Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-05-03
iNDIviDUALIsM.
What Woman's Rights Really Heans-Ths
Moving Instinct.

| Moving Instinct.
Mrs. Corbin says that the woman sui.
fragc movement is based upon individ-
ual;sm. and that individualism is de
structive to ..the home, the church and
the State.
Individualism. in its bad sense
means simply sclfishness- Now. why
should it make woman selfish to take
an intelligent interest in the affairs OF
her country. or to be recognized as
worthy of having her opinion counted?
The slur upon the early woman's
rights women is wholly unwarranted.
They based their demand upon the
fundamental bedrock Of justice, and
sooner or later their cause was sure to
prevail. But the great accession OF
strength that the movement has re-
ceived of late years through the W. I.
q. is proof that individualism IS not the
strongest impelling force with most
women. women never fight like this
for themselves, said en- Observant
spectator at great mass-meeting
OF Englishwomen assembled to demand
the franchise. The love of justice and
sense Of personal dignity aroused a
few women of high intelligence to the
wish for suffrage, and the same causes
are arousing more and more of them
every year. But there are comparative
ly few persons who care much about
what seems to them an abstract in JUS
tice, even if it be practiced against
the instinct of self-assertion is weaker,
and the instinct of sympathy stronger.
than with men. 1t has been only as
women saw. or thought they saw, that
they could use the suffrage for the ben
eft of those whom they loved better
than themselves. that they have come
to desire it in great numbers. We may
rejoice in the fact or lament it. accord
ing to our respective points of view.
but there is no doubt that where the
cry ''For self-protection" will rally
one woman to the cause of woman suf-
frage. the cry .'For home protection"
will rally twenty. This is proof enough
that selfshness on the part of women
does not lie at the bottom of their de-
mand for the suffrage.
1t is not easy to see why woman suf-
frage should destroy the home, or lead
to the alarming moral consequences
that Mrs. Corbin predicts. There is
no logical connection between univer-
sal suffrage and universal immortality.
II will hardly be claimed that women
at present have more lax notions than
men in regard to the obligations of
social purity. Indeed. ''Ouida" and
other advocates of loose theories OPP
pose woman suffrage on the very
ground that women would punish
offenscs against the home with too
great severity. If women were allow
ed to vote tomorrow, the majority of
them certainly would not vote for 1.-The
abrogaticn of marriage and paternal
responsibility" Is there any thing in
a deeper study of political economy to
make them favor such views? On the
contrary. in the opinion of most of US.
wider knowledge would simply rein
force woman's instructive horror of
impurity with reasons and arguments
of the weightiest character. 1t is not
from equal rights and broader edu-
cation that immortality is likely to re-
suit, but rather from ignorance and
frivolity. and an unequaled standard
of morals for men and women.
To say that woman suffrage will SUBJ
vert 1.-The home. the church and the
State" is to imply that these institu-
tons are all based upon the absolute
authority of one sex over the other, as
their cornerstone. The advocates of
woman suffrage believe, ON the other
hand, that this absolute authority is
incompatible with the perfect develop
ment either of the home. the church,
or the State; of the State. because
governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed" and
the only known method of giving po-
liticai consent is by the ballot; of the
church. because in the ideal church of
the future .rhere shall be neither Jew
nor Greek. there shall be neither bond
nor free, there shall be neither male
nor female;" of the home. because. as
Charles Kingsley said. Wherever
man and wife are really hap
py together. it is by ignor-
ing and aespising. not by assert
ing. the subordination of woman to
man." And we believe. moreover.
that all this is only ''closcr appl;ca-
ton of Christian doctrine to the home,
the church and the State. Alice Stone
Blackwell, in HomaY's Journal