The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1920-04-07
WOMEN VOTERS
HAILED BY WOOD
Their Advent in Politics VIII Bring
Wholesome Effect, He
Believes.

Leonard Wood has welcomed hearth.
ly the advent of women to active par.
ticipation in our political life. He has
been impressed, in the course of a ca
reer that has shown him many varied
phases of the modern widening of wo-
mans influence, that the coming of the
so called gentler sex into public affairs
Is a gain for civilization and will re-
suit in renewed hope for the world at
large. Wood has endeared himself to
American women for his humanitarian
achievements in various fields of en-
deavor, in which he was enabled to
bring vastly improved conditions to
the homes schools, hospitals and char.
liable Institutions under his influence.
In connection with this subject Wood
says:
women are bringing an eIevating
influence into public life that will tend
to correct many Of the evils to which
our present unrest is due. One of the
reasons for the growth of undesirable
tendencies in our country has been the
regretable fact that countless men,
qualified by education and character
for public service, have wantOnly neg
lected their civic duties.
with the coming of women to the
polls, these men will be ashamed to
disregard the political duties they for
merly shirked. A man who spends
election day at his club while his wife
was at the polls is sure to forfeit the
FpsDpct M tho community
II believe woman suffrage will have
a vast and uplifting effect upon our ma
tional life, Public morality will be in
creased, housing conditions improved,
the problems Of child labor SATISFACTORY
ly solved, sweat-shop evils minimized
and the training given to children in
our schools purged of its present de-
fects.
"Our women must take up the ques-
ton of the social evil. To that and to
other Of our vital problems they now
come with the power of the ballot.
Women realize that our American civ
ilization can never be what it should
be until we give as much care to the
upbringing of our children as we do to
the breeding Of our cattle.
Women's Great War Service.
SIN short, the difficulties that ap-
parently beset our national future
would confront US as immensely more
insuperabe If we could not look for.
ward to overcoming them through the
assistance of voting women. The
granting of suffrage to women gives us
the promise of an amazingly better
world in the years to come.
"There is one field into which the
women are coming that can be called
the big field. 1t is the field of national
politics. Personally, having seen what
the women did during the war, both at
home and abroad, feel very confident
that the entrance of American women
into the field of American politics Is
going to have very helpful and good
influence. I think they are going to
bring a healthy influence, one which
will make our politics cleaner and in
troduce better spirit into the political
field
1--WE have reason TO be proud of the
American women during the war. do
not know Of any part of the country
where American women did not take
hold of the situation with keen energy.
| know from personal experiences in
the Middle West and neighbOring
states the women did everything hui
manly possible to send our men over
seas sound in body and clean in soul