The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-08-07
An Argument for Woman Suffrage.


When the women went To the polls AT
Alameda last week, to work for local OPP
tiOn, they were driven from the streets
by a mob, the members of which denied
them the right TO be there in such a
cause. They were taunted with their
absence from their household affairs.
and were given to understand, with the
most brutal plainness, that they had no
business to take part in an election
which had TO be determined 10y the suf-
frages OF men alone. "GO home TO your
children said the enlightened voters;
''Be Off and darn your husbands stock
ings," shouted the educated and chival-
rOus citizens, evidently thinking that il
was most intOlerable piece of iuterfer-
ence for women to meddle in an election
OF any kind. Yet these women have
reason TO interest themselves in the liq-
uor question, and the subject, as it pre-
sents itself to them, must seem to Justify
the putting forth of all the energies OF
which they are capable. Their happi-
ness, their liberties, the conditions of
their lives, the future of their children,
are all Intimately concerned in this is
sue, with which they have nothing
whatever to do. And If under existing
laws, they are debarred the effective ex-
| preston of their opinions upon ques-
tiOn which undeniably affects the inter
ests Of men, the fact must be regarded
as another proof of the injustice of the
system which condemns them to silence,
and which even exposes them to insult
and violence when they seek to employ
the only agencies which are not posi-
lively prohibited to them. No sane man
can maintain that the women who
strive to protect their homes and fami-
lies from the evil Influences of the saloon
system, are less capable of sound judg-
ment than the men who assailed them
at Alameda, and between the two few
will hesitate to admit that for all social
interests the women would constitute
the best class of voters. But supposing
these women had been voters, would
they have been driven from the polls
with contumely? Would Goodwin
Smiths prediction have been fulfilled,
that whenever question arises between
voting men and voting women, in which
the passions of the former are deeply en-
| listed, they will rise and drive the weaker
sex from the field by sheer force? We do
not believe it, On the contrary, we be-
| lieve that il Woman Suffrage had been
in existence when the Alameda election
took place, the rowdy element would
have been effectively restrained, and the
u
disgraceful scenes which have moved all
decent men 10 Indignation would never
have occurred. For, after all, it was the
state of the law which encouraged the
rufiians on that occasion to act as they
did. They were but asserting, in one of
its most odious forms, the barbarOus doc
tTine of the supremacy of man over
woman. They regarded the women
very much as the poor whites of the
South regarded the negro Immediately
after the war. They looked upon them
as inferior creatures, whose duty il was
to stay at home and mind household
affairs, meekly and patiently submitting
to whatever usage the lords of creation
might see tit TO bcstow upon them
Here there was ease i'm which the in
Justice and absur,lity of the present state
OF suffrage was exhibited in particu-
larly striking manner; for in this in
stance an exceptionally brutal and de-
graded class of men were enabled to
claim and exercise supremacy, both po-
lltleal and social, over an exceptionally
intelligent class of women. The men
were of class untitled for participation
in governmental affairs. The women
were of kind perfectly well fitted to
take their place on an equality with the
most cultured of the opposite sex. The
issue was one in which women have an
equal right to participate. And yet the
law gave the whole power into the
hands of the men. 1t appears to us that
this occurrence furnishes n strong argu-
ment in behalf of Woman Suffrage
Record