Omaha daily bee., 1916-09-29
BY WOODS HUTCHINSON, M. D.

Women's clubs are different from
men's--for which the community has
reason to be devoutly thankful. One
of the oldest and most unanswerable
rock-ribbed, moss-grown objections
to granting woman the freedom of
the city and voice in the forum was
that they couldn't conduct public at
fairs as we'll as and in the same way
that men could. Which, incidentally,
was one OF the best possible OF rea-
sons for letting them have try at
the job--they might have made things
worse, but it is hardly within the
bounds OF possibility
When looked at quietly for a mo-
ment this massive objection simply
resolves itself into an assertion that
women cannot do the things which
men like to do, in the way men like
to do them, as well as men can, or,
rather, think they can, The objsction
is unanswcrable, simply because it re-
quires no answer. 1t rested solely
upon the colossal conceit of the male
and his calm assumption that the way
in which he had always done things
was the best, II not the only way to
do them. And If woman couldn't or
wouldn't do them that way, she was
unfit for the duties Of citizenship.
But in the beginning the absurd
and illogical challenge was accepted
even BY the pioneers in the fight for
the rights OF women to be regarded
and treated as people. Their elo-
quence was directed towards proving
that women could beat man at his own
game under the irrational rules which
he had laid down. That they could
pack caucuses and steer conventions
as deftly as he could; that they could
compete with him in industry under
abominable sanitary conditions, or
for ruinous and health-destroying
hours of labor; that they could win
scholarships and prizes and class
standings under his medieval and
stupid forms of higher education
Women's colleges were made mere
lavender-water and slavish limitations
Of mems colleges--already outworr
and antiquated in their methods
Women's business methods must be
extended the same as men's--lonn
hours, foul air, poor light, and even
lower and more starvation wages;
womcn's clubs were to follow in the
footsteps of mems clubs as closely as
possible. ,...
Consequently, when the Woman's
club movement was first formed
woman's social needs being already
met, and public life, politics and busi-
ness being still closed to her, its as
pirations took the only form left open
and concerned themselves chiefly
with the fields OF literature and art
In their earlier days it was fashion
able and easy to smile at the ambi-
tious range OF some Of its programs,
iifteen-minute papers on "Art, from
the Egyptians to the Present Day
The Influence OF Music on Architcc-
ture" and WAS Cleopatra Immoral?
Emerson and the Over-Soul," for
getting that those were precisely the
kind of subjects that male aspirations
for culture had concerned themselves
with in academies, lyeeums and liter
ary societies from the days of the
Egyptian mysteries and the Athenian
sophists.
! But il wasn't long before feminine
practically and public spirit and the
real interests and likings of woman.
hood began to assert themselves
When they had got fully ont of their
shells, rid of the cramping restriction:
OF the home atmosphere, the subjects
which should not be discussed before
children, the things that men dom
like to be bothered about when they
come home tired from business, The
fetters upon frankness imposed BY
hostess upon guests and by the guests
upon hostess, they began to sit ur
and take notice of public affairs in /
new and impersonal way. They hat
established sort OF feminine Alsatia
a Free Mark, literal No-Man's-Land
where women could come together a.
women, not as wives or mothers, OF
daughters, or church-workers, OF
schemers for social position. but a.
citizens OF the state, representing tht
larger half, and as the guardians ant
caretakers Of children, full four fifth.
OF the community.
After they had ceased to be afrait
OF the sound Of their own voices, dis
cussing public questions right out ir
meeting, it didn't take them long te
discover that although men on the
whole had conducted public affair.
and built and run cities and town.
with commendable degree Of enter