The Awakening in Tennessee
All signs point to the fact that the
Women of Tennessee have been aroused from their clumber(sic.). They have at
last reached a point of development
where they are beginning to think for
themselves. They are beginning to take
hold of things more vital than self-
culture.
Social service is woman's natural
field of action and in ever larger and
larger numbers are they coming forward to enlist for the struggle for better conditions. The most thoughtful
and best informed are examining into
existing conditions and informing
themselves as to the laws upon our
statute books concerning women and
children. Alas, in this state, the code
contains most inadequate legislation
for the protection of women and children.
At the mothers' congress held in
Nashville, March 28 and 2 9, recommendations were made and resolutions
passed endorsing no less than a dozen
bills for passage by the legislature, all
concerning the protection of women
and children. A special committee was
appointed to see that the necessary
steps were taken to have these meas-
ures become laws. Some of the suggested bills are: to have women made
of school-boards, and juvenile judge.
It was recommended that indigent
mothers with young children be given
pensions, that a pregnant woman under sentence to the penitentiary be
paroled until after the birth of the
child.
Mothers learned that little girls who
have been assaulted undergo additional wrongs during the trials. They
ask, therefore, that the judge and the
interested attorneys decide what evidence is relevant and admissable before examining girls who have been
assaulted. They desire that a woman
should be permitted to accompany the
girls when they appear before the
grand jury. Many expressed themselves as advocating a law forbidding
the press from giving the names or
girls who had been assaulted or seduced.
Never will women and children
have adequate protection until women
are enfranchised. Few human beings
have angelic natures and will consequently look out first for number
one. To be disfranchised is to belong
to class number two, and to come in
for a share when number one has all
he desires.
eligible to be notaries public, members
At the meeting of the East Tennessee Teachers' association held in
Knoxville last month a resolution was
handed to the chairman of the resolution committee asking endorsement
for the making of women eligible to
boards of education. Although so
many of the members of the association are women the resolution was
smothered in the committee and not
even shown respect enough to be submitted to the association for endorsement or rejection.
The self respect of teachers, like
many other classes of women, is
awakening and some of the teachers
were quite indignant at such treatment of the request. Tennessee needs
all the help she can get in the war
against illiteracy and many of us cannot understand why the intellectual
women of this section should not be
placed upon our school boards and be
given every encouragement to work
for the education of the children. Verily the ways of man are difficult to
understand
L. CROZIER FRENCH.
