Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-03-02

OF her family, ana especially VI III
else, is held responsible for what
She is responsible for the cleanli-
ness Of her house.
She 10 responsible for the whole
4someness of the food.
She Is responsible for the children's
health.
She, above all. is responsible LOT
their morals.
How far can the mother control
these things?
She can clean her W rooms put
AZ the neishbors are allowed to live
An filth. she cannot keep her rooms
from being filled with bad air n
,omells. or from being infested with
wermin.
She can cook her food well, but II
dealers are permitted to sell poor food'
unclean milk or stale eggs, she cannon
make the food wholesome for her
children.
She can care for her own plumbing
and refuse, but if the plumbing in the
rest of the apartment house Is un-
sanitary, if garbage accumulates and
the halls and stairs are left dirty, she
cannot protect her children from sick
ness and infection.
She can take every care to avoid
fire, but If the house has been badly
built, If the fire-escapes are made
.quate she cannot guard her children
from the horrors of being manned
or killed by fire.
She can open her windows to give
her children the air that we are told
is so necessary, but if the air is laden
with infection, she cannot protect her
children from this danger.
She can send her children out for
air and exercise, but if the conditions
that surround them on the streets are
immoral and degrading, she cannot
protect them from these dangers.
Alone, she cannot make these things
right. Who or what can?
The city can do 1.-THE city govern.
ment that is elected by the people
to take care Of the interests of the
people.
And who decides what the city gov
eminent shall do?
First, the officials of that govern
ment; and, second, those who elect
them.
Do the women elect them? No, the
men do. So it is the men and not
the women who are really responsible
for the unclean houses, bad Plumbing,
unwholesome food, danger of fire, risk
of tuberculosis and other diseases,
and immoral influences of the street
In fact, men are responsible for the
conditions under which the children
live, but we hold women responsible
for the results of those conditions.
II we hold m responsible for the
results, must we not, in simple justice,
let them have something to say as to
what these conditions shall be
There is one wav of doing this. Give
them the same 1seans that men have.
Let them have a voice in politics.
A woman cannot marry without the
interference of politics. She must
have the permission of City Hall to
get her license.
She cannot build a home without
City Halls permission.
She is obliged to depend upon City
Hall to guarantee purity of the food
for her household.
The water supply of her home Is
linked up with City Hall.
Politics gets inside of her baby.
The milk that she feeds the baby is
under political supervision.
She cannot get her garbage re-
moved without the interference OF
politics.
Politics enters into the question of
her heat and fuel supply.
She must depend on politics to pro.
tect her and her children from fire.
And from contagious disease. And
from polluted air.
She cannot walk on clean streets
unless politics will permit her.
In face of these incontrovertible
facts, can she possibly say that she
doesn't care "to NEEDLE with poll
tics?" If she wants her house well
kept she must NEEDLE with politics,
because politics has already meddled
with her.
Woman is by nature and training.
q housekeeper. She must be allowed
a hand in the city's housekeeping,
even If she introduces an occasional
house-cleaning.