The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-05-27
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

When no wrong is suffered there can
be no right withheld, and for this reason
women are almost unanimously indifer-
snt to what few nervous agitators con-
slider the thing most strongly to be de-
sired, woman suffrage. If woman suf-
fsred wrong because of this depriva-
ton, the right would soon be conceded.
But there is no demand for it except by
a few old women straining for notoriety,
and few old maids dissatisfied with the
existing order of things and extremely
anxious for a revolution. The women
who raise families end give attention to
their homes, are not woman suffragists
and care no more for the ballot box than
for the Hindoo.
There is question of womans rights
which appeals to every manly sentiment.
1t is something which women, every
where, in behalf of their sex, should
agitate until the matter be remedied. 1t
is a million times more important than
the right to vote, and is largely ques-
ton of humanity, That is the mental
positions women occupy on farms. There
are some women in this county whose
condition is infinitely worse than that of
any slave who worked in southern cotton
fields. There are some husbands as
cruel in exacting labor as the most tyran-
mic overseer of plantation hands. The
matter is not so bad as it used to be, but
it is bad enough now to arouse feelings
of Indignation at women's being reduced
to the level of brutes in farm work.
Granted, that poverty often makes it
necessary that the wife and mother should
aid in the field work. 1t is only when
the poverty is extreme that the thing
finds particle of justification, and the
instances where the woman is forced to
do mans work on the farm in addition
to her household duties are not rare nor
limited to those families whose poverty
would partially extenuate the barbarity,
for that it is. There are women in this
county who do their household work
early iI the morning SO as to be ready to
accompany their husbands to the field;
who quit work in the field a short while
before dinner in order to prepare that
meal; who set things to order while the
"men folks" are taking the customary
rest after a meal, and are made to resume
work with them in the afternoon; and
who continue to work until all stknock
off, for the day, and then work at the
house until bed time. This is bad enough,
but there is something worse: In many
cases these women are nursing infants
while working in this way, and the child
is brought to the field or the woman goes
to the house to suckle it. These things
have actually come under the observation
of the writer, and not SO many years ago.
They were recalled by recent trips in the
country where women were seen spread
ing manure and planting potatoes. The
men who allow these things unless forced
by press of circumstances beyond their
strength to contend with, are unworthy
the name of men, and women who will
busy themselves with agitating the quss-
ton of "the right to vote with such a
field for missionary work as here suggest
ed, are no women. Many a woman in
this county has been murdered by her
husbands coming her life-blood into
dollars and cents through the medium of
| work on the farm.