Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-05-18
HE REPORTER.
Official County Paper.
Grand Rapids, May Is, 'sS.
THE NONSENSE OF 1T.

4gainst Woman Suffrage B,
Thomas Rent'0orth Higginsoa.
L. II hare all the rights I aoant. ,
Have you right, if a married woman
to control your own earnings? Have
you right to make a will? Have
you the right to your own child, il
lett widow. supposing that your de-
ceased husband, in some fit of ill-tem
per, bequeathed your child to the
guardianship of some one else? Have
you the right to the guardianship of
your child, at any rate, if you
have married second husband
In many States of the Union, Women
have not these rights; and you ught
to be ashamed of yourself if, not having
them, you do not "want" them.
Again, do you not want a right to vote
on the expenditure of your own tax
money; on school laws, On temperance
laws! You have no right to shut
yourself within the circle of your own
interests, and to say that you dc not
SoSh tnGSG.
2. -" the laws are aroma. then
are being corrected aCithout aoomen's
uoting.' Aye. but not without the
demand of women to vote, and the
consequent agitation of the subject,
That is what is changing the laws.
The Common Law of England (Which
Lord Brougham called "a disgrace to
any heather nation" so far as related
to woman) prevailed almost every.
where in the United States, until the
"Woman's Rights agitation began
twenty-five years ago. 1t was not till
woman began to talk about the ballot
that any changes began to be made in
the laws; and they have no security
against the repeal of those improved
laws, expect the ballot in their hands
3. 1.-The polls are not decent places
for aoonaen." No place is decent from
which women are excluded. Women
do not refuse to travel by rail. because
the smoking-car is apt to be dirty
place. They rightly demand that
some other car shalt be pnt on which
shall be clean. 1t will be the same in
politics. So soon as School Suffrage
for woman became the law in Massa-
chusetts, the Legislature passed,
almost without opposition, a statute to
prohibit smoking and drinking at all
voting places. (Acts of 1881,
{. 272.)
4, "Politics are necessarily cor
'uptfng. Then why not advise good
men, as we'll as good women, to quit
voting?
3. Il aoonaen voted, 1T would d.
1ade families. " But families and
nations have quarreled twice as much
over religion as over politics, ever
since the world began. If you allow
women to choose their own religion,
Why not their own party?
b. "Homaa WouLd only vote as
he'T husbands or fathers do" Many
women have no husbands and no living
athers. If they have, and vote as
hese men do. there will be no quarrel.
If they vote differently-as they are
'ery likely to do on questions of
temperance. religion and the right to
control their own property or their
'wn children,-then this objection
alls to the ground.
T.. 1.-The best seon,sn wiU not yose."
Will they not? Then they are not
ruly the best women. Women who
Ire really conscientious will not shirk
heir duties when the time comes. de-
'end upon it. The complaint has
'een, in Massachusetts, under the
school Suffrage Law. that only the
'est women have voted, It is very
lard to satisfy ones opponents.
3. "1he most refined Uon1en wiN
.ot cote. F." Many of the most refined
whom the land has produced have
,one as missionaries to foreign lands,
aught schools for freedmen, visited
he Five Points in New York, entered
arrooms to save their husbands, or
ended hospitals during the wa.
Viii those same women shrink from
ropping piece of paper into ballot
OK when The time comes? Refine
1ent that takes the place of conscience
J not worth much.
9. bad romen uiN vote" They :
lay and will vote, and so will bad j
len. But bad women will not vote {
penly as bad women; for vice in t
'omen, by instinct and policy, con- l
eals itself and passes under another /
anne. The worse women are, the {
lore they will counterft virtue, when |
1ey come to vote; rely upon it. {
10. II should not like to hear NAL I
ife speak an tosOn naeeting." Nor t
ould she like to hear you, unless you I
lid something better worth saying c
IAN most of the talk against Woman |
uffrage. But you are often willing
, pay other mems wives to sing in Eg
ubIic, andi if woman may uplift her a
Dice to sing nonsense, why aot to v
peak sense. I
IL. at aciU turn aoonlen into aaen." a
Happily you cannot do that. 1t is q
ecause women, after all, are different p
ON men that they deny the right of l
en- to represent them, make laws for a
lem, judge them in court, and spend T
leir tax-money. If they are the t.
me with men, they have the same P
gifts; if they are distinct from men,. r.
icy need the ballot to help make laws L
r themselves. Take which view you v
ease. it comes. to the same thing. C
r.. "Wonaen are to busy to- Uote.-" b