Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-04
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Woman's Place.

MT. Editor: One of the most obtuse arguments that the anti-suffragists have used against giving the vote to women has been that 'woman's place was in the home" and if they were given suffrage it would take them away from the home and the rearing of children, and that the birth rate would decrease. Just at present Ger man efficiency is written all over our newspapers and magazines and we would naturally suppose that if any nation would excel another in it's birth rate it would be Germany; for no na.-
 tion has emphasized more strongly than Germany the argument that women were created expressly for the
 church, children and cooks" It has become proverbial the world over that the German government has made this dfctum a. part of their efficiency.
 women were found occupied with these three duties-except when they were given the privilege by their lords and masters of working side by side with the most menial laborer in the fields. Has Germany the largest birth rate of any civilized nation?
 have just been reading a discussion
 of this very subject in the Prussian diet recently. Dr. Krohne of the med ical department of the Prussian gov years of the present century a drop from 35 to 27 has occurred in the rate
 of births in Germany to every 1000 of
 the population. The birth rate had fallen during this time, he said, more
 rapidly than during the previous 25
 years. No civilized people," he con tinued, has ever shown such a de- crease in so short a time" This means 1 that Germany would have in this aw- full hour of depletion through war 2,5Q0,000 more children growing up to take the places of those killed in this | war. He further said: "But we must
 face the regrettable fact that while the death rate has further diminished during the past 13 years, the birth
 rate has fallen still more rapidly"
 Now this fact, which has so alarmed Germany as to lead the Prussian diet to consider a limited po1ygaTny such as prevailed after the 30 years war, proves that the argument that worn-
 should not be occupied with outside affairs has not kept up the birth rate
 in the country where it has been most vigorously enforced, and this country, too, noted for it's efficiency in economic development, improved manner of living, and especially their splendid sanitary measures. The anti-suffra- gists will have to look for some other argument that this against woman suffrage for it has been killed deader discussion of the Prussian diet.
 It is very evident that Norway has
 no fear that her women will be less womanly in all the functions which
 belong to her as the mother of men, for she has recently conferred upon them the last stage of full suffrage by admitting them as members of the Norwegian council of state. The wom- en of Norway were given suffrage in 1914, but 1t did not include admission
 to the council of state. If the two years of trial as members of the stor- thing had been detrimental to their
 women they would not have been
 trusted with this last and highest honor.
 If the anti-suffragists who spend so much time and money in their efforts to fruStrate the desire of the suffra-
 gists to enter broader fields of useful
 ness would put it into the saving of ences of women who think it is good sport to drink cocktails and smoke cigarettes, they would be striking at the root of the evils which are a black
 menace to the American home that the
 lofty old ideals of home are being broken down anyone who knows any, thing of the present status of society
 will acknowledge; this is not, how l ever, the result of the advance of the growth of woman suffrage. It is the fault of the denoralizing ideas of up- to-date, fashionable society. Miss Abbe Sutherland, principal of the fashion | able school, Ogontz, of Philadelphia,
 meeting, when a girl leaves school and enters the world, with all her dreams | and hopes and ambitions, what does
 she find? Is the fine, classic music popular which she has learned? Is the high toned literature which she has learned to love known and de- l