Life — October 16, 1913 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SEVIEPVE;- A Fable for Suffrage IX the Birdland Republic where Jove ruled on high He granted a vote to the birds of the sky, The Jays and the Hawks and the Buzzards and Crows Got in on the right that the Franchise bestows. But, in looking them over, Jove came to the yard Where the Hens were enclosed. He examined them hard. “They cluck and they cackle,” he said, “which denotes That Hens are unfitted to trifle with votes.” So the Birdland Republic went on in the way That commonwealths oft are conducted to-day; The Jays mocked the laws while the Hawks preyed in scorn And the Crows spent their efforts in stealing the corn. The Birds in Convention oft roosted—and say !— There was always the Devil of Scandal to pay! They pecked and they scratched with invidious claws While the Jays bribed the Buzzards and filled up their craws. “They're pretty tough birds,” Jove admitted, “but then They lack the fool-feminine ways of the Hen; Though Liberty’s eyes they so greedily pluck, They’re qualified voters because they don’t cluck.” It happened one day that Minerva descended, Her spectacles bright for inspection intended. She came back that night to Olympian Dad To tell what she'd seen—and you bet she was mad! “An army of Hawks have surrounded the coops And are killing the Hens with horrifical swoops.” “That's their right,” answered Jove with an air un-get-at-ive, “The Hawk goes to war, but the Hen’s non-com- bative.” “Is the Hawk,” asked Minerva, “more useful to life Than the indigent Hen who, designed as a wife, Sits brooding her chicks with a motherly care, Protecting their lives from the fowls of the air? “Should the hook-taloned Vulture more glory in sway Than the fertile, fat Plymouth Rock, cackling her lay, Her life pledged to service, no hireling to pride?” Whereat the Big Thunderer grandly replied, MORAL “In Public Discussion a Woman like You Should tend to her Fancy Work. Hence taises- vous!” W. A Factor in Human Progress GOvERNMENT is the social management of human beings; a system to regulate our social and business intercourse, It is not a male institution, nor a female one, but a Human institution in which all human’ beings must take part if we are to have a true democracy. All the industrial rules and regulations are in the hands of men, who are interested primarily in the production of big things, such as railroads and machinery. Women, on the other hand, are the purchasers of all the things we consume and, therefore, ought to be allowed to say under what conditions they are to be produced. In the industrial world, women and girls, unorganized, unskilled and untrained are forced into our factories with- out a word of protest as to the conditions there. Let us at least give those who labor a chance to demand’ decent working conditions. When. the woman is admitted to all fields of intelligence, through the broadening of her horizon, will she not be far more companionable to the men with whom she comes in contact, and will she not have finer and nobler traits and qualities to bestow upon her child? These then are reasons (would that men, the all-wise, all-powerful half of humanity could grasp them!) why the ballot given to women would be one step toward putting our government, our home and our industry on a broader and a higher plane. 3 E. W. B. Patriotism Y Country! May she always be right; but My Coun- try, right or wrong! My Family! May it always be right; but My Family, right or’ wrong. Myself! May I always be right; but Myself, right or wrong! UNCLE SAM DISCRIMINATES NN VO" Fo MEN comicbooks.com