PROHIBITION AND
EQUAL SUFFRAGE Go Hand In Hand and Will Soon be Nation-Wide. Is Prediction of Dr. Maynard.
Eugenics Specialist-De-
clares South Is Too Conservative.
"It is my firm belief," said Dr. Newell C. Maynard, lecturer, traveler, and student of sociology, psychology, and eugenics, heard in three lectures here this week "that by the year 1920, the liquor traffic will have been destroyed in the United States and woman suffrage will have become nation-wide." "These two reforms go hand in hand," continued Dr. Maynard, in an interview with a Journal and Tribune representative. "The one embraces the other, and both are good and tend toward the betterment of the race. I have traveled recently in most of the states of the union that have enfranchised their women and I find that, without exception, the reform has proven all that was claimed for it by its most ardent supporters." Dr. Maynard has been in Knoxville delivering a series of three lectures on eugenics under the auspices of Ossoli circle. He came as a representative of the National Society for Broader Education, which was organized four years ago in New York by thirty college presidents for the purpose of popularizing education throughout the United States. Dr. Maynard is an advocate of equal suffrage for the sexes and declares that "all the forces which tend to degeneracy and the decadence of the race are opposed to extending the ballot to women. "What institutions, individuals and parties are inactive and organized opposition to woman suffrage," said Dr. Maynard, and in reply to his own question, said, "those that derive their income, or a part of it, from the open saloon, the white slave traffic, the gambling dens, the pool rooms and other vice agencies. The liquor interests in every state in the union are out and out against woman suffrage." Continuing, Dr. Maynard said:---"There is no use mincing words. The English speaking races are deteriorating. Especially is this true of the English nation, but the American nation is also at the turning point, and already going down the hill, and unless the intelligent people, the best people recognize this fact and use their intelligence and energies to counteract the tendency toward decay, this nation will go the way of all the civilizations of the past, from ancient Babylon to modern Spain." "I believe that woman suffrage is in
the direct line of evolution and progress.
It is a great principle that is working
itself out, and it cannot be checked." "I do not believe the race can ever
develop and attain its highest destiny
until the two halves of which it is com-
posed are on an absolutely equal footing.
The fact that half the race is held
back and modified by traditions, and by
restricted and artificail environment, has
postponed and is postponing the time
when the race can really begin to de-
velop along its highest and most useful lines. And while we are waiting for this
opportunity for free development," went
on the speaker, "the race is deteriorating physically, mentally and morally."
Should Have Fair Test.
''Those who say that women's activities and interests should be entirely
limited to the home and its concerns are theorizing, for nothing can be disproved
until it is tried. Equal suffrage should
be given a fair test and then judged by
its fruits.
"If there are those who can prove
that the higher education of women has
been harmful, let them make out their
case and we suffragists will consider it.
But I think this cannot be proven.
Some generations ago, there were not a
few 'wise men' who wrote books and
tracts to prove that woman was physio-
logically constructed so that the taking
of a college course would work havoc
with her physique. Now, our strongest,
tallest, most beautifully formed, and
fascinating women are those who are
college bred. So much for the alarm-
ists. "There are now a few who raise their voices in the market place, and are not backward in making the statement in the press that if woman be allowed to engage in politics and other concerns formerly looked upon as the exclusive perogative of the male, she will work ruin upon herself, and drag down with her the entire nation. "All I can say is give it a 'try out.'
Don't condemn what has not been tried.
The race is already on the decline, and
why hesitate to apply to the whole nation the remedy that has proven effica-
cious when applied to isolated sections?
But I look upon equal suffrage as more than an experiment," said Dr. Maynard. Dr. Maynard is a young man, educated, widely traveled, and cultured in the sense that he applies his education and culture to every day life and the practical concerns of living. He is broad in his views, open to suggestions, and a public speaker of force and interest. His course of three lectures, given at the Lyceum building in this city, was well attended and much enjoyed. So full is Dr. Maynard of his subject, eugenics, and the related sciences, that he can talk for hours without exhausting his fund of knowledge. When asked his impression of the south, Mr. Maynard said, "The South, like some sections of New England, is over-conservation, narrow, prejudiced, and hide-bound. It is opposed to movements that include the spreading of a wider democracy. Such sections are blocking progress, and standing in the way of those that would go forward." In this he said the people of this section show a close kinship with their English forefathers. "Go into the west, or middle west, and you will note the difference." In making this statement, Dr. Maynard said that he referred broadly to the section as a whole, but that he has met, in every city of the south, men and women, individuals, who do not subscribe to these provencial tenets. Dr. Maynard left the city Friday for Atlanta, where he will lecture before various organizations.
