The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-10-05
WoMAN's DEPARTMENT.
POINTS FOR SUFFRAGE.

POINTS FOR SUFFRAGE.
Reasons for W0man's acknowledgements BY
Frances T.. willard, President Of the WO-
mans National Council.
Doubtless the strongest points in favor
of woman suffrage are:
First. That it Is founded on the I'M
changing principles of justice. Every
reasonable man knows that it is not
right to tax a class without represent
ing that class, to inflict penalties upon
a class that had no hand in determining
what those penalties should be, to gov
ern One-half of the human race by the
other half. All injustice to one class
works harm to every other.
Second. The best government known
to the race is found in home where
father and mother have equal power,
as is the case in an enlightened modern
Christian family. No other place is SO
free from temptation, and no other
cOnserves SO completely the best inter-
est of all who dwell therein. Reason
ing from analogy. the larger home of
society, and that largest home of all
called government" might be more
like this typical home, and in proper
ton as they are made like unto it, So
ciety and government will more thor
oroughly conserve the interest of all,
and shut out the pests of civilization.
Third. The two most strongly mark
ed instincts of woman are those of pro-
lection for herself and little ones. and
of love and loyalty to her husband and
her son. On the other hand. the two
strongest instincts that to-day defend
the liquor traffic and drink habit are
avarice in the dealer and appetite in the
drinker. 1t has been said that civiliza-
ton has nothing with which it can Off
set these two tremendous forces. But
may it not be found that in the home,
through the reserve power never yet
called into government on large scale,
woman's instincts of self-protection and
of love are sufficient Offset to appe-
tite and avarice, and will out-vote both
at the poles? For it must be remem-
bered that in republic. all questions
of morality sooner or later find their
way to the ballOt-bOx, and are voted
up or down.
Fourth. There are fifty-four thousand
men in the penitentiaries of the United
States against five thousand women. As
class, women hold the balance Of
power morally in the republic.
Filth. There is no enemy dreaded so
much by liquor-dealers and saloon
keepers as a woman with the ballot in
her hand. Secret circulars sent out by
them, and intercepted by our temper
ance leaders, state this explicitly. One
of these is addressed to a legislator,
and reads to this effect: "Set your heel
upon the woman suffrage movement
every time, for the ballot in the hand
of woman means the downfall of our
trade" When the bill by which the
women of Washington Territory had
the ballot and secured local option, was
declared unconstitutional by the SUI
preme Court of the Territory, there
were bonfires. bell-ringings and beer on
tap in the public square of many town
and village, where the salOon-keepers
celebrated their jubilee because the
women had lost their right to vote.
Happily this right has been restored by
an overwhelming majority at the hands
of the Legislature of 1883.
Si1M. Wherever woman have had
the ballot they have used it in the in
terest of home and against the saloons,
the gambling-hOuses, and the haunts of
infamy. In Kansas, $4,000 women
voted in the spring of 1887. The
State librarian at Topeka carefully ex-
amined the files of the eight hundred
newspapers of Kansas, and reports that
practically without exception they bear
testimony, direct and indirect, to the
good behavior OF the women at the |
polls, the courteous manner in which !
they were treated, and the over
whelming influence they exerted in
favor of morality. The law in Kansas
prohibits crowd at the ballOt-bOx, and |
requires that around it fifty feet of
space shall be kept clear, persons going |
one by one to drop their ballots in the |
box. In Arkansas, woman's "ballot by |
signature has cleared the saloons out |
of three-fOurths of the counties. In |
Canada, five provinces give a restricted
municipal suffrage to women, and the |
concurrent testimony Of all parties and
of the Minister OF Finance, Hon. George
Foster, is that the result is altogether
in the interest of temperance and
morality.
The Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, while fully convinced that the
ballot is the right Of every woman in
the nation, just as much as it is the
right Of every man, does not base its
line of argument upon this fact, but
upon the practical value that woman's
vote will have in helping the nation to
put away the liquor traffic and its &C
companying denominations. We do not
ask it for ourselves alone; We are inn
partial friends OF the whole human
race in both its fractions, man and wo-
man, and hence we are not more in
earnest for this great advance because
of the good it brings to the gentler.
than because of the blessing that it
promises to those of the stronger sex.
SOUND SENSE.
Pros and Cons Of the Suffrage Qucstion-
A weishty Argument in Favor Of Women