Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-02-28
NOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
POLITICAL DUTIES.

POLITICAL DUTIES.
a Proper Conception OF the Rights Of Wo.
men-The Obligations Of tho Sexes n
Citizens Equal
1t is fact admitting of no debate
that determinations are made against
women under our laws which are not
made against men. One of the most
familiar of these is that which affects
women who hold property. Under the
laws women are obliged to pay taxes on
the property they hold. but can have
no voice in administering the govern
ment for whose support they are taxed
Taxation without representation is an
anomaly in republican government.
Worse than this, it is gross injustice.
There are other examples of political
and legal discrimination against women
which we need not enumerate. Does
it in any way remove this injustice to
say that those who suffer from it do not
ask to be relieved from it? So far as
laws concerning PROPERTY are concern
ed. Judge would consider it somewhat
ironical for prisoner who had taken a
woman's pocket-book without her con-
sent to Plead that he was perfectly GER
tain she did not want it. The argument
has no more force when applied to
political justice than it has with
reference to commercial justice.
The question whether the gov
eminent of the United States
should abolish slavery within its bor-
ders could not be answered by saying
that the slaves did not want emancipa-
ton. A good many pro-slavery orators
made precisely this plea. The slave
was declared to be well enough of. 1t
was painted as an act of cruelty to rem
der four million slaves homeless and to
throw them on their own resources by
the fancied obligation" of emancipa-
ton. 1t is easy to see how pro-sla.
very orator, by charging upon the dire
evils of freedom as illustrated in the
slums of New York and other cities,
might have so wrought on the suscepti-
BILE Imagination of an audience of
slaves as to make them feel that free
The sentiment which finally abolished
slavery was not the feeling that the
slaves wanted freedom, but the deeper
conviction that it was wrong to hold
human beings in bondage, and wrong
to deprive men of political rights on
account Of their color. Woman suf-
frage rests on a similar basis of convic-
tiOn-that it is no more just to with
hold political rights on the ground of
sex than on the ground of color.
But by an increasing number OF peo-
pie. suffrage is regarded less as right
than as a duty. Those who recognize
its ethical aspects will be little infiu-
enced, therefore, by the argument that
women do not want it. When the
question of duty is in the scales. the
question of inclination may we'll be set
aside. Terrible havoc would be
wrought in society if the claims of in
clination were made, as they sometimes
are. superior to the claims of duty. A
great many existing ills can only be
remedied when the influence of these
respective considerations is inverted. A
State. in making and administering
laws, must regard the obligations and
the welfare of the people as of more
importance than their inclinations.
There are large numbers of people who
would rather send their children to a
factory than to send them to school. |
Education is made compulsory, and not |
merely for the benefit of the children.
but for the benefit of the State.
Likewise. in the matter of temper
ance. there are thousands on thousands
in this country who consider it simple
matter of inclination whether they
shall get drunk or keep sober. They
would like nothing better than to have
every restriction on the sale and con-
sumption of liquor removed. To the
temperance reformer this may not be
encouraging; but it is not decisive. 1t
only shows the need of educating a |
large portion of the community into
some proper conception OF their duties.
1t is only by assuming that the right
OF suffrage is a ''fancied obligation"
that its privileges and duties can be
lightly dismissed. In a country like
Russia, suffrage may be considered by
those in power as ''fancied obliga-
tion;" but, under a government by the |
people. its obligations are positive and
real. 1t is an instrument of justice |
and a guaranty Of liberty. Nor can the
most ingenious casuistry demonstrate
that the obligations of citizenship which
create suffrage are real for men and al
together fanciful for women.
To regard the right of suffrage as in
itself an ''odious obligation" when ex-
ercised either by men or by women is
to belittle one Of the highest and most
sacred privileges Of a freeman. That
there are odious and disgraceful prac-
tices connected with it can not be de-
MED. Most Of them have grow up