ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 691 



eaten arguments against women having the right of suffrage. She is not 

 sufficiently informed, she cannot fight in time of war, she is too good, etc., 

 etc. One might reply to these arguments one hy one. All women may 

 not be sufficiently informed, hut are all men? She cannot bear arms, but 

 she does bear soldiers and to do that she faces a Gethsemane of suffering 

 besides which the facing of a maxin bullet is but play. She is not too 

 good, nor too evil. It is not that she fears the country is going to rack 

 and ruin or that she has an intense desire to run affairs governmental, 

 but that the thinking woman endowed with intelligence will want to en- 

 force her home training by making surrounding conditions consistent with 

 her teaching. A woman might have an opinion upon the tariff question, 

 she might be interested in national concerns, she might have a hand in 

 affairs of state — in fact, I believe she could do as well in the election 

 of senator as our state legislators are apparently doing but 'tis in local 

 affairs where she is vitally concerned. I assert that she could express 

 this concern in a vote without the loss of womanliness or any sacrifice 

 of womanly qualities. Who is more vitally concerned in public utilities, 

 in the price of gas and electrcity, in sanitary conditions, in public shools, 

 in the abolition of saloons? Did the success or failure of the saloon 

 petition mean more to Oskaloosa men than to the women? Do you think 

 the women of this town and surrounding country, who. are the wives 

 and daugthers and the mothers of saloon frequenters are not interested 

 In those saloons being put out of business? Could they vote, thereby 

 being eligible to sign a saloon petition, would that petition have been so 

 near the required mark? Voting for women is not the panacea for all ills. 

 It will not make a vicious woman pure, an ignorant woman enlightened, 

 a vulgar woman a Vere de Vere, hut neither will it take away one whit 

 from the culture, the refinement or the charm from any woman. "Women 

 will grow in enlightenment, in broadening of interests, in effectiveness 

 as a home-maker, and make no sacrifice of any lovely or admirable trait 

 by voting. The educated mother of the future will'wield more power to 

 protect her home by the ballot than in any other way. 



An educated motherhood means fewer divorces, fewer broken homes, 

 fewer wrecked lives. The woman who stays in college till her graduation 

 has reached the age when she knows what marriage means. Very few 

 college couples are hanging round the divorce courts. The marriage of 

 a college bred man and woman, or a marriage of either is usually for 

 keeps. There is no better place to go wife hunting, young man, than to 

 the college campus. 



Having been tided over the silly sentimentalities of sweet sixteen, the 

 college maiden is sufficiently sensible to let her head as her heart be con- 

 sulted when it comes to the question of matrimony. With the consent of 

 the heart and head, a marriage is made which bears the impress of Hea- 

 ven. In such a union the words 'Whom God hath joined together," are 

 not a mockery. 



Even China long considered the most prominent relic of antiquity is 

 now beginning to move toward her great desire for modern civilization in 

 a manner which will bring results. She is now making the foundation 



