The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-29
REVIEW OF OBJECTIONS" CON-
TINUED.

review OF ceTIalD pOpulaF OOJeCtlOuS "
Woman Suffrage which we gave last
week, we now propose to continue the
subject, winding up as briefly as pos
sible.
We hear it frequently said that
women, upon going through the crowds
that usually congregate about polling
places, would be subject, or at least lia-
BILE, to insult. If facts proved that
women could not walk unmolested and
free from insult through crowds of men
and women, this would be more CO.
gent objection, but, as they prove the
contrary, it amounts to the opposite.
How is it, we pray you, at our State
and county fairs, where dense crowds
congregate.? How at railroad depots
and steamboat wharves, where fire.
uuently crowds of men and boys with
nothing else to do assemble? And is
it not the boast of this nation, or the
men thereof, that a woman with native
modesty and discretion can go where
she will upon the nations highways,
and through its by-ways unmOlested ?
Do you not see that this is merely
sham cry to deter women who, having
always been keepers at home, are timid
and distrustful, from joining in the de-
mand for suffrage? Why, if we were to
so far forget truth and precedent as to
declare that women could not go where
duty or business called, or honorable
inclination prompted, without incurring
the risk of insult from men, 1t would
straightway be called the chimera of a
"strong- minded woman's Imagination"
and we be accused of clubbing our breth-
rem "tyrants," and other choice sobri-
uuets, which advocates of Woman Suf-
frage are often and enormously charged
with applying to them. This objection,
like the one mentioned last week con-
cerning "dissension in families" We
would, If we were man, certainly
never even whisper, and, being a
woman, we certainly do not believe it
to be well founded. But suppose for a
moment that it would be true. Who
should be disfranchised on account of
so deplorable lack of civility among
those who constitute our present voters,
as this state of affairs would prove, the
women, who would quietly deposit their
ballots and return to their homes, or
the men-so-called-who would insult
them in the discharge of duty and the
exercise of right?
at will bring good women in contact
with those of her own sex who are i'm
pure" says one, with a look of mock
modesty and horror well assumed. Is
not a woman who takes n seat in q
street-car, a rail-car, or any means oI
public conveyance, liable to find hel
next neighbor to be one of this con-
} demned class What assurance ha:
= any woman who pauses at a counter tC
= select dress, that one of these will no
come close to her side at any moment
] And if such thing should occur, as i
= frequently does, does any one consider
= good woman thereby contaminated
. Anu uO uOb MOulGn lhCGb anu t1SoONAeNN
4 daily-with and without their knowl
= edge-with men who are equal partner
in the crimes of these erring ones, ant
y still preserve their purity? Wha
= folly, then, to suppose that the casua
D meeting once in two years at voting
e place with Immoral women will de
e grade those who meet, or are likely t
?. meet the same every day, and ye
If suffer no loss of modesty or character.
II Some opponents have been so har
o pressed for argument or so lost to trutI
e as to declare that "only bad wome
Of would vote" Whether this is intende
s. as an objection to the enfranchisemer
', of woman, or as a slur upon the hunC
it reds of brave, noble, and pure women {
& this nation, who work, and have worke
IS increasingly for years for the polite;
I'd equality of their sex, we are at loss
o. know. If the latter, the lives of thes
IN women are a sufficient refutation to I'll
foul libel, and the intended shaft fal
tie harmless at their feet; if the forme
af- statistics disprove it so thoroughly thi
~ we give few. Woman Suffrage is,
". some extent, established in Englar
ed with the result as detailed in the Lo
0i- don Examiner, that, ain &C muuicip
10 elections, out of every 1000 women wi
:. enjoy equal rights with men on Il
- register, SIG voted, which is but As lie
=, than the proportionate number of me
- Out of q, $40 women registered where
contest occurred, IA, 4l6 voted. Of t
=, men, 166, 7S1 were on the register, and 81
:" " O8O voted" The paper quoted thereup
eN draws the following conclusion: ma
ing allowance for the reluctance of c
spinsters to change their habits, and
0ls 'n more frequent illness of the sex, it
the manifest that, if women had the opp,
/ to tunity, they would exercise the franch
"a as freely as men do." Our own Wyo
i'e' ing furnishes additional proof, but it
unnecessary to cite it.
49, The greatest political bug-bear, a
- 10 one, perhaps, that haunts most persi
- entity the brain of the 'average objectC
"a next to the mythical woman juror,
-, the possible woman politician. Eng