Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-01-31
Address of Mrs. Thompson
In Salem Sunday Night

Sacrifice of the home life of a few
extraordinary women like Frances f.
Willard and Jane Adams has been the
means of helping modern woman to her
emancipation and freedom and their
achievements compensate for the lives
OF 1000 ordinary mothers who live
within the circle of their homes, ae-
cording TO the opinion of Mrs. Alexan-
der Thompson, representative in the
| twenty ninth legislative session from
Hood River and Wasco counties, who
spoke Sunday night in the First Con-
gregational church on "The New WO-
man and the New Age
Beginning three Thousand years ago,
when the woman movement began, she
said that during this time the fallaey
that woman was inferior to man was
fostered by political and religious or
ganizations, both jew and gentle. 1t
was only few years ago, scarcely
generation, that the truth that q the
test of a nation S civilization is its es-
innate of its women was uttered, but
she declared it marks the growth of
woman toward freedom throughout the
centuries.
Coming down to the present time, she
said that the entrance of woman inso
the business life of the world started
her on her way to final emancipation.
| Her economic independence was start
ed by her being driven from her home
| ly pursuits out into the business and
| industrial world by the men who in
vaded the domain of woman. This in
vasion was by means of inventions that
wove the cloth that used to be made
| by spinning wheel and loom, and by
| the factories that manufacture other
things that used to be in woman s par
| ticular domain. AS her occupation was
stolen from her by men, all she could
do was 10 go out into the business
world and create new place for her
self.
Although woman S natural sphere is
| the home, she said it would be almost
a crime to confine all women to its
precincts. This was because there were
many talented women who were need
ed to work in the uplift of humanity
and in working out the problems of the
day. They are required to sacrifice one
thing for the other, because it would re-
quire very extraordinary woman to
do faithful duty to both home life and
public hfe
She believed there was no danger of
women rushing into public life and
striving for political preferment. In
her estimation it was nto easy to be-
come conversant with the public ques
tions of the day, to study the move
ments of the day, to know about the
laws of the land, to become familiar
with the workings of the white slave
| traffic, with prison reform, with school
problems, with labor problems, and the
many other questions that women who
engage in public work are required to
| ace.
Only those who feel they can sacri-
| flee the home for public life will en-
ter the field. She asserted that extra
| ordinary women are needed as well as
extraordinary men, and it was the extra
ordinary men who were doing the
world IS work now, who had first made
success of their own private work be-
fore being called to the larger work of
the world.
Entrance of women into politics has
tended to affect the political life and
| be beneficial It has given an impetus
to laws that closely affect the welfare
| of the home, because woman is the
home maker and the things that affect
| the home and children lie close to her
heart. 1t gives a new civic pride, has
tendency to eliminate party strife,
| introduces economy, moral force, and
conservation of the highest ideals, be-
cause woman has been the keeper and
eherisher of ideals by her very nature.
She has brought wisdom into public
| life-and she illustrated by the story
of Moses concerning the fall of Adam.
According to the Mosaieal story the
woman was the first to desire to evolve
to advance, to get out of the every
Iday rut, because she first saw the apple
and realized it was good. She had curl
osity, was daring, and unselflsh ana
first gave him real wisdom. She divid-
ed the apple with him, and if she had
not, he might still be wandering about
in the garden as ignorant as ever.
In making her race for public pre-
ferment, she used the slogan: GA wo-
man is the equal of man when she
| is" She saws she did not ask for a
single vote Just because she was wo-
man. She urges women not to line up
as women but to cooperate with men.
90 forward with them hand in hand.
The man needs the woman's counsel,
she needs his strength; both are com
plements of the other, and nothing is
to be gained by fighting. She deplor-
ed the tactics of the militant suftra-
gettes, although she was woman s
rights advocate from the first.
One of the most important measures
Mrs. Thompson is the mother of is the
bill to make the school term in the rural
districts eight months instead of six,
as it now is. If this can be accomplish
ed she believed great step forward
viii be taken by the state of Oregon
| in tho world ne a1ucatiOu