Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-02-29
AN ATTACK ON SENATOR BLAIR.

A Mrs. Caroline Z. Corbln, OF Chicago,
published few years ago pamphlet
against equal rights for women. 1t was
entitled Letters from Chimney
Corner" The same lady has now issued
an open Letter to Senator Blair, IN
which she takes him to task, not in the
gentiest manner, for advocating the ex-
tension OF suffrage to women.
Mrs. Corbin says that marriage is a
partnership, and that ''the question is
whether each partner shall keep to that
line of labor which nature has marked
out" This is begging the question at
the start. The precise point at issue
is whether there is anything contrary
to nature in a woman's dropping
slip of paper into box, or any in
compatibility between rearing family
properly and taking an intelligent inter
est in public questions. The advocates of
woman suffrage believe that the two
things could and should go together. The
best wife and mother is the one who can
be an intelligent companion to, her hus-
band and a broad-ninded teacher to her
children.
1t has been said to be impossible to find
any new argument for or against woman
suffrage; but Mrs Corbin has found one
that is both new and extraordinary. She
represents that since men can not be the
mothers or nurses of children, therefore,
unless they are required to do all the vot-
ing to represent both themselves and the
other half of the human race, men will
be simply drones in the human hive.
She says:
eff men are not capable of managing
the affairs of the state according to the
highest and best ideas of the race--that
is, of both men and women--will you
permit me respectfully to inquire what
proper and adequate share of this world S
work they can perform? What is their
natural place in the order of society?
Are they mere hewers of wood and
drawers of water? They can not bear
citizens; they can not care for them in
infancy and rear them to manhood. If
they can not govern them witlNwisdom
and justice when they are produced
ready-made to their hands, what is their
reason for being?"
And she adds somewhat tartly:
"When man stands up in the United
States senate and makes such a state
ment as that in regard to the men of
this republic, it appears to me that he
compromises his own self-respect and the
respect due to the dignifed and honora-
BILE body to which he has been elevated :"
When men conduct business and COM
merce, are the bread winners, as a rule,
and do half the voting, they may reason
able be thought to take their share of the
worlds work, even though they cannot,
as men alone, contribute to the govern
ment ''the highest and best ideas of both
nd To
do this is no more slur upon their
mental and moral capacity than it would
be slur upon their musical capacity to
say that they cannot contribute to a
chorus the soprano as well as the bass
suffrage has said:
"The eternal and ineradicable distinc-
ton Of sex is one principal reason why
women, in a representative government,
should be directly represented. If law
yers alone cannot safely be trusted to
make laws for mechanics, if merchants
alone cannot legislate for farm
ers, if white men alone can
not do Justice to the negroes,
If every well defined class in society is
entitled to its own authoritive express
sion through the ballot, surely women,
who are the wives and sisters and moth
ers of men, should give expression to the
domestic interests from the feminine
point of view. If blacksmith cannot
fairly represent physician, how much
less cen man represent woman
And, as matter of experience, it is
exactly these domestic interests, the in
terests of the home, that we find habit
ually neglected by purely masculine
legislation.
Mrs. Corbin says that 'if women vote,
they must hold office" She seems to
imply that all women must hold office.
whether they will or no: whereas not one
voter in hundred ever holds office, and
no one is obliged to take office against
his will. Mrs. Corbin points out that it
would be inconvenient for the mother of
young family to go to
congress. Undoubtedly. The mother
of young family would not
be likely to be asked to 60 to congress,
and would be likely to consent if she
We're asked. But she might have very
definite idea as to the sort of man she
wanted to send to congress to represent
her and her children; and there is no rea-
son why her opinion should not be count
ed, along with those of her husband,
father and brother. Many men are occu-
pied with engrossing business cares
which would make it inconvenient for
them to go to congress: and they do not
go. But they do not lose their votes on
that account. House-mothers would
simply belong to the same category.
Mrs. Corbin says that woman suffrage
will increase the number of unmarried
women. Yet in the eastern states, where
women can vote, splnsters abound; and
in the western territories, where they
have beeu voting for years, unmarried
women are as rare as white blackbirds.
Woman suffrage may not especially pro-
mote matrimony, but it plainly does not
hinder it.
We are often assured that women have
no natural taste for politics, and that the
more sensible a woman is, the more
averse she is to taking any part In them.
Yet Mrs. COrbin expresses the fear that
many, and those not of the weak and
ignorant. but of the most gifted and IN
tellectual, will be tempted to forego
marriage and motherhood for the sake
of an unimpeded political career. Kill
kenny arguments again. If women are
naturally averse to politics, it is not
likely that many will plunge into them
to the exclusion of all other interests;
and in any case, nature may be trusted
to look out for herself. Girls who are in
love would not generally refuse to marry
because of the remote chance that one
in thousand of them might some day
receive nomination TO congress. and be
obliged to decline it on account of fami-
ly cares.
Mrs. Corbin saws:
The direct tendency of woman suf-
fropo would bo En- form s,1ch a class of