The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-07
WOMAN WRITER WARNS AGAINST GROWING
 INSIDIOUS TREND OF SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
 Culture

1 which is the acme of social life: then, a.
 if to prove the still existant animal side
 of humanity, the air upon this height | seems too rarefied to be long endured
 speaking in an evolutionary sense Soor
 begins the descent into sensuality aftel l which the gulf of utter ruin; and that
 descent is more swiftly made by those of the Aryan race than others: thus prov ing the loftier instincts for purity which even in the more primitive stage seemed
 inherent to them; therefore more easily is lost that conscious rectitude which Is the prime factor in personal and national stability.
 And what has all this to do with wom- an suffrage? The cases in this respect are not parallel. The Roman woman did not at any time aspire to the ballot part ly, perhaps, because the 'pater familias' was still man and master, even though we are told he did often defer to the mistress in her home. that being a ques- 1 ton then as now, of mutual agreement or individual will power It was only through intrigue and sex influence that she attempted to sway politics even in the days if imperial Rome.
 But the point is this: The woman,
 and consequently the home, began the
 drift downward from the noble height i to which they had attained before
 the latter days of the republic, by a gradual laxity in virtue and moral
 training, through the insidious taint | of opulence and luxury. In this re- spect the history of all nations CO., t, incide. The end is inevitable and | can only be deferred.
 Too Urgent for Uncertain Measures And this is the American womans part in the social scheme of today. The mo- ment is too urgent for trifling or the try | ing of uncertain measures. Already 1t may be said that the vanguard of our | society has reached that enviable height 1 at which we may well pause and try to 1 abide a little longer by means of our 1 boasted enlightenment of reason and i faith, than others have done before us i tine while we endeavor to bring up the stragglers from the rear.
 Indeed, many discerning minds have with reason declared that the descent has already begun. Consequently it would seem that enough is to be done at this moment of our development to occupy our whole time in an effort to ward off tho horrors of the inevitable decline, by re- building more firmly the undeniably tot tering Notifications of our national and social citadel-the home
 It would seem that we are cOgnizant of but one foe, and that we fail to see the slimey reptiles of dishonor which are undermining the walls of our stronghold
  demon rum.
 Exaltation of Money God
 He who doubts that the guards are down, at least in places, let him observe the great laxity of restraint and almost absence of moral training of the children in the majority of our homes, the grow ing disrespect for parental council and rapid coarsening of the ideals of the youth of both sexes. Note the ever increasing exaltation of the money god, upon the altars of our firesides, and that, as com pared with the days just before our Civil war, common honesty has sunk most mo- ticeably below that level.
 Of what use, then, that women should push forward in the effort to make laws which she herself helps to render void by the means of rearing men and women who, having been allowed to evade the government of home, may well be expect ed to evade by hook or crook the laws of their country, no matter by whom or how wisely and prayerfuly made. i To woman it has been given, this most divine trust and vocation, of teaching I the young.
 | Oh, that I might pause here and | burn this truth as with molten iron into the minds of the minimizing | actual md prospective mothers. l Surely no calling on earth Is so high, so decidedly God-given so 1 compelling and engrOssing as this. 1 Legislation! Why, laws make | themselves when we have made the | men. And no other kind are worth | the paper upon which they are | written. It Is beginning at the 1 wrong end to try to legislate sO- ciety into the proper ideals. Morals not made and this error, like | all social errors, Is more easily avoided than its consequence rcm- edfed.
 | In commenting more strict attention to home duties to women, there is no thought of social seclusion, for it is most evident that social and mental l freedom, the commingling of the sexes, aside from ruinous license Is the un 1 doubted foundation of personal happi- ness and national liberty. Then why not politics since time may also be spared for voting as well as for mental development and recreation, and since | many women are not nor will be wives and mothers? The reply is that these things are necessary for health of mind and body, but politics is worse than useless waste of precious time and a | ruinous misdirection of thought Need for New Garment Rather let those who are not home makers spend such time as can be spared from bread winning in the fash . which shall in some measure take the place of the long outworn coat of the order of chiva1ry.
 l Carlyle has asserted that so fast as | society shall cast off an outgrOwn gar ment another is somewhere aweaving if not already finijhed; but since Ger vontes laughed that childish but beau 1 tiful and serviceable coat from our | growing shoulders, they have since re- mained naked so far as practical ethics l is concerned, and this need becomes more crying as the shoulders continue to grow. May not son/s ingenious and consecrated congress of women turn | from the deceptive babble of politics and out of the everlasting material which helped us form that old garment | together with the wool of latter day practicality, and our few improved ideals, devise glorious coat to fit oul need--a means by which the socia
 ethics of our faith, with it's lofty ideals shall be more effV,tually taught to the
 rising generation than is being dont
 through the home, the pulpit and tho 1 Sunday school? Surely this would b' for them and for those who would hell to place it upon our back a far greater service to mankind than the mistaker scheme of Legislation.