ms
THE COURIER
OBSERVATIONS
BY SARAH B. HARRIS
Co-Education
The first women who deslred'to go to
college were regarded with horror by
the same kind and quality of people
who now aim coarse, trite Jokes at the"1
women tax-payers who claim a right fb
express their choice in the adminis
tration of their own property. The op
ponents -of-higher education -said-then,
as the anti-suffragists say now, that
a college education would unsex wom
an, make her masculine, unfilial, scorn
ful of men, undutlful and disobedient
wives and unloving mothers, poor
cooks, slovenly housekeepers, and ren
der them altogether unlovely. "Woman
Is. to speak temperately, as good-looking
as ever. That is, pretty women are
as pretty as they were before they were
allowed to study anything not taught
In the high-schools. "Women In gen
eral are as heroic as the mothers of
the Gracchi who could neither read nor
write, but spent their lives before a
broidery frame. The truth is that the
tendency to become a woman Is firmly
fixed In a little girl, and the knowledge
and training attained in a college
makes her more of a woman.
But all this has been abandoned long
ago. The average male college under
graduate has been In the same col
lege with young women long enough
to discover that if there are any hon
ors, the girls are more than likely to
take them; and that he has not the
same chance he would have in a col
lege for men. There is much fearful
talk about the feminization of our
learning; but that phase is not what
displeases the average undergraduate.
There are many college women who
shrink from frankly considering wom
an's rights and from those. who be
lieve that women are individuals and
are entitled to at least a voting share
In the government. These conserva
tives believe in higher education for
women. But unless It Is re-enforced
by larger civil rights, it is not impos
sible that some of the present co-educational
Institutions may exclude
women.
Stanford has already limited the
number of female students who can be
admitted. Professor James of North
western university ambiguously ap
proves of the education of women, but
unmistakably deprecates that un
known and unaccomplished effect
called feminization from which male
students are fleeing to colleges devoted
to the hard task of civilizing man in
his most brutal period. To be sure
state universities are supported by the
taxation of the entire people. Se much
property pays a certain per cent of its
value to the state for education. The
property is sexless. It may be owned
by a man; it may be owned by a
woman. It is dollars the state collects
and the sex of the individual who pays
the tax is of no import.
Suppose the voters of Nebraska con
clude that all the teachers, books, ap
paratus and rooms at the university of
Nebraska are needed for the education
of other voters. According to the logic
of the anti-suffragists such a conclu
sion is inevitable. If a woman's in
terest in public affairs is Impertinent
and unwomanly, the less education she
has the more likely she is to be sat
isfied with the role assigned her by the
hard and unjust conditions, supersti
tions and conventions of today. Un
less woman is to vote she certainly
should not be educated. The slave
holders of the south were right when
they made it a crime to teach a negro
how to read and write. Catholicity
and slavery can not co-exist. The
privilege of attending the state uni
versity can not be enjoyed by the
daughters of Nebraska whose fathers
and mothers support it any longer
than the voters of the state permit.
Undoubtedly the presence of so many
girls, in the university Is feminizing
that institution, and 'the youthswho
have noticed the tendency -Will' have
an opportunity to say some time
whether it shall continue. But the
girls who owe their horizon, the sweet
ness and light of life to the university
are legally dumb.
Jt-ls. singular, considering the history
of the race and especially of families,
that men should begrudge woman an
education and the largest, freest life
of the spirit. There never was a man
who emancipated his generation, who
lighted a torch whose genial gleams
still Illuminate humanity's march, who
did not possess a great mother, a
dreamer, perhaps one who held con-,
ventlons lightly, but one who thought
her own thoughts and let trifles re
main trifles. It is singular, again, that
of all the great men who have lived
and served there are few who had
great sons. The mothers of the great
artists, poets, architects, statesmen
dreamed dreams that their sons made
come true. Evolution is accomplished
by the Improvement of both parents
and the slow transmission of the Im
provement. Proh&itioaiits
The cause of temperance Is unfortu
nate In Lincoln In having a figure
head who has been suspected of black
mailing the saloons for his own per
sonal advantage. Prohibitionists, as a
rule, though an Impractical and un
convlncable type, are pure ldalllsts
and optimistic to a degree. They do
not resemble the professional reformer
who advocates his principles for the
sake of a Job, for a crib at the expense
of the public Your prohibitionist Is
an Idealist pure and simple and with
out compromise. The devil and his
agents do not waste time arguing with
him, for they know It Is useless.
Neither argument nor facts can con
vince the real prohibitionist that he is
wrong. He says there are law? against
murder and robbery and yet murder
and robbery are committed. Because
the laws against these crimes are, in a
measure, ineffectual, are they to be
abrogated? He says that saloons are
criminal institutions and that the
community is particeps crlmlnis when
it accepts a thousand dollars or more
from the saloon keeper and Issues to
htm a permit, a license to run his ne
farious business, a business 'which
keeps the penitentiary and insane asy
lum full of men who must be detained,
fed and lodged at the public expense.
He says that it is outrageous to" give
the money which we "receive from In
stitutions that ruin homes and make
murderers and lunatics, to the schools;"
and that if we did not procure the
money in this way we could not afford
to educate our children.
Prom this point of 'view the'school :
argument does appear tenuous. "When
the believer in the doctrine that sa
loons are a necessary evil replies to
the prohibitionist that recent statistics
show that only about a third of the
inmates of penitentiaries and asylums
are drinking men, he holds that the
fathers and mothers of the inmates re
ferred to, drank, and 'that in conse
quence they were born degenerate and
vicious. Statistics stop here.
But for and against aside, it is cer
tain that the prohibitionists, in keep
ing alive the discussion of this subject
and In constantly directing attention
to the evil that the saloon is respon
sible for, are performing a great ser
vice to the community. In them more
than in all others is the hope of the
future. They have not yet convinced
the community, but they wllL- And -when
places like the Llndell hotel sa
loon are under the ban of the law,"
when young men can no longer play a
game of billiards and step a few feet
away to a bar to refresh their thirst
between games, the reform will be due
to the efforts and faith of the Lincoln
prohibitionists. The number of work
ing men, day laborers, whom the cause
has won in the last few years is a
cause for congratulation. A heretic
arid an observer of how prohibition
does not prohibit in Topeka is inspired
if not convinced by the clear eyes, zeal
and conviction of the men who are
doing what they" can year by year at
elections and between times by ex
portation and example to induce men
to forswear liquor. And more than all
the Institutions of Lincoln, more than
all -the business houses and active, en
terprising business men, the hope of
the community is in this constantly
enlarging group of believers In clean
liness and sobriety.
At the present time prohibition can
not be enforced in Lincoln because the
majority of the voters are not In favor
of It. But the saloon is evil, all evil.
Nothing wholesome or for the benefit
of the community can emerge from it.
It is bad and the men who go Into it
and come out of it are degenerating.
They are not the men they were a few
years ago. It is a matter of observa
tion that the men who go In and out
of the swinging doors are not the la
boring men. Some are the men whose
names are printed every week In the
society columns of the papers. They
are no longer the railroad men, for the
railroad companies will not have em
ployes who go In either at the front or
back door of saloons. They are men
of more or less standing in this com
munity. It is true that their standing
and reputation are not what they
were. The saloon habitue Is under sen
tence. He is the last man to find it
out. But the day will come when he
will look back over the long path he
has stumbled down hill and for the
first time he will acknowledge the
cause of his loss of money, Influence,
position, respect and his own earning
and thinking capacity.
If the saloons were closed some of
the younger men who are Just begin
ning to swallow drams like men, might
be ashamed to go to a dive to get
liquor. In the meantime the actual
moral elevation, superior faith and
tenacious optimism of the prohibition
ists of this little city of Lincoln is the
most encouraging sign of future re
generation. Politicians ' are quick to
see the beginnings of the source of
future power, and the results of the
recent election have opened their eyes.
They had uo Idea that the' prohibition
ists had such a following. The evi
dence of strength Is the only convinc
ing argument to a politician. Since the
municipal returns he speaks of the pro
hibitionist party in this city with an
unconscious inflection of respect never
before apparent in his elocutionary ef
forts. The eventual triumph of the
prohibitionist party here is assured.
It is only a matter of a few years
when saloons will be against the law
and the school revenue will have to be
raised by some other means. A trial
may convince a majority that pro
hibition is impossible. 'The prohibi
..tlonist.hlmselfjwill.never be convinced.
It is certain that In the near future a
trial will" be made," and the politicians
might as well begin to arrange their
sails to take advantage of the wind
from that quarter.
The Color Line at Los Angela
In families, or in small clubs, or
within the boundaries of a coterie of
friends, it is possible by agreement to
taboo a subject whose discussion has
a tendency to arouse prejudice and an
imosities. But for the sake of peace
and harmony such a subject can not
be eliminated from the discussions of a
large body containing delegates from
nearly every state in the union. A
number of small clubs have passed
resolutions deprecating discussion of
the color question at the approaching
biennial meeting of the General Fed
eration of Women's Clubs which will
meet at Los Angeles on the first, sec
ond and third of May. It is quite un
likely that the discussion of whether
or not colored "women shall be admit
ted to the general federation can be
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Vsf r ILLLLLm''v
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