Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1867-04-26
POLITICAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

The following article, which we copy from
the Independenf is from the pen of its talen-
ted editor, Mr.. Titon, and is the result OF
personal observations made during recent
tour in the West.
Beyond my expectation, have found in
the West ripenng and fruit promising
thoughtfulness On the question Of the poliii-
cal rights Of women.
If any man supposes that the discussion Of
this question is confined TO few writer's aud
speakers, radical in their views and conspicu.
Gus in their minority, he does not discern the
signs of the times. The claim of woman, as
citizen, to possess the citizens franchise
the duty Of popular government to ac-
knowledge this democratic right; the
pecuniary necessities Of great multitudes OF
American women to whom the elective fran
chise is the only hope Of multiplying their
employments, and Of increasing their wages !:
the public need Of womans direct and per
sonal influence on political opinion and civil
administration; all these and many other
branches Of one and the same central sub
ject are now eiciiing the attention Of nearly
all the Intellectual women whom have had
the good fortune to meet in the West.
Of course, fastidiousness, prejudice, and
fashion, deter many excellent and well.rnean-
ing ladies from giving, as yet, serious
thought to question which is TO occupy
public attention in the future as the question
of slavery has occupied it in the past. Many
persons, who are not ia the habit Of treating
cther grave subjects with rd;cule, treat this
with an objectionable levity. Bat let these
jesing critics remember the great army Of
women in this country who are forced to
struggle for their daily bread, let them re.
member the proverty stricken mothers of
:atherless children let them remember the
dependent sisters OF half million slain sol
diers etthcm remember the hosts Of needle
workers, who have now grown so numerous
as to reduce their own wages to q piitance;
let them remem Der the school.teachers, whose
slender salaries are q disgrace to the system
OF tree schools let them remember the daily
increasing throng Of young women who,
either IN stores OK factories, eitier by one
Ell ploymcnt or another, are earning Just
enough money to make them feel that they
are earning none at all. Such solemn aud
sorrowful facts as these-seen BY all eyes ex-
cept those that are wilfully biind--ought to
make the great mass of weil-to-do American
women attentive rather than frivolous toward
. proposed remedy.
Whether or not women ought to vote is
question on which women, like men, may en-
tertain diverse opinions. But whether or not
women ought to have q wider range of EN-
ployments, and higher scale Of wages, is a
question on which neither any humane we-
man or man can generously hold dissent
ing view.
The purest soul and the fairest body with
which God has honored human nature He
has awarded to women. 1t is q Tity, there.
fore, that SO many true, good, and heroic
American women are hardly able to keep
soul and body tegelher.
A man has a hundred chances for earning
living where woman has one.
This Is neither generous nor Just. 1t is q
grievous wrong. 1t is crying social evil.
II Is al this moment working keen cruelty
nay, bitter agony to thousands Of the
noblest daughters of the Republic.
am not speaking at random. Here in
the West-where nobody is idle-where all
men and women work. have listened
to many an appeal from indeia,igable wo-
men saying, "God forbid that we should
complain Of our work but is there no device
by which We can earn better pay? met a
au AC"os . tCdNuSA VI otcth-9 WOu8n
with more brains than Queen Victoria or the
Empress Eugenie-and yet whose utmost
earnings in the pursuit of her profession
were forty dollars month. met the most
respected aud capable woman OF Western
town, who, having suddenly lost her husband,
and having three children to support. told me
she knew not whittier to turn for livelihood /;
and she wept in des aair. These two instances
are types OF two great classes-the class of
underpaid teachers, and the class of depends
ent widows. What is the rem, dy for each i?
Shall we indict the board of school trustees
for not paying a respectable salary TO the
teachers? I? No. The question Of salary is not
question Of generosits, but Of business.
Shall We make charitable collection for
the widow and her babes? No. A sensitive
woman will not consent to live on charity /:
or, if she will, she cannot find charity enough
to live on. The remedy for both cases is TO
open the gate to wider field of congenial
aud remunerativc employment, so that a
teacher, when teaching, who fails to CON.
mand . good market, may find in something
else better reward that the mother of a
family, if suddenly made . widow. NAV with
. reasonably exeriion achieve q seli>earued
livelihood.
Now. does any silken, clad lady, rocking
in velvet chair, exclaim, "What hinders
this teacher from seeking already better
paid occupation or what hinders the widow
from opening already whatever door she
will p Then, madam, to speak frankly, let
it be said that the hinderance is your own
unsuspecting self-your blindness to the
necessities Of your own sisterhooi-your
mn crs, of,rtNsh.t,ax
ment which crowds dependent women into
the narrow circle of standard occupations,
under the penalty, if such women venture
outside Of these, Of suffering loss Of caste. A
man may choose to be banker, or choose
TO be . mechanic aud yet, after either
choice, one never thinks Of SAYING that be
has either gained or loss caste But it makes
a prodigous difference in public respec,
whether women lives al ease on her hus.
bands income, or whether she cuts and fits
dresses to earn her children's bread. am
sorry to say that women are more arisiocratic
than American men. Now, Of course, il 10
better for = women to have money than to
have none il is better for Z woman to have
position than to have none but let q woman
who had money and position, and belongs to
aristocratic circles in the east, come and so>
journ while in the democratic circles of the
west, and she viii soon be washed clean Of
the tainted class>and. caste NOTIONS with
which her money and position may have
contaminated her mind. The truest demo-
cratic equality which ever seen in any
community, whether between man and man,
or between woman and woman, exists in
some Of the communities of the far west.
The spirit ofeqaality strikingly pervades not
only western men but western women. And
it is on this beautiful fact-s hopeful auspice
for the Republic-that base the prediction
which | lately ventured in these columns th I
the first state Of the Union to achieve the
political equality of the sexes viii be . state
west Of the Mississippi-I mean Iowa.
A lady just arrived in Washington
espied the dome Of the capital, and in
quired If it were the gas worke.
+" Yes" said bystander " for the ma
=