The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-04-10
MEN APPEAL TO WOMEN

Men see to-day, as they have never
seen before, the necessity that women
should awaken from the lethargy and
selfishness that have held them in
rshackles through the years that are
gone.
To one who has been engaged in the
unpopular work of urging upon stolid
men and apathetic women the necessity
Of woman's emancipation from the mar
row sphere assigned to her by law and
custom, the present uprising of the
masses in favor of those principles Is
indeed glorious TO contemplate.
The press, the rostrum and the pulpit
alike TEEN with exhortations of fervent
elequence, in which women are urged
TO come out, and by their cogent influ-
ence carry forward the great public
works which man eonfesses-at last
that he is unable to accomplish without
them.
DIR. Carpenter, a popular San Fran
cisco minister, and member of the Pres
byterian Church, recently delivered a
Sunday evening lecture before one of
the most aristocratic audiences in the
city, in which he occupied, squarely
and grandly, the exact ground upon
which we have stood from the begin
ming Of our public work. He eontended
that a woman whose only Office was
that Of wife and mother was Just as far
remiss in the performance of her whole
duty as q man would be who should
rest content with the delusion that to
be a husband and father was his only
mission. He claimed that the cage of
/ Woman" had come; that the hand of
an unseen Providence was guiding her
destinies and urging her forward in all
great reforms; that her sudden uprising
upon the Temperance question was but
beginning of the work that she must
do in Church and State; that no society
or government is, or can be complete,
without the combined influence of the
J sexes in formation or administration.
His audience accepted his ideas with af-
firmative attention, and hundreds, un-
der the inspiration of his example, were
converted to the doctrine of equal rights.
The newspapers which, until very re-
Gently, have never spoken of the Woman
Movement except i'm burlesque or deris-
ion, are joining now in the popular
clamor of the clergy, and are lending
their influence, when all else fails, i'm
exactly the same direction. The follow
ing, from the Chronicle, is one of very
many of these appeals from men to
women to save them from their unjust
legislation, and it explains itself:
Governor Booths veto has killed the bill 10y
which il was hoped that relief would be given
TO the under-paid and over-worked conductors
and drivers on the street railroad lines. The
grounds upon which he takes this course are
that IL would be special legislation creating
disability for a certain class OF men 10 contract
for their own labor, and that il would not, I'm
any degree Of probability, benefit them by its
/ operations. Since this has been the result OF
the attempt at Humanitarian legislation, there
only remains a hope that some better effect
may be achieved by moral suasion, and that
popular feeling OF reprobation may penetrate
/ even the golden arinOr OF the owners OF the
street railroads. These are all rich men-many
OF them very rieh-and the community in
which they live should make them feel that It
is disgrace to oppress the poor who are in
their employ. Governor Booth well says:
'The fact that any man in a land OF plenty is
| compelled 10 work more than twelve hours
day TO procure bread for his family Is a sad
! commentary upon our civilization and society
the more sad when we know there are humid
reds OF applicants for so poor boon as the OPP
/ portunity TO do So"
II nothing else can be done, may not the poor
wives and little ones OF the oppressed class, and
those who sympathize with them. with propri-
ETY. take example from the female "crusaders'
ofthe East in their good work, and try the eff
cacy OF prayer upon some Of the rich men who,
because they can do so, are capable OF demand
ing from sixteen TO nineteen hours OF labor
under exceptionally hard conditiOns-for the
meager pittance ofs2 20 per diem. The "Chron-
icle" will take pleasure in reporting the first
success which they achieve in applying the
pressure OF divine grace to soften the obdurate
hearts OF such employers.