The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-11-14
A wOMAN'S CHAMPION;
Who Asks: "What Objections to
Woman Suffrage?"

Who Asks: what Objections to
Woman Suffrage?"
Referred to Members OF the Con-
stitutlonal Convention.
WooDvILLE, NJ. T., Nov. II.
EDITOR MINEE:-No more import
ant event has ever happened in the
Territory than the meeting Of a con-
vention to frame a constitution for
the State o Montana. Constitutions
once adopted are not easily changed
or amended, for this reason
We should use g:eat care as to
what rights r incorporated and
what excluded from that fundamen-
tai law. That we may have wiser,
more natural and better laws than
most States, l would ask that a sec
ton be placed In our constitution
| giving to women the right of suffrage
equally with men.
The places where women have
been denied the rights of suffrage are
the only places where people object.
| Wherever it has been tried ii has
been q splendid success. In Wyo-
ming the Governor has frequently
announced Its splendid success.
What logical objections can be urged
against woman suffrage? They tell
US that woman is not IS intelligent
as man. Suppose this is true. Is the
elective franchise based upon intelli-
gence? If SO why did we place it in
the hands Of the negro who has just
escaped from the shac'1les of slavery
and all the ignorance and supersti-
ton that it entailed upon that de-
graded race: Are they the equals,
intellectually, Of the women Of Mon
tana? Why urge this then as a rea-
son why women should not be al
lowed to vote:
Another objection is tina , with the
ballot goes the bullet, i. e., in case of
war women cannot shoulder a gun
and fight the battles of the country.
If this objection is valid, no man
who is disqualified by age or disease
should be allowed to vote. About
one-half of the men cannot render
effective service to the government
in time of war; but this is never
urged as a reason why they should
not be allowed TO vote. War is a
bar5arism. 1t has drenched the
earth II. ;l,od and tears. 1t Is an
anomaly among Us. and belongs
back in a darker age. 1t disgraces
our civilization. Because woman's
nature is so refined that she cannot
participate in the harbarisms Of wal
she must be disqualified from a priv
ilege so obviously just and right.
Another objection is that il would
create family discords. If men are
so bigoted and intolerant that they
cannot allow their wives to enjoy
different po%litica, views from them
selves anything tending to break
this up will be in the way Of q bene-
faction. This same class will urge
that women would vote just like
their husbands. But this conflicts
with the idea that it would produce
family discords. But, suppose
women were 40 servile that they
have no minds of their own. and do
vote Just like their husbands, 1t
would only swell the aggregate with
out changing the result, and would
remove a disturbing element in
politics.
They urge that the right to vote in
wolves the right TO hold office. It
does. There are some who suppose
that as soon "a women are allowed to
vote we must elect one to the office of
policeman, sheriff @: constable. We
men are disqualified from those posi-
lions Just as a great number of men
are. We never elect a coEsumptiye
or cripple to these offices. neither
would We elect women, tor the same
reason that We exclude many men.
But there are Offices that women can
fill, and when they are as we'll quail.
flied as men, they ought in right and
Justice to have then.
They urge that there is so much
obscenity and yulgarity at the polls
that it is not a fit place for a VIC
men. The presence Of respec-
able women is q guarantee
for order and decorum wherever they
90. In remote mining camps when
the presence of respectable women is
announced the vulgarities and asper
tiles of that unnatural and abnormal
life disappear. But II men are sucn
that women cannot associate with
them at the polls we can have other
places for them to go and deposit
their ballots, Just As they go into the
parlor or attend church. Another
reason is that all women do not want
to vote. AS well say that no woman
shall ride on horseback or attend
church, because all women do not
wish to do SO. That woman should
be associated with man In the rights
of suffrage is the doctrine of nature.
They are i%nseparably connected, be-
long together, and whatever they do
well they do together. Woman
should assist mai in making the
laws just as she does in rearing the
family. She constitutes one-half the
governed and all just government de-