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V* editorial and eitv line xenon of hearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, nooetnber jo, ioij. Is Her Load To Be Lighter? Copyright. 1013. by the BUT Oorepeny ° re,t Brtl * ln R1, °“ OMAN to-day, although man’s vanity does not admit it, is about as feeble and defenseless as men were ten thou sand years ago. Men have made im provements, FOR MEN. 1 hey have sought to get natural rights and justice, hand and the wife, the brother and the sister, the father and the daughter, IN TERESTED IN THE SAME SUB JECTS, including politics, and able to vote together? A favorite remark of men—espe cially of those ignorant and conceited, has been, “What do women know about politics? That remark will be heard less often, when the answer will be, “At least women can vote AGAINST YOU, and you had better take the trouble to LET them know something about politics.” Many a man is proud to say that he went to the polls and voted, and his three SONS with him. Should he not be prouder to say: “1 voted with my three sons and my three daughters AND MY W IFE? My whole family shares in good government.” FOR MEN. They have left woman, who brings them into the world, and helps them to go out of it, to shift for herself; they have left her to carry the big load up the hill. The red Indian, walking ahead with his light bow and arrow, while the squaw 7 behind him carries the tent poles, the buffalo hide and the baby, is by no means a curiosity. The white man’s MANNER is a little different from that of the Indian. The white man in his black cloak and stove-pipe hat has a great way of taking a woman by the elbow and pushing her upstairs, in public giving her help that she doesn’t need or want. But at home it is about the same old story of ten thousand years ago. There are a few women, happy and carefree in the sense that a well-fed and cared for lap dog is happy—in having no work or responsibility. The masses of women, like the squaws of the red Indians, and the wives of the dark-skinned gentlemen in the Congo, still carry the load and do the work. * * # Fortunately, just at this moment there comes a light on the horizon, and women have reasons for hoping that their con dition w ill be better. Man won his independence slowly. The change from the age of the sharp stick to the stone age, then to the bronze age, then to the age of iron, occupied tens of thousands of years. Man got the strongest men to lead him, help him in his fighting, direct him in the killing of wild animals. Then he com bined with his fellows, got rid of the strong leaders, and legislated himself. He passed from the bow and arrow to the repeating rifle, from the state of helpless slavery to the republic with its “One man, one vote.” And now MAN lives under condi tions that would bring him happiness— If he would consent to stop cheating his fellow man, and to let emulation take the place of competition. # £ # Woman has watched man as he pro gressed, BUT ONLY WATCHED. What he got was not for her—unless he chose to give it to her. He escaped from slavery. SHE was still a slave—a slave of the cooking stove and the cradle, and the slave of the law s that made her inferior. When he got the vote she only got the right to say, “How wise and wonderful you are!” Now, in certain States the thing is changing, and woman’s turn seems to have come. * * * The other day women voted in Chi cago. They have just won that right. It was extremely interesting first of all to observe that the women of whom it w as said that they WOULD NOT TAKE THE TROUBLE TO VOTE, voted so eagerly that they crowded the men from the polls. It was interesting, also, to notice how intelligently the women voted, and with what enthusiasm they indorsed with their votes plans for better parks and that which was good in the matters dis cussed. Very enlightening was the case of one woman—she was first at the polls—in the town of Pullman; first to vote, mind you, AND SHE HAD WASHED HER DISHES BEFORE LEAVING HOME # # # Before election, in times past, the political heeler in the big city considered it his duty to buy plenty of whiskey for proud male voters and send them home friendly and drunk. Does anybody doubt that with women voting the most stupid political heeler will realize that the wise course for him is to send the man home SOBER, that his wife, his daughter, or his mother, may not, on the following election day, vote against the machine that supplied the whiskey? # * « Isn’t it well for a young man to dis cuss political questions with his wife, explaining to her, if he is the wise one, listening to her, if she is wiser, rather than to have that young husband spend the evening away from home, talking to men not at all interested in what he says? Homes and marriages are happy when men and women living together have interests in common. The so-called “big man” In politics confines his interest to one half of the family, under a system which permits only one half of the population to vote. With women voting, the man whose wife votes with him will be looked upon with admiration by other men. And the woman whose husband votes with her will be looked upon with admiration by other women. Each w'ill be interested in discussing public questions with the other; LIFE WILL BE MADE MORE INTERESTING FOR BOTH. * * * The women of this world—except a few living with rich men as pets and playthings—and a VERY FEW fortu nate enough to meet unselfish men, or just men, have been the burden-bearers of the world. Man brags of his strength and speaks of woman as the weak and feeble vessel. He forgets that some woman carried him around for months before he was born, and carried him around for years AFTER he was born. He forgets that a woman suffered bringing him into the world, without complaint, an amount of agony that would draw from him the most mournful howls and make him ex pect medals in his lifetime and a monu ment afterward. BECAUSE WOMAN HAS HAD TO CREATE THE HUMAN RACE and take care of it after its birth, wash it, watch it, nurse it, feed it, she has been unable to protect HERSELF and get her rights. Now, after the human race has lived for half a million years on this planet, and after “civilization,” so-called, has lasted for two or three thousand years in its various forms, it is gradually dawning upon men that the women, the mothers, the creators of the race, are entitled to decent treatment. None too soon. * * « The vote will do for women what it has done for men. It will compel those In power to con sider the welfare and the happiness of women. It will enable women to punish those who treat them and their children un justly, cruelly or scornfully. Do what you can to hasten votes for women where justice has not yet been done. \ ou w r ould gladly take the heavy load from the back of any ONE poor woman. Be just as eager to take the load of in justice from the backs of ALL women. The real ATLAS is not man, hut WOMAN, carrying the earth on her shoulders. Man makes the pictures, writes the stories, fixes every thing his own way. He shows himself carrying the load. But in reality WOMAN is the burden bearer; she always has carried the burden, the heaviest and the most thankless. There is light ahead, in modern thought and decency, fortunately. TO VOTE. That may interest the gen tlemen who wonder what is going to be come of the dirty dishes and of the cry ing baby if w omen vote. This woman had washed the dishes, had fed the children, and was at the polls bright and early, to prove that women are not necessarily “dumb driven cattle.” She voted well, and, as it happened, was able to say afterward, “Of course I voted for dad.” Her father was a can didate for a minor office. Is there anything shocking in the idea of a daughter, a good woman who has known her father all her life, going to the polls and saying w ith her vote, “I know 7 that my father is a good man and can be trusted.” Doesn’t every man know, whether he cares to admit it or not, that women will vote more conscientiously than men, and, on the average, show greater ability in selecting the good candidate and the HONEST men? * # * Is it not a good thing for the world, for life at home, and for the solving of our complicated American marriage and divorce problem, to have the hus-