Evening star., 1932-05-01

NJ ANY an American woman,
mi yearning for work, self-expres-
V sion. salary and opportunity,
4 may find them all in politics.
Men have run the country,
sineIe-handed, too long, and as women
awaken to a realization of all that is
wrong with America and see for the
first time how easily it might be right,
they are going TO enter the lists OF the
politicians in increasing numbers.
Why let men continue to make all the
laws. fill all the lucrative positions,
spend all our money? They have been
doing it for thousands of years and as
a result the world is lopsided. 1t would
have been equally lopsided, perhaps in
entirely different ways, if women had
had all the authority. 1t will never be
right until both sexes get into the field
and mems peculiar qualities of bulldog
tenacity and concentration are COM
bined with the more brilliant and OAR
ing ideas of women.
For women make good legislators and
fine rulers, whether they are in five
room bungalows or at the heads OF great
States. England knew her most glorious
davs under Elizabeth and Vlctorla-the
two women introduced higher ideals OF
peace and progress than all the male
Kings put together.
Take this to heart, you women read
snp this article. and get into your local
politics at the next district meeting.
You think now that it might be hard to
understand the campaign issues, but go
and listen. You'll find that men have
merely wrapped the perfectly simple
problems of citizenship, economies,
budget. decency, in their usual mystery
and mumbo jumbo.
THOUSANDS of women want-no,
not Jobs exactly, but an interest
In life. Here it is.
"I've nothing to do" they write me.
"My house runs itself, my children are
in school. But I've got to do some
thing I've got to live. Shall go in
for bookbinding? Is it too late to try
writing?"
And to them I say what I am saying
to other women all over the country
this morning. Study your country's
needs her ills, her possibilitles-oo
something for America.
Thousands of women still regard
politics as a mysterious sort OF moloch,
roaring and trampling in the back
ground of our lives, never to be nflu-
enced or understood By our feeble sex.
Whereas almost the exact opposite Is
the truth. Political truth is extremely
simple. accessible, Understandable, ana
the feeble voice of women has MADE
itself strangely heard in the last elec-
4ions. and the feeble action of women
has already changed the world.
No war that men ever Waged, with
bands and uniforms and all the dressing
I'D and ritual that men so love, ever
enfranchised 5000 900 of citizens. But
mt infn the
Constitution by women, without the
firing of a gun or the blare OF trllm-
net. did that. And with women voting,
other bloodless changes have crept over
the country. Children are handled
more intelligently, more sympathetlcaIly,
than children ever we're before; work
ing hours have changed; customs have
changed.
THIRTY years ago, when I started
l. into Office work, there wasn't
tea room downtown in any big clty:
there wasn't a rest room. Men ruSheo
into saloons or hotels at noon ana
gllped down coffee and veal chops.
School superintendents could beat little
bows into insensibility, and wives had
to stay with brutes, be they ever so
drunken, cruel, unfaithful, because
women had no rights. Certain cities
had a law that all four corners could
not be saloons, but even three to
corner were enough to absorb the wages
for which patient women and helpless
children waited in vain.
It would be folly to deny that the
influence of women, rising in America
like a slow tide, has not had much to
do with these and a hundred other
civilizing changes Certain men Loyalty
follow the womens lead, IL is true, but
in what affects the Government, as in
what affects the home, the judgment,
the directneSs and the courage OF wom-
en- complete and quicken the more con-
ventional methods of men.
Indeed, politics Is a sort OF extended
housekeeping today. Progress and in
vention have taken away our immediate
problems Of cooking, weaving, educating
our children into wider field. The
entire Nation is our kitchen, our school
room, our nursery and our back yard
today, and it is only a very old-faSh-
toned woman who shuts her eyes to
the fact and closes her ears to the call.
CET into politics. You may find dis
~ couraging corruption and machine
in control in your district. So much
the better. The history of America is
only the history of gallant ideals dis
tracted by the same old corruption and
decay and rescued by a gallant minor
ity and started afresh, to grow all the
stronger and clearer for the delays. We
never were q perfect Nation, although,
at that, I think we get nearer TO the
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