The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1921-05-12
W0MAN'S SUFFRAGE ISSUE

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chiltlren in school so they may grow to
be fit Americans. Yet what do the
greater part OF the colored fathers and
mothers do down here? AT the very
time when the child can learn the most,
when the teacher has struggled along
all winter to get the child to grasp the
concept of learning and he is just dim
ly beginning to see the fruits of his la
Dor, the parent comes along and says he
or she will have to take their child out
of school to help them with the farm
Some times the whole family lis taken
out. What preposterous selfishness!
What darkness of vision! What aimless.
ness! But this, is the situation. Every
\ body must run out to cut down the cot.
ton stalks or as we say down here, knock
stalks and clear the land for the next
years crop. But, you ask, what about
the child's education? Why, that is
| laid upon the shelf until the next fall
and more often winter rolls around anl
he is given another three or four mont hs
to see if he can master the three r 8. Do
you wonder there is illiteracy among
our people and plenty of it yete There
will be too. until the, babe whom they
have so carefully nursed at their breast
and so tenderly fondled in their arms
after the long weary days under the
broiling sun in the field is ended, is Civ
en- have show in life. It is our priv
lilege, women of the Southland, as well
1 as our duty, to sound this note of alarm
for our children that they may have a
chance to spend a longer time in the
Ischoolroom under the guidance Of kind
and wise teachers that they may grow
into the healthy animal God tended
them to be,
4 ELEVENTH: Proper Housing Con-
u1t1ons.F 49, s4af #r1H &s@ ssN 5s
Il Proper housing conditions have for
some time engaged the minds of Z, the
strongest men and women of America.
Our own great and lamentcd ex-presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt, a number of
year ago in the city of New York made
some vey radical changes for the better
in the tenement buildings of that great
city. And today we are confronted with
J this question more than ever. During
the last great World War thousands Of
colored people left their farm homes in
the South to exchange for the rigid and
uncertain weather Of the North in the
, large commercial centers Of traffic They
had always been used to plenty Of fresh
air because the houses are not built
close, and to wide fireplaces, giving an
other excellent opportunity to let in the
free ozone. Then, too, they are usually
not crowded because there is always
plenty of room outside and in fact, most
of them stay outside as much as inside.
They live happy go-lucky and care-free
life. But when they move to the great
cities of the North all this is changed.
The large sized rooms to the squalid lit
tie hall-bedrooms of the, city, the good
healthy pine wood fuel with its rosin
oozing out to the sitting black and dirty
coal, which because of their environ.
ments goes down into their lungs and
because Of the fertile field it remains
there until it has nourished or cngen.
dered some dread lung disease as it us.
, ually does Then too, because our folks
must root hog or die, and partly because
they do not like the odium cast upon
them that they went to city and coul,,
not make it, they congregate, many Of
them in a house far too small to hold
such large family because it is cheap
er to live this way and rather Oh the
colony plan. The results are terrible to
witness-weaker family than she sim
pie farm folk of the Southland, ravaged
by disease, often by hunger and in dire
want and wretchedness.
T once visited the slum districts of
the city of Louisville, Kentucky with
one Of the noted surgeons there on his
t'daily calls. Many Of these homes were
situated in alleys, with the worst kind
OF sewerage system imaginable and
the stencil and filth of these places
bcggared description. How can a peo-
iple who live like that ever become
thrifty and moral, when they live in
such quarterse I am perfectly in favo,
, of our people living in sections tc
themselves if that is the law in any
place, but do for good sake let then
have the same kind of sanitation as fol
all other people. + do not believe the
. humane heart of woman will say il
Woman's s Suffrage that a building i:
all right for one race of people to live
;, in until it is dilapidated and than it i!
plenty good enough to turn over to an
other set Of people to spend the bal
ance of their days in. I believe it viii
Y establish where it can well constructed
i tenement buildings with plenty Of ven
l tilation and sunlight for the poor, ant
> not only this will also demand tina
: the poor keep. their premises just Al
3 clean as their more favorable neigh
n bors with the right kind of surround
! ings.
d The Use Of Tobacco. s. vi
a During our recent worlds war tn
a use of tobacco was encouraged to
= very great extent, because it helped T
= while away the lonely hours of the sol
y diers on the battlefield. was passln
: down the street one day in a city an
: I overheard two soldiers talking. On
:, of them said he had contracted on
: Ihabits while. ia the army which h
!, wished she could break himself, an
: was smoking Woman's Suffrage wi
= help to stamp out the tobacco habi
among orr boys and especially that 9
! the q igarette. 81,
3 ]. W School Laws. ss
l. Here indeed is where woman s grea1
s est influence will be felt, for she surel
:. ought to have right TO make the rule
/. governing her children in the schoo
Z room because by, far the greater nun
i her Of teachers are women. Then, to-
she ought to say what are the best tex
= books for them to study and when the
= lneed a new school building or need be
4 ter equipment for the present one
a, III ahOO