, 1874-08-23

! The friends of woman-suffrage arc apt to
| think that IN enumeration of the legal and
| social disabilities Of women, with few jDgling
phrases about the tyrant sex, Is sufficient proof
| that tho ballot should be the freewoman's, as
| well ss the freeman'a, birtheight- They are. or
| they pretend to be, unaware that the real ques-
! tion on which woman-suffrage hinges is: Will
good government be promoted BY the admission
of woman to the franchise II not, the imagi-
nary legal and tbs real social disabilities of the
sex will be no good reason for giving it anything
to do with government We have in previous
| articles shown that the effect Of woman-suflage
| upon liquor legislation would be in the highest
degree prejudlciM to the beBt interests Of the
| commonwealth What would bo the effect Of
such an innovation in increasing the number OF
ignorant voters7 Our figures are takea from
the census Of 1870.
There we're, in 1870, 18.74o.869 white and col
ored females in the States OF the Union. The
general ratio OF one adult to one-and-three-
fourths children would make 6, ,814.861 OF these
persons over twenty-one. These figures, then,
4ttkCStAk tAo 4u1A0C1 VI A6" f0IEAo WIZ "UoAA
be created by womau-suffrage constitutional
amendment. Nearly one-third Of them can
neither read nor write By the census, 2 055, TOT
white and colored women over q years OF age
are m this pitiable condition. 1t must be re-
membered, too, that these lliterate women
would be, as class, far more apt to poll full
vote than their better educated sisters. It is 30
with mon. The loves. classes vote indefatieabIy.
It would be 40 with women. It is said that every
Southern negro must vote at every election or
be ostracised By his fellows. Thus the full
black vote is always polled; the full white vote,
never. The 935, 1856 llliterate uegresses over 81
would present themselves at the polls With un-
failing regularity. -
When such gross illiteracy has been allowed |
for, the tale OF ignorance has been by no means
fully told. Women who can read and write are not
rescued from utter political Ignorance by those
accomplishments. The weaker sex does not |
read the newspapers, does not read the books Of |
the day-uness they happen to be novels It ia
utterly ignorant Of the topics OF the time There
are brilliant exceptions to this rule, no doubt |
We cannot too gladly recognize that fact. But |
the brilliant exceptions only throw into deeper
darkness the political chudishness Of the average
woman. It is true that her exclusion from poll
tics has psrtly kept her ignorant Of them. And it
mag be true that that exclusion has been unjust |
But all this does not alter the fact Of ignorance.
That remains Until it can be removed woman-
suffrage will but carry on the debaaing process
which the votes Of iIliterate men have begun
It must strike an observer as the height Of folly
that 1000 900 adult persons, not one in = hun
dred OF whom can give IN lntelligible sketch Of
tho system Of government under which most Of
them hAve passed their whole lives, should
clamor for the power to help administer that
government.
This great objection to wonan-sufrage can be
greatly weakened BY education Let women get
knowledge. They will soon find that it is power.
While they remain in childiah ignorance, they
must expect to be treated as children