minds that could solve differences of opinions in some humane manner?
 In earliest, almost prehistoric times. about six centuries before Christ, the Christ-)ike principles lived within the simple inhabitants of Gaul the France Of today and the