is is unquestionably true but it is also true that this has
been coincident with the wider discovery of gold and the
application of steam and electricity to mechanics ... and to draw
sweeping and universal conclusions in regard to a matter upon
which there is an "almost complete dearth of data" is never wise.
Is it true that there is a lower birth-rate among working women
than among those of the wealthy class? Are not the effects of
over-work and long hours in the household as great as are those
of the factory or the office? Is the birth-rate less among women
who are engaged in the occupations unknown to women of the past?
Or is the decline alike marked among those who are pursuing the
ancient occupations but under different conditions?... If
conditions surrounding their employment are such as to make it a
"social question of the first importance" it is unfortunate the
President had not seen that women should constitute at least a
part of any commission authorized to investigate it.

One can not but wish that with his expressed desire for "fair
play" and his policy of "a square deal" it had occurred to the
President that, if five million American women are employed in
gainful occupations, every principle of justice would demand that
they should be enfranchised to enable them to secure legislation
for their own protection. In all governments a subject class is
always at a disadvantage and at the mercy of the ruling class. It
matters not whether its name be Empire, Kingdom or Republic,
whether the rulers are one or many; and in a democracy there is
no way known for any class to protect its interests or to be
secure in its most sacred rights except through the power of the
ballot....

There had been about this time in high places an outburst of attacks
on woman suffrage and predictions as to its dangerous possibilities.
Dr. Shaw referred to their authors as Oracles and said: "The great
difficulty is that when one Oracle claiming to be divinely inspired
has laid down a specific line of conduct which if implicitly followed
would lead to the proper development of woman, the happiness of man,
the good of the family and the well-being of the State, another Oracle
also divinely enlightened lays out a different path by which these
ends may be secured, and then another and another until poor women