The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-05-08
TRUTH NO YEARS IMPAIR !"

Many Of the objections urged against
woman's enfranchisement are as i'm
palpable and require as strong draught
upon the imagination as the process
which Hood describes as "washing ones
hands with invisible soap, in impereept-
ible water" The ground has been gone
over so often; threadbare platitudes,
puerile in the first place, have been so
frequently answered by irrefUtable ar
guments that those who labor for right
become tired of hammering repetition
on dull ears that are determined not to
hear.
why do you answer such things for
the hundredth time ?' asked a friend
somewhat impatiently, after reading
some testimony relative to the workings
Of Woman Suffrage in Wyoming some
weeks since.
Because" we made answer, curbing
cur own rising impatience, and remem-
herring the anecdote told Of the mother
Of Wesleys, "all our labor for the nine
fy-nine times telling would have been
lost on many persons had our patience
entirely failed US at the hundredth
hour"
This incident was called to mind few
days since, while enjoying a brief res
lite from labor in a neighboring city.
A young man, husband Of two or three
years, volunteered the information that
his wife IA bright and vivacious little
mother and an intelligent citizen)
"should never vote if he could help it,"
why" we asked, curious TO know il
there could be a new objection urged
against equal rights. His hesitating
manner plainly showed that he had
never answered that question with more
than svague because" but rallying, he
replied, blushing like a schOol-boy, "a
woman's place is at home"
"But," we answered, "voting will
take her from home at the most but a
few hours in each two years"
"Well, it will make trouble in fami-
lies" he declared, no longer making
his own case one in point.
"Who will make the trouble? Not
this cheerful, sensible wife," we said,
not caring to let him drift into general
tiles so easily, 'and you, surely you look
little like a dlctatorial husband"
"Well, it don't seem right" he con-
fessed, unwittingly acknowledging the
thrau Of custom. Now, such puny OBJ
jections aud trite replies are old-old as
the movement which thirty years ago
began its onslaught on prejudice and
injustice, making bold demand for equal
rights. Yet there are hundreds who
still base their opposition to woman''
enfranchisement upon them-hundred'
who when brought to the test oppose il
on no better grounds than these. They
are not as we are sometimes in sore dis
gust led to exclaim inly, "simpietons.' u
The truth is, that often as the fallacy O
such opinions has been shown, they
have not heard, or have heard with In
difference, making no personal applica'
tion of the rules which they accept a
true in a general way. at seems so,
is as cogent a defense as these objector;
are able TO make when their premises
are attacked. Once get their attention
make personal application Of the results
they predict for other homes and Othel
'lmilies, and the work is we'll begun
Place then a journal advocating the
principles Of equal rights in their homes
each week for a few months and it i
complete. Unreasoning billiards, WHIT
read little and understand less, line upOI
line and precept upon Trecept will fai
to convince; but the other aud mos
numerous class will sooner or later prof
by il; aud though those long convince'
Of the Justice Of Woman Suffrage an'
anxious for its triumph may tire Of ar
guments in its favor because they ar
trite, repetition is demanded as long a
objections are urged, and to withhold i
is to prove recreant TO plain, thougl
perhaps tiresome, duty. Confession ans
self-justification for the worker in thi
movement is found in the lines Of DR.
Young:
81 grant this argument old,
But truth no years impair