The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-12-28
PARTS PLAYED BY
WOMAN in POLITICS

PNPSA ASNClAlN IEdu DV MTS.
a a. y. Lewis before the White Salmon
Woman's Club:
Y p to the year l840 a woman's pre-
scrihed place in this country differed
very materially from the position al
ioteu 10 man, but with her entrance
lhto the industrial world, and now of
ner appearance in politics, the duties
OF citizenship as regards sex, are not
so marked.
Let US consider the status of women
before that time. For the wife and
mother her entire time and interest
centered IN the home, for the unit of
the nation was the family and the care
OF the family was largely the woman S
a1air. Each family produced the bulk
Ot It's own food, clothes and often it's
own furniture. Educational and relig-
ious instruction was part of the daily
program and even the amusements
were home made. 1t has been said by
a writer of that period that Each
nome was a small solar system of
which the mother was the life giving
sum-"
For women who were forced to gain
a livelihood there were but seven occu-
patlons open to them. These consisted
of teaching, needle work, keeping
boarders, working in cotton mills, at
book binding and typesetting and
household service. Looking backward
from our present vantage ground we
think Of these women as living in an
extremely narrow and stunted environ
ment, and yet it was homes and
mothers like these that produced the
sturdy and far seeing pioneers who
blazed the trail for the great America
of today. Before l840 then, America
may be said to have been hand made
nation, but with the discovery of
steam as propelling power great
change was inaugurated and she be-
came a machine made nation-an iron
and coal and steam made nation whose
chief motive power was in her indus
ries. Swift moving trains opened up
our vast western territories for eX-
ploitation: steamboats, piled up and
down the rivers and factories sprang
up everywhere. What was the effect
of this great change upon the women?
The first thing it did was to drag them
from the home. Gradually the occupa-
! LlOllb WlAtil iidQ OSCH AZ tAN
home. the spinning and clothes max
ing, and much of the washing and the
baking began to be done on the whole
sale plan outside. With the opening
of innumerable factories there was
great demand for unskilled labor and
women we're pressed into the service.
The seven original occupations in
creased and multiplied into thousands,
so that now it is no longer surprising
to learn in the morning paper that
woman has been given a license as a
marine engineer. With the appoint
ment of police women in the cities, the
hand that rocks the cradle rules the
traffic of the business world. 1t must
be noted as a fact, however, that
women as a class did not willingly or
eagerly leave their homes to fare forth
in the industrial world. Women were
then as they are now and always will
be, more interested and more con-
cerDed over home and family than in
ANYTHING lees in the world. The fact
IS they came forth with dragging and
reluctant feet, troubled and afraid, but
the vast industrial stream had caught
them and they had to swim with the
tide or sink. Conservative preachers
of that day admonished them from
their pulpits, fathers scolded and
mothers wept, but their daughters
went out into the world just the same
as youth always will. That was the
transitive period of women in indus
trv, Since then they have established
themselves in the economic life of the
nation; they have become experienced,
resourceful and alert. They have made
good, in word.
: This transitive period in industry by
women is again being enacted, TINS
time in the field of politics, and even
as the women entered the INDUSTRIAL
world not as aggressors or usurpers'
hut because they were needed IN the
GREAT industrial march of the country, |
80 now they are entering the field OF
politics in response to clarion call Of
need and after years of struggle on
the mart of its promoters, headed by |
sncb women as Susan B. Anthony, |
Tucretia Mott and Carrie Chapman
Gait. the banner of political sex equal
ity has been nailed to the American
masthead and just two years ago Con-
press passed the 18th Amendment to
the Constitution, which read as Ioi-
lows: "The right of citizens OF the
limited States to vote shall not be de-
MED or abridged by the u. 5. or any |
State on account of sex. Congress
shall have power to enforce this article
bv anpropriate legislation. And thus
the 25. 900, 600 women voters OF the
limited States are no longer to be
classed with children, criminals ana
idiots. but are subject to the same reg
ulatjons regarding the franchise as are
applied to men.
To some reactionaries, both male
and female, it would almost seem as
though the millennium had come. 10
prove that it has not, however, let US
consider what the women may 90 ana
What the women have done with the
ballot during the two years in which
tbev have been able to use 1t. For the
women who we're actively engaged 10
seeLino the vote it is to be hoped that
tSev have learned enough of the needs
of the people in general ana OF lne
masses in particular, so that tney may
he able to use the ballot inteii'gehJy
and to some purpose, and II may De
that some Of the energies heretoIore
directed in the cause OF suffrage may
he used in the labor movement. NOT
10 long ago many suffrage workers pc
Ieved that the chief ills affecting nu.
Dsnitv were the gross inequalities OF
women. These adjusted they believed
NTH women having a voice IN govern
r,sct wars would be avoided, social
wills remedied and the world a better
nlsce TO live in, but after campaigning
n cities, small towns and rural as
fricts. she begins to see that Just
'iVotes for Women" may not amount
IN much. but the votes OF women cast
in the struggle against
he present cruel economic order may
make considerable difference. Perhaps
he has worked for suffrage in mill
- - unrn is one with q population