The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-04
Dorothy Die
Why Should Women HoUe To Marru Their OpDoyta,,a;tu Instead Of Their Preference? More Traqedies WiU Be Averted When Women Propose As
 We'll As Vote
WeW As Vote

Sim"'+i -.sly. with the the advent . ef l-eap \ car the census department Jtti.sn" he fact that there are 25O,- 0tO :. ore men than women in the United States.
 This is more than happy eoinei- dence. It is a tip to the wise. Hop to it girls!
 Of all the injustices under which woman has ever suffered, the greatest k that of not being able to pick out her mate. All else that she has accom- plished is mere tinkling brass and x" 'nding cymbals compared to the right which is still denied her and which she has yet to gain. of popping the ques- tion. Political emancipation is nOth- ing to emancipation from the supersti- tion that makes woman passive agent in deciding her fate. The ability to walk up to the polls and cast a vote is trifie to the privilege of being able to walk up to man and ask him to marry you, if you happen to fancy him.
 Of course there is no law against a woman assuming the role of wOoer and proposing matrimony to man, but GUS tom and convention forbid her, and they are a greater inhibition than any law can be. Of course, as Mr. Bernard Shaw says. women do lay traps and snares for men and inveigle them into matrimony. Also it is true that the polite fiction that woman never thinks of man in a sentimental way until he falls in love with her is utterly and entirely false. It is true that woman generally sees man before he sees her.
 But as the matter now stands. she has to get in her work in subtle and underhand ways without r0using the suspicion of the man. She has to turn the trick ill the dark and this is a difficult thing to do and puts her at q tremendous disadvantage.
 More than that, it Is repugnant to fair-minded woman to have to ham, boozle a man into marrying her instead ot asking him in frank. straightfOr- ward way and thus give him at least lighting chance for his liberty.
 We are so accustomed to the snec. tacle Of women sitting on the anxious seat, waiting for some male to come along and drop the handkerchief before them, that we have lost sight of the cruel wrong they suffer in not being permitted to seek the men they desire as their life partners. But pause and consider it a moment. Here are a brother and sister. Fine, intelligent good-looking young people. Both desire to marry suitably and found homes of their own.
 The brother goes forth and finds the girl of his ideal and starts in on a whirlwind campaign to win her. The sister also goes forth and she finds A man who meets every requirement. of heart and brain. He is just the man she wants for husband and whom she could love with all her soul.
 Custom, however, does not sanction her asking this man to marry her. She cannot tell him how much she loves nm and what good wife she would make him and how happy they would pc together. She cannot "sell' herself to him as her brother sold himself to the girl he wanted. And so the chances are that the man passes her by and her opportunity of happiness is lost.
 Millions of women are forced to marry secondhand men. men who are uhcongenial and unsuitable, because they could not get the men they wanted They have had to marry their Opnor. tunlty instead of their preference
 And many and many of these trac. edIes would have been averted if the conventions had given women the right 10 pop the question. For most men are olihd sentimentally and need to be