Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-05-04
Suffrage for Babies.

/ The New York Nation comes out strong
/ for extending suffrage to the babies OF
course the arguments that they have a right
to a voice in the making Of the laws by which
they are governed, since government exists
| by consent Of the governed - that they are
human beings and therefore have a natural
right to vote, etc. hold as good here a. any,
where. We quote
The way to induce the baby to occupy itself Sc
rously with the character and qualifications Of
those who have charge Of IL, is, as it seems 10 as,
TO furnish it with some iormaand organized means
OF indicating its preferences The means of eX-
erclsng the faculty of discrimination once sup
piled, the faculty itself there is good reason to
believe, will show itself, and will grow rapidly
That very young babies have never shown this
faculty hitherto seems rather poor argument
against the theory that it exists. Nothing, or
very little, Is as yet known, let us say, about the
nature of babies Their condition is what women
have made it. Swaddled, cabned, cribbed and
confined from the moment Of their birth, and de-
prNed OF the power OF speech, it has been open
20 their mothers and nurses to spread and per
petuate any notions they pleased about their needs
and capacity. Give them the ball0t-that is
legal means of indicating to whose hands they
wished TO be entrusted, with what kind of diet
they wish to be sustained, and of what process of
training they wished to be the object, and, our
word Tor It, the literature both Of physiology and
OF education would be greatly enriched and the
mawkish stuff which one meets with 50 much in
books and periodicals, and in society, about baby
" innocence and pptte,' and - dmples. .
and 80 sweetness, and " pretty ways would
be heard no more. Moreover, we should have an
end OF the corrupt iargon known as "baby talk, "
IN which mothers and nurses now so largely in
dulge, and which, a. it consists simply in the de-
basement OF the popular speech, and is used free
ly IN intercourse with children who either under
stand no language at all or understand correct
English perfectly well, is plainly used as a means
OF retardng the development Of the infant mind,
and thus strengthening and protracting adult as
tendency
1t is, however, when we come to consider ba
bies as class affected by maternal control that
the necessity for arming them with some means
OF protecting themselves against their mothers be-
comes most apparent. IL is constantly said that
we can rely ON the natural instinct OF parents 10
have justice done to the offspring and that this
may be relied on in great number Of cases is no
doubt true. The babies Of sensible intelligent
and kind parents of course need nothing more
but what about that immense class of babies
whose parents are neither kind, sensible. nor in
telligent, and who, far from desiring or loving
children, feel them to be burden and nusance7
That the number Of adults who neither like nor
want children grows in every country, and grows
unhapply, in the ratio of the culture and thrift of
the community-or, IN other words, in the ratio
oil lts cVllzation-ls unhappily too true 1t is
what statistics tell us every day. Ministers are
preaching about it, philosophers discussing il
and doctors denouncng it every week In short,
II looks more and more as if babies would shortly
be not only the one class in the community unpro-
tected by legislation, but the class most needing
legislative protection.
Those who disposed-and we fear there will
be many sueh-to laugh at the idea of giving them
"A frn ma md foil =
ameloratlon OF the condition of infants on the |
cultivation Of human instincts on awakening the
sense Of the snnctity Of the various social obiiDn
tons, and, above all, those arising out OF the /
family state and some of which are iust now in |
bad way, can hardly be in habit of listening 10
the various accounts OF the properties of the bal
lot which may now be heard nightly from bun-
ireds of gifted lips Nobody is to- Young. or loo
DID, or too stupid, or too ignorant for it to do him
good, For those who are in any way dependent
On other people, there is no other help under the
sun and they cannot use it very long without
becoming blessing to every one who has 10 do
win Them. The effect OF infant suffrage on moth
~ anu nurses would be even greater than on the
infants themselves. Collie would certainly Weld
70 II, and 80 would most of the troubles OF teeth
ing Inc seventeenth Amendment-ior so we
Iake leave 70 call it--Onoe passed the sound of
"alilng winch Is now heard nightly from Maine
10 california would die out thousands would 90
calmly to bed who now walk to and fro. That
mothers will oppose the movement is to be exc
lected power long held is never likely to be re-
inqulshed. That Mrs. Winslow will oppose Il.
90, there is little doubt for no child armed with
he ballot wonld ever allow itself to be made a
'eceptaele for the I" Soothing Syrup " hut the
nhnt lie would be broader freer, nobler, and
more beautiful by IL, and that 1t was ordained be-
ore all worlds that babies should vote, no candid
y to deny. '"'''N