The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-02-19
WOMEN IN POLITICS AND RE-
LIGION.


The women get on very slowly in their
effort to take a hand in the business of
the world. That they get on at all is a
striking proof of their mental capacity
and energy. The obstacles before them
are greater than those which stand in
the way of men. As the rule, if a man
is able to do thing he is permitted to
do it. But with women it is different.
After she has fitted herself for any busi-
ness, and often after she has made an
actual demonstration of her ability there
still remains the question, not of oppor
tunity, for that generally comes of itself
to the one best prepared for it, but of
whether or not she shall be permitted to
make use OF the opportunity. Her fail
ures, therefore, are as often due to the
impossibility of going outside of the
limits which custom has set to her activi-
ties, as to the lack of special fitness for
the work she would like to do
This singular condition under which
women are trying to get along in the
world is illustrated by recent events in
Boston and Brooklyn. In the former
city, as is well known, a number of wo-
men were elected to be members of the
School Committee At the meeting of
the committee last evening the seats thus
filed by these women were declared to
be vacant They are therefore forced to
30 to the courts for decision as to their
right to hold the Office in question. There
is no pretenee, so far as we know, that
they are unfit to be members of the com
mittee; the election at which they were
chosen was conducted regularly and hon
estly, and they unquestionably received
majority of the ballots. With a man
that would be the end of the struggle;
but with woman it is the beginning.
To the labors and chances of popular
election she is forced to add the delays
and costs of an appeal to the courts. The
people govern in Massachusetts, but they
cannot elect woman to Office without
obtaining a ratification of their action by
the judiciary
The instance in Brooklyn is the formal
decision of the Presbytery of that city
that certain Presbyterian churches under
its jurisdiction have violated the rules oi
the Presbytery and the requirements OF
sound policy by permitting Miss Sarah
Smiley to preach in their pulpits. In this
case, likewise, there is no accusation
against Miss Smiley's character, no dis
paragement of her ability as preacher
She has demonstrated over and ovel
again that she has every qualification the
possession of which obtains for a mar
the right to preach. But her creates
where man finds his path clear.
The strangest thing of all is that nobody
appears to regard this condition under
which women try to work as singular o.
unjust Some of the members of tn,
Boston School Committee while the,
believe that the women elected as mem
bers of that body have legal right t.
their seats, voted with those who believ,
that they have no such right. Wha
would be thought of similar action il
case of a man? Would it not be though
to be foolish or unjust? Yet no one ap
pears to consider it strange that SO mucl
more should be required of womal
than of man, although so many person
say they think woman to be the inferio
OF man. is it not an unfair advantage W
are taking of those we profess to respec
so highly, to love so much IN T. Eve1
ing Post.
The world is moving, slowly. The lat
Chief Justice Chase, when Secretary
the Treasury, employed women as clerks
and they made the best clerks ever en-
ployed in the office President Grant, t
his everlasting honor, has appointed
good many women Postmasters. w
believe the Postmasters at Richmon
Virginia, Covington Kentucky, an
Portsmouth Ohio, are women The be:
Postmaster we ever had at Jackson was
woman. The people of Scioto count
last fall elected woman Recorder, bu
the law compelled them to do it by eli
mlocution. A better day for women