The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-07-27
OUR COLORADO LETTER.


To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
Although our weather at present is
not conducive to suffrage work, or, in
deed, to any kind of work. the cause is
not quiet. Even when there is not
much progress to report, there is
quiet circulation of arguments and ex-
change of views at our dinner-tables, on
our croquet grounds and shady porehes,
and wherever people meet together and
converse.
Mrs. Campbell, writing from the
southern part of the State, reports good
success so far, but observes, ave have
found some women who did not know
the question was to be voted upon this
fallW
Says letter from Boulder, July 11th,
in the Tribune of this city: "Mrs. J. NJ.
North delivered a lecture on Woman
Suffrage yesterday to full audience,
after which committee was appointed
to form permanent organization of a
club. The suffrage movement numbers
among its advocates many of the most
intelligent people in the town." OF
course. Is it not always the most in
telligent people who favor schemes of
reform or progress2 Else, the world
would be in sad way, doomed to stand
still or be led by the ignorant and unin-
telligent in a backward direction. 1
am sure that very few of the most in
telligent men will be found in the class
that DR.. Crary so we'll describes as "the
men who go trotting along in the wake
of progress, bowling because the centu-
ries won't STOP"
An editorial in your issue of July 9Th,
entitled, "Investigate, then Pronounce
Judgment" touches upon point which
has caused the leaders of the movement
here to be accused of lack of policy and
judgment. A paragraph in the Times
last Wednesday reads thusly: ''The ad-
vocates of Woman Suffrage are in
earnest, and are in the field. We are
informed that next month a number ot
the most prominent workers in the
cause are to arrive in Colorado from the
East, among them the well-knowr
Susan B. If they should win the ballot
it will not take long for them to fine
out that when any important politica
measure is to be carried at an election
there is such thing as commencing
the campaigns too early, and working
the excitement up to the highest pitcf
before, instead of at the election. Reac
tions are dangerous, and we trust tha
our lady friends will not experienc,
this fact in their first efforts for the gif
of suffrage" Now, though it be quit
a new order of things in the conduct o
campaigns, it is nevertheless much de
sired that in conducting this one ther
be as little excitement as possible
Dickens vivid description of the riot
of 1880, in "Barnaby Rudge," show
what excitement can do, and we wan
none of this unruly and lawless elemen
to be Instrumental in giving US the bal
lot. We do not believe in working th
excitement up to the highest pitch,
either before or at the election, but W
believe in "patient and dispassionate
consideration of the matter, and calr
Judgment upon it, and that the ballo
put into our hands under those condi
tions will be far more surely conduciv
to peace and justice than if we game
it by rousing that sort of insanity calIe
excitement, which renders men ofte
INSCRIPTIONS and irresponsible for the
actions. H. L.
Denver, Colorado, July IA, 1877.