The log cabin Democrat., 1916-10-03

They thought of their work as benevo- lent and philanthropic. That they were performing community service, citizens service, they did not remote ly dream. here is nothing surprising in their naivete. It is fact that in this country, although everyone knows that women own their property, pay taxes, successfully manage their own business affairs, and do an astonish- ing amount of community work as well, no one ever thinks of them as citizens to the vast ma jority of American men women do not look like citizens" But notwith- standing this fact, women have learn ed a surprising amount about the world, and business, and government and other things.
 An indictment has been brought against the man-ruled world, charg- ing that, because man has long been accustomed to habits of strife, pur- suit of material gains, immediate and tangible rewards, the world, under his sway, has come to believe that ma terial gain and visible reward are alone worth coveting. If there is an issue when humanity is opposed to money, humanity has very poor chance. If shorter hours or a mini mum wage law cuts into dividends, they are not to be considered. Divi- dends must be protected at all haz- ards.
 Since the beginning of time, or at least organized society, woman's place in the world, her function, has been to serve. They have worked early and late, with complete self-sacrifce, to do something for those they loved; they have made homes out of novels; they have nursed the sick to health, and inspired the wei Ito greater en- deavors; the only reward expected, or received, has been the joy of service. Rheta L. Dorr, in her excellent book, What 8,000,000 Women Want" says, The woman mind is the most un- changeable thing in the world. It has turned on identically the same pivot since the present world began. Per haps before.
 Turn back and count over the club women's achievements, the things they have chosen to do, the things they want. Observe first of all, that they want very little for themselves. Even their political liberty they want only because it will enable them to get other things things needed, directly or indirectly, by children. Most of the things are directly needed grounds, school gardens, child labor laws, juvenile courts, kindergarten, pure food laws, and other visible tok- ems of child concern. Many of the other things are indirectly needed by children-10-hour working days, seats for shop girls, protection from dan gerous machinery, living wages, op- portunities for safe and wholesome pleasures, peace and arbitration, so- cial purity, legal equality with men; all objects which tend to conserve the future mothers of children. These are things women want"
 The generations of unselfsh service has left strong mental habit in wom- en, and when they left the confines of the four walls of their home to take place in the world as social and economic beings and began to think as such, they naturally and inevitably thought in terms of humanity and all their efforts where they had and have no ballot were, and are, directed to- ward making the world better place in which to live; toward helping the one who is down to his feet, and giv-