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iNDIViDUALiSM.
What woman's Rights Really Means-xhs
Moving Instinct.

Moving Instinct.
Mrs. Corbin says that the woman suf-
frage movement is based upon individ-
ualism, and that individualism is de-
structive to ''the home. the church and
the State"
Individualism, in its bad sense.
means simply selfishness 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 countedP
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 Wet.
u is proof that individualism is not the
strongest impelling force with most
women. "Women never fight like this
for themselves" said an obseryant
spectator at great mass-meeting
Of nglishwomen 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
themselves. Moreover, with most women
the instinct of self-assertion is weaker,
and tho 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 selfishness 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.
1t will hardly be claimed that women
at present have more lax notions than
| men in regard to the obligations Of
social purity. Indeed, tOuida" and
other advocates of loose theories OPP
pose woman suffrage on the very
ground that women would punish
offenses 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
abrogation of marriage and paternal
responsibility" Is there any thing in
deeper study of political economy to
make them favor such viewsp On the
contrary, in the opinion of most Of us,
wider knowledge would simply rein
J 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 sub
, vert ''the home, the church and the
State," is to imply that these institu-
D tions are all based upon the absolute
l 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
o ment either of the home, the church,
n or the State; of the State, because
# governments derive their just powers
from the consent ei the governed, /" and
e the only known method Of giving 30.
] litical consent is by the ballot; of the
n church, because in the ideal church Of
: the future 'there shall be neither Jew
d nor Greek. there shall be neither bond
+, nor free, there shall be neither male
II nor female;" of the home, because, al
IS Charles Kingsley said. wherever I
man and wife are really hap
py together, it is by ignor
l. ing and despising, not by assert
D. ing, the subordination of woman t.
a man." And we believe, moreover
ct that all this is only ''closer applica
u ton of Christian doctrine to the home
the church and the State. Alice Ston
L. Blackwell, in Womdn's Journal