South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-09
Mothers as Leaders
i'm Great Reforms
BY Ebert Hubbard.

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the world.
She il was who changed madhouses
into asylums for the mentally sick.
II was through her insistence that
insane people ceased to be treated as
criminals.
She made her way to the king of
France and said to him, emitting
ceremony. when thee builds a prison
thee would better build no dark cells,
for thee or thy children may occupy
them"
courageI What power
In her own time most uncOmpH-
mentary adjectives were used TO dis
tinguish her.
1t may not seem possible that the
same epithets were applied to Eliza
beth Fry that are being used to de-
scribe Emmeline Pankhurst.
We think of Elizabeth Fry as one
FUSED by an unseen power for an I'M
known end"-an instrument in the
hands of a Divine Worker.
Elizabeth Fry changed our entire
civilization. She made it leap and
bound onward
Because it was not alone the insane
who were benefited; it was the people
who made and maintained the mad
houses.
This generation is not in a position
10 see what Mrs. Pankhurst has done
lis doing-for civilization. 1t takes
perspective and for this the element
of time is necessary.
Great reformers have always dis
turbed the peace of civilization.
No reform was ever made without
shocking people into first talking,
then thinking.
1t requires the unusual to break up
old customs. The methods used have
been iconoclastic, because the masses
cannot think.
A reformer alone, however, could
never reform. The opposition is just
as necessary to the reform as is the
reformer.
One person, or one group Of people,
never reforms. 1t is only when the
mass will tolerate the new idea. and
allow a response to it, that progress
can be made.
The brain of a man is a dull,
stupid. inactive organ SO per cent of
the time. 1t takes intense agitation
of the most brilliant kind to impress
the mind of the mass.
Thomas Carlyle said: Ten thou
sand people cross London bridge
every day-mostly fools" We are
''all fools" most of the time, and
asleep a part Of our interval of intel
ligence And because of our comatose
condition It requires the unusual TO
make the brain active.
The Opposition" in the government
in England is quite as necessary for
the reform for which a few Of the
9
as is the work of the women.
Women must educate themselves,
each other and men.
And women are just as stupid as
men, just as conservative
Until the radical change in their
homes which was recently thrust up
on them women were content with
the old
With the age of invention women's
lives have been changed. And they
are full of unrest
Fifty years ago delegation of
slaves went TO Abraham Lincoln and
begged of him not to sign the eman-
cipation proclamation.
We are told that if all the women
in England wanted the vote they
would have it, And that is true.
Did all American women want suf-
frage there would be no organized
State or National Woman Suffrage
association.
But the custom Of having women
take none but the passive part in
politics is as old as civilization. 1t
takes time for people to adjust them
selves to new activities, even after
they think about them and are con-
WINGED they are right and good.
A privilege TO exercise a right must
result in the growth Of mind and
body, or why exercise? Had the gov
eminent of England granted the re-
quest of the women when it was
made, the vote would have been of
little benefit The purpose Of exercise
is to develop.
The premier is the representative
Of the "government"-the men Of
England
Mrs. Pankhurst is the representa-
tive of the unrepresented.
Each of these two people is the
representative of an idea-a principle.
Each is radical, extreme, colossal.
The rule of Donnybrook fair. ''wher-
ever you see a head. hit it," is uni
versal.
Emmeline Pankhurst stands for the
extremists. She is the personification
of the untried.
Premier Asquith is the personifica-
ton Of the old, the interchangeable, the
tried. He stands for the ideals that
have made England great. Stability,
masculine physical power; master,
slave; king, subject
AS an individual man the premier
is helpless in his position. He stands
for a party-for the stupidity of the
people.
He can so no further than his con-
stituents will allow. Otherwise he
will lose his political head.
He is used by an unseen power
which works through the govern
ment."
Mrs. Pankhurst, too is used by an
unseen power. She hears the voice"
The end we think we can sea
larger freedom for humanity.
Mrs. Pankhurst is of the heroic
type, which, through all time. has
stood for a principle-John Brown.
Roger Williams Mary Dyer. John
Bunyan. Martin Luther. Garibaldi,
Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Paine.
FRESHMAN LAWYERS ELECT.
Freshman legal lights elected the
following officers for the ensuing year.
~ M Ia