The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-13
Governor HOlCOn1b And ROrabaCk Are
 Bitterly Arraigned
Speakers at Suffrage Dinner Assert "Roraback and His Crowd Have Not Passed Progressive Act Since
 They Were In Power''

Io organization and executive worS and the qualities of industry and courage and seIf-forgetfulness, which earned | for them in England the right of suf- frage and overcome all opposition. That which was earlier demonstrated ! in England was later demonstrated here
 ' Second, the war perforce overcame a great many foolish conventions, barring women from avenues of in dustry and sources of livelihood, many of which, they were just as well able to pursue as men, and in others of which, If they could not do all the work of men, they could nevertheless supply deficiencies when men could not be had to do the work. Thus one 1 of real injustices to women, growing out of convention and prejudice and l seIfishness of men, has been the crowding of them into a few fields of activity for making their living. A great advantage to be derived from ire war is the disclosure of this in justice.
 Performers in recent years have ! been busy. and properly busy, find ing ways and means, by which the
 conditions of the 1aboring classes and
 of the poor generally may be improv- ! ed by legislation. They have fought 1 to secure positive law to compel en- l p1oyers and landlords to pursue right ! meth ods in their dealings with wage l earners and poor people who could 1 not bargain with them on an equal l ity. So we have had housing laws, l safety appliance laws, factory laws. 1 and laws with respect to hours of la 1 bor for women, and accomplished | much good, but 1t is perfectly evident ! that under the guise of useful regu- | 2 of ind he in- 1 troduced limitations which do not 1 work for the benefit of women and
 exercise too great guardianship over 1 their freedom of labor and of con | tract. It is quite possible for men 1 to masquerade as protectors of wom- | en, in the advocacy of such laws,
 when their purpose Is rather to pre-
 vent the competition of women with male labor. The truth is that many i members of organized labor now look
 aslance at the general introduction
 into industry and other activities, of
 women as laborers.
 AS one of the Joint Chairmen of the National War Labor Board, had
 for a year a fairly good opportunity
 to see what was going on in the labor world, and I became convinced that women needed protection against
 some of their would-be protectors
 
 cure this would be through the ballot with legislative represen tatives chos- en by them to scan closely the pur- pose of such legislation and insist
 upon the preservation of as much | freedom as possible in the employ 1 ment of women where they could l render service, and where they with
 out injury to themselves, could earn
 a livelihood. Before this, I found it T
 the suffrage could help women In se-
 curing wider opportunity for work and better wages That official ser vice, however, satisfied me that was | wrong in assuming that women may not, by active participation in politi- 1 cal matters and the making of legis- ! lation, help themselves. If women can use the ballot to secure proper ) benefits to themselves as a class, the fact is a powerful argument in fla 1 vor of their receiving the suffrage Third. A third reason which has : influenced me in this matter grows 5 out of the campaign in reference to the League of Nations. A dis 7 heartening development since the ease with which men who were , preaching and praising loudly the , sacrificial spirit developed by the war 7 self-denying patriotism, world charity ciIu 1ONCJ II dtSI 1ldl DIOtHeFHOOO, all
 to make the world safe for demo- , cracy, have reverted to the coldIy selfish kind of so-called narrow Amer
 icanism that would let the world wag 1t will, would wait to meet world
 wars until they threaten us and would < assume no burdens and take no re- responsibilities for lending off wars by an international arrangement The = intense desire of many styles of the male individual to get back to busi- / ness and to relieve himself from tine
 patriotic burdens assumed during the Q war, and the reactionary tendency f manifest everywhere, have discour- r aged ministers of the gospel who 2 looked for a continuance of the re- = ligious fervor manifest during the
 war, have baked reformers who look
 ed for a greater interest in others than has survived the Armistice Day.
 and have disappointed the advocates l of the League of Nations who looked
 for a greater sense of international obligation among those who were , strong and loud in their demands for . a vigorous prosecution of the war to l save the world from autocracy and
 for peace.
 "It is not qu estion in which part
 considerations ol personal consider:
 tions should have any infiuenc, lr11L-4-i-- .- ~ ---- 4-.-- <... ,.~+