The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-05-20
STUDYING POLITICS.
Women as Well as Men should Make
Themselves Familiar With 1t.


Themselves Familiar With 1t.
Up to the present time We seem to
have gone upon the principle that poll
ticians, like poets. are born, not made;
any man has a vote and any woman
an interest in affairs pertaining not
only to present interests, but to the
worlds future history. That a man
should vote has been deemed
matter worthy of being secured at the
cost of the uprooting of States and the
oyerturning of civilizations; hoW he
shall vote has been deemed to be a
matter of concern only to the candi
dates for election.
Yet the study of politics is a study
not only important, but very interest
ing. To Judge by the amount of talk
bestowed upon every political question,
even the most trivial, there are few
minds that would not find a keen pleas
ure in the intelligent investigation of
political with their allied social ques-
tions; and although radical difficulty
in the formation of a proper school OF
practical politics would seem to lie in
the fact that most people imagine they
know all about the subject already, yet
there is a rising generation unaware,
perchance, of the extent of their en-
dowments in this particular, and from
| their numbers it may be hoped that
some pupils for the proposed school
may be secured. a ttlb@
There are two kinds of women in the
\ haf ha ,,oa av1tJ on
of politics and those who are deeply in
terested in the subject. With few
| notable exceptions, both are about
| equally ignorant; both have a strong
influence on the present voting popula-
| ton; both at some possible future time
| may themselves become voters. 10 both
the study of politics would be useful
and not merely as a means OF correct
ing an influence often highly pernic-
ious. or of stimulating to the exercise
of a benefcent influence. 1t would,
above all, be useful as opening to them
new avenues of thought, as estab-
fishing for them new points OF
contact with the outer world and as
creating new channels through which
intelligence and culture may flow into
their homes. The narrow range OF
women's interest has dwarfed many a
mind endowed with large powers OF
growth; the pettiness, the untruthful,
ness, the little meannesses to which
woman is thought to be more prone
than man are generally the result oi
the narrowness of her vision. She
does not see truth in broad light and
therefore she can not see it truly. Let
s her intelligence be exercised in matters
practical beyond the sphere OF hel
home duties and she will gain morally
even more than intellectually.
1t is especially important that womer
who are already interested in large
questions, charitable workers, religious
teachers, temperance reformers. shoult
be thoroughly well founded in thu
science of politics. The adjustment 0
political action to the social problems
of modern life is to be the great dut,
of the future. With these great prob
} lens women have much to do, on thei
practical side, and the true adjustmen
of social and political conditions is
work which demands the best power
of our brightest women as well as ou
most promising young men. Prob
3 lems of sanitary science, of publ
: health, of providing work for the idl
9 and industrial education for the inca
. pable; problems relative to the housin'
of the poor, the employment of prison
ers, the relation of ignorance to crime
of amusement to public morals, OF re
ligion to charitable work-all thes
problems have to do with politics quit
as surely as does woman suffrage, an
y all of them demand that women
!. whether .voters or not, should come t
:, an intelligent acquaintance with tn
q fundamental principles on which poll
ical science and practical politics ar
d based. PHILADELPHIA Times.
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