The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-10-08
Society NeUDS
Miss Lutte StedrnS GiUes Brilliant
Summing Up of Problems That viii
Face Ideal Democracy in America

! Replete with the brilliant epigrams,
] human kindness and broad social
: philosophy for which she is well
known all over the United States,
was the address given Saturday
evening on The Ideal Democracy, by
| Miss Lutte Stearns. Milwaukee. Miss
| Stearns spoke to a most appreciatiys
audience, gathered in the CONNER
/ cial club rooms. She was introduce
ed by Mrs. II. L. Bolley.
The speaker revealed a splendid
grasp OF social, industrial, religious
and economic tendencies Of today.
| She has something to say, and sits
down when II is said, leaving her
| hearers charged with new life as II
were, and chuckling over the
"Stearnisms', as one admirer de-
scribes her wit.
The labor problem was the first
taken up, Miss Stearns citing in
stances of the unrest OF labor. and
the urgent necessity for cooperation
between labor and capital.
Ownership and taxation of land
was another big problem discussed.
1T is beastly wrong to have great
tracts of land owned by one man.,
said the speaker, telling of $1,000
acres in Texas owned by one woman
alone. Neither can she see the right
Of putting a premium on shiftlesa-
ness and lack OF energy, as she ex-
presses it, by taxing improvements
unduly and letting unimproved land
go practically free.
The Liquor Problem.
There are six reasons in Milwau-
kee why / cannot vote, said Miss
Stearns, naming five prominent
brewers and the governor. She elab-
grated considerably on this prob
lem, confidently stating that of
course prohibition Is coming, and the
w. G. T. us will soon be able to
shut their doors. for there will be no
more to do.
Again, taking up the race problem.
the Stearns' wit came to the fore.
It's too bad we were not born color
blind, so we wouldn't know the diff
/ ference between red. yellow and
black. Although the speaker spends
her winters largely in Louisiana,
Texas and Florida, she clings to her
belief that 1T Is time we began to
treat the negro as a human being
instead OF an animal, and spoke
with much qualification Of the fact
that Secretary of War Baker has put
Scott, formerly next in authority to
Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee
after the interests Of the colored y.
S. A. troops.
Must See War Through.
Speaking on the war problem Miss
Stearns gave a striking illustration
of the victory won by arbitration be-
tween the Argentine republic and
Chile, due to a woman, incidentally,
but said: We're in this war and
have got to see IL through as quickly
and efficiently as possible. But when
this war is over, seeing to Ii that
there shall never again be such
carnage in the world. will be one of
the big problems of the ideal democ-
racy".
Woman Problem.
The woman problem started with
Adam, and has been a side issue ever
since. Woman was not taken from,
Adams head to be his counselor; not
from his heart to be his sympathizer;
not from his arm to be his helper;
not from his feet to walk along the
way with him; but was taken from
his side.-just side issue, she sum-
med up with good -natured sarcasm.
Everybody in Milwaukee knows ii
when Lutte Stearns pays her taxes,
because she always pays them under
protest, and has for the last thirty
years. When / say here's the money
for my taxes, | am paying under
protest, because have no voice az
to how the money shall be spent, and
see that IL goes on the books paid
under protest. The clerk in Mill
waukee, has now had special stamp
made under protest" 81 wish all
women would protest likewise, said
Miss Stearns. 1T Is not fair, this
taxation without representation" In
connection with the woman problem
Miss Stearns touched at some length
and in well-informed statements, on
suffrage, giving various other rea-
sons why women should vote.
Public Education.
This problem is one of the Three
RS against the head, the hand and
the heart, she averred, 'or vocation
VS.. culture. She holds that too
much stress is being placed on the
manual training side of education
nowadays and not enough on the Gull
-