Litchfield enquirer., 1871-01-26
THE WOMEN THAT WISH TO BE
 .93 4.@ MEN. ta&

IHE WOMEN THAT WISH IO DE | @@ MEN. 'a&
 There is no one falshood so unscrupu- lously reported by the adversaries of Wo- man Suffrage in the pulpit or by the press as the unjust and malicious idea, that the advocates of the suffrage movement are
 ''women that want to be men, It matters not whether it be uttered by the sage of the New York Tribune or the Reverends of the Broadway Tabernacle is false. Suppose
 insist upon eating part of the same
 beefsteak, or one of the same clusters of
 biscuit, or potato boiled in the same
 dish, that make my husbands breakfast and give him strength and ability to carry 1 forward his work. whatever it may be. Can 1t be asserted that l wish to be my hus- band? Or only to share in that which is
 for his good, and may be for mine? If I should consume his portion, leaving him
 unsatisfed, then I should be guilty of do- ing him wrong. 4A
 If I ask the right to equal education,
 does it imply that I wish to be man? For wages for my work, if it is equal in quantity and quality with that of my broth CT, that may answer through my own ef-
 forts to my own needs-can I be accused of trying to be man? If, being the daugh-
 ter or grandchild of an artist, artisan, or inventor, I should inherit some of my fathers talent, genius faculty, predilection or power, and choose to put it to legitimate use, do therefore swish to be a man.? 1 Having been taught from my infancy that 'all just governments derive their I powers from the consent of the governed, ? f"that taxation without representation is tyranny" ''that the ballot-box is the basis fof liberty" that "without it all men are l free and equal" and believing these things to be true, and seeing clearly wrongs to be righted and evils destroyed in our social system, that the ballot should or may reach 1 If ask to be allowed the priviledge to use this ballot, is it the part of Christianity 'or civilization to brand me or any other woman ''as wishing to be man.?
 1 If politics are degrading to manhood should any man touch them with the tips of his fingers? Have not as much right to think and feel and act for my country as any man that lives, and asking to think, feel and act with power in the body polite as does my husband, my father or my son | do l ask to become man? I have been in the Woman Suffrage ranks from its be- ginning; know and understand the lives and characters of most of its leaders, or those who may seem to have led in the days past, and I have yet to learn of the first one who wishes the right of suffrage. 'that she may become man," or usurp one privilege of manhood. But we demand of the "powers that be" that we. as humarf beings called upon to do our full share of all the worlds work and of its most i'm portant work, be allowed all the-tools that can be used in and for that work, that we may do >twell. And no man or set of men, be they newspaper editors, or evangelical divines, who stoop to bear false witness against our motives or characters, will re- tard our cause, because it is just.
 In the old anti-slavery days,i one pleaded for tho freedom of tho slave, the outcry was ever. Would you have your daughter marry nigger?" Now when women ask flor justice and inalienable rights, the cry : comes up to drown out honest words t"The women want to be men"
 But the world is not so ignorant, dumb or blind as not to see that all that is good in government for one sex is good for tho other. And surely and steadily it is recog- nizing the right of every woman to "equal- ity before the law with every man, and that the mother who has trained her sons into their manhood, and given them to her country, should share with them in all the rights and privileges that her country has power to bestow. v* We ask the right of suffrage because it is a right, believing it will be for the elevation of the human race, man and woman. Be- cause we see and see clearly that it will be a key with which we can turn the bolts of all the doors, which shut us out of colleges, and which heretofore have admitted only manly feet to wake echoes in their halls. Because We see clearly that the ballot is the low xVvl,S SoI, A11E 1No-, C prejudice that have been piled up in our way to higher and nobler life. Because 1t is the means to be used to blot from our statute books cruel and unjust laws and tyrannical usurpations. We ask suffrage for women, because it IS the weapon of all power and privilege in the United States of America, which we may use, as it pleas. es us, as do men. Nothing more, nothing less, will satisfy our demand. .--Letter of Mrs. Gage in Ase Wonsan's Journal. .
 THE CoAL STRIKE It is curious to note how a grand coal strike, affecting thous
 ands of men, some of them to starvation, is brought about. Last Tuesday, we are told, was the day fixed upon by the "Gen- eral Council of the w. B. A" for 8 gener- al suspension in the coal mining business in Pennsylvania, and accordingly it took place. A body as powerful as Gambetta is in France would seem to dominate the whole coal regions. The initials we have quoted stand for the Workingmen's Be- ,nevolent Association. The Miners Journal slysthe suspension takes place simply from the fact that there are no orders for coal, and if the operators and men desired to work they could not" It is very singular,
 certainly, that they should all find it out on one day. Nothing like this happens in any other business, in all of which dull times and glut of products occur, without anything like total or a simultaneous stoppage of operations. There is no arti- cle of consumption, which, we take it, is in more regular demand, one year with another, than coal; and it would seem that the producers might adjust their force to the requirements of the market, without this alternate overdoing and tota! suspen- sion-driving to-day and idle tomorrow which is the disgrace and curse of the min ing communities: We are glad to see some symptoms, however, Of reaction against this most miserable policy. The iron men of Pennsylvania begin to re-
 bel against this interference with the busi- ness, and are considering what measures