The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-09-09
WOMEN HAVE RIGHT TO VOTE IN
THE STATE OF oREGoN-THE
STORY OF SOCIAL DEVELOP
MENT-NoTEs FROM A TRAVEL
LER'S VADE-MEcuM.

LER'S VADE-MEcuM.
On the shore washed by the waters
of the Pacific we look around us fol
some evidence that we are far from
home, and to tell the truth there is
very little. The people are, perhaps
more often native-born than those OF
the middle West. They have the
same newspapers, the same style OF
architecture, the same universities
II they differ at all, it is in the free
and intelligent manner in which
women discuss the political situation
And that reminds me, / am in a state
where women have the right to vote
That matter of a right to vote is a
question which interests me greatly
1t was tiny tad like myself in the
days when my mother, a widow with
ten children, had to give her hired
men day off and loan them horses
to carry them to the polling booth
where they usually cast their vote for
the candidate who was most liberal
in supplying drinks or cigars. 1t was
gathering strength when the herein.
aforementioned hired men went to
the school and voted on who would
teach her children for the coming
year. They had votes by reason of
having worked a day on the roads. 1t
was about this time a neighbor, Jack
McQuaid, used to entertain the less
experienced members of the commun-
ity with an account of his travels
which led him to such terra incog.
nita' as New Brunswick where, among
other wonders, he met an "Ould Doc
tress" for whom he had great admira-
ton, not so much for the skill she
possessed as for the fact that she ex-
listed at all.
The feeling about women taking a
hold in running the machinery of the
world has changed since these days,
and it might be worth while to go
back and take look at the situation;
not, indeed, to decide whether the
idea should or should not be fostered,
for it is past that stage, but to get a
clear conception of the movement
which, at the present time, bids fair
to throw hammer among the cog
wheels of the democratic machine.
For our purpose it might be we'll to
go back to the beginning of law; or,
better still, to the days when there
was no law at all, saving and except
ing always the law of God, which is
as old as man himself, and which was
written on his heart long before
Moses engraved it on the tablets of
stone.
Home and Property.
In the beginning there was no divi-
sion of labor, no ownership in proper
ty and, therefore, no law. Man and
woman hunted and fished together
and lived in perfect equality, perhaps
not always peacefully but, except the
race was very different to what it is
now, the larger and stronger was not
always master. When the young
were born they were hidden in some
cave or hollow tree, safe from wild
animals and the mother soon resumed
her old mode of life. This was in
what may be called the fireless epoch
of our history.
With fire came the beginning of all
the sorrows and joys, the hopes, the
fears, the shame, the anxiety, the deg
radiation and the nobility that is
wound up in the word home with
its blossom civilization"
When fire was discovered, when
ever and by whom, there were laid
down the first rudiments of home. 1t
must have been wonderful revelation
to our remote ancestors, this brilliant
dancing sprite that could contract it.
self so that it was only a small blaze
grateful to chilly fingers, or swell to
giant fury, devouring forests, driving
the wild animals in terror before it, or
overwhelming them in blackened ruin.
No wonder they decided that one OF
them should give up the hunt to
watch the fire, and what was more
natural than that it should be the
mother who must, perforce, confine
her Wanderings in certain seasons
that she might nourish her young. No
wonder we see pictures in the fire OF
an evening when the wind roars down
the chimney and the logs burn blue
for the fire is as old as home, the
hearth is the altar of civilization.
With the watching of the fire came
the division of labor; the man did the
hunting and fishing, the woman watch.
ed the fire and tended the children,
and all was well.
Now a new element stole into the
lives of our forefathers. 1t was not
convenient to carry the fire from
place to place, so some pleasant spot
was selected where the fire was set
up. The man hunted and fished in
this vicinity, returning with his game
in the evening. But having an intel
lect superior to the animals about
him, he soon began to gather them into
flocks and herds which he by degrees
and by kindness induced to pasture
in the neighboring wales and hills,
protecting and defending them from
wild beasts. The camel, the COW, the
goat, and the sheep were soon domes-
ticated. They were known and loved
by the family to which they yielded
milk, and sometimes flesh, il necessity
drove them to that extreme. The
man called them his own, and the ele.
ment of personal property was in
troduced. ge
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