The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-19


 that Lucy Stone, the pioneer suffra- gist, refused to take her husbands s name, I thought: How absurd And what a fuss over nothing. But when the minister, at the end of the mar riage ceremony, said to. mes T hope you'll be very happy. Mrs. Broun,' could have hit him. Miss Hale's dark eyes crinkled with laughter. Tt came to me as suddenly as that, the fact l couldn't endure giving up my name said. Stop it. and the minister looked surprised. A little later some one else called me Mrs. Broun.'i said, You musn't call me that, won be Mrs. Broun.'
 Broun Is Broadminded
 MT <Broun who, of course, wa. standing at my side.s and who has the broadest mind in the world, said: Fl you want to keen being Miss Hale let's begin right now to make people call you that~and so, three minute. after the marriage ceremony, an, three feet from the altar it was ac- cordingly said in the midst of large and interested crowd"
 Miss Hale explained the elipination of the woman's name and the impos- ing upon sher of his own was one oi the many tyrannies practiced on wom. an by man throughout the centuries In Hale's opinion. if was the most subtle tyranny of all. and for thi, reason perhaps the most enduring bi O. bondage.
 .Yet it's a curious thing" sh, added, that this was never a Iega bit of bondage. Many people are un- aware of the fact, but 1t is true thai there is no law compelling woman to take her husbands name, and there is nothing Illegal in a woman's re- taining her mait1en name after mar. riage.' She may legally sign her maj. den name to documents of the mos' portentious sort. Even to real estate deeds, insurance papers. army docu ments-facts which I proved to in- numerable doubtinG officials on in- numerable occasions. after innumer able weary hours of challenging them to prove the contrary.
 People, of course, ask at once What name shall the children take |? Their fathers name. The league has no intention of trying to change that custom, and for three reasons. First we have no right to interfere so vi- tally with child, because-the second reason when the child is of age it may change it's name by pro. cess of law if it so desires, and-the third reason-there are intricate in heritance and illegitimacy laws tan- gled up in<the givi-g of the fathers surname to the child"
 There is ample proof that Miss Hale and her colleagues do not regard this matter as a fad Not long ago the physician ordered Miss Hale to take a trip to the Alps. The state depart l. ment issued a passport to Ruth Hale, But on the back of 1t they insisted upon declaring her not as Ruth Hale. wife of Haywood Broun-but as "Mrs. Haywood Broun' After weeks of argument. Mss Hale declined to use the passport even though to decline 1t meant serious risk to her health.
 WHAT'S THE USEy
 Strickland Gillian, in Judge.
 Some people become ambitious to acquire uncanny skill in driving a car When they have reached the highest possible point in handling the steering wheel and gear shifts they may nave the satisfaction of know ing they are about as good as some dub with hardly. enough sense to
 
 drives for somebody who pays him S25 a week.
 Others get excited when they find themselves about to become able to play nine holes of golf in 40 strok es or so. -On second thought they are let down by the knowledge that when they can do this wonderful thing they are about two jumps behind "a lot of moist -nosed. throat whiskered old caddies back ih the "Hielans."
 Men train and train and diet and wear themselves down to fighting weight so they can outbox some other fellows. And when they have attained the highest pinnacle pos stble in the ability to stand up in front of other scrappers, they are still utterly inadequate to the task of stopping the onruSh of the small est and most untrained gorilla or mandril in the jungle.
 Whats the, use of being ambitious, anyway?
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