Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-02-08

ssriiy be universal, and equally appli-
cabe to Municipal, State and
National politics. But even to
granting suffrage to one eomas
on. Of eight in England, where both Ma
tional and Municipal government has so
many stroi conservative barriers around
it, there is the emphatic opposition Of q
large proportion Of the ablest thinkers of
the Kingdom. Professor Goodwin Smith,
very much Of reformer, well known in
America, argues very strongly against it.
To him Mrs. Fawcett, the ablest female
agitator in England, replies:
III can hardly be too often pointed out
that under no womAns Suffrage bill that has
ever been introduced could this be true.
lrishwomen will in this matter if the Union
be maintained, share and share alike with the
women OF the rest Of the United Kingdom
The number Of women Who will then be en-
franchI.ed you'd add an average Of about IL
per cent 20 the existing constituencies.'
But the London Times, that powerful
organ of English public opinion. replies
10 nI-- EtNGFlt
But this doe. not in the smallest degree
meet Mr.. Goldwin Smiths argument He
rene m oers and Mrs. Fawcett forgets that
there is nothing fixed or final about the con
dltions of enfranchisemen for the male yot
er. On the contrary every one of those CON
ditions is more or less seriously threatened
and nothing is more certain than a steady ap
Proclamation to simple. unconditional man
hood suffrage (which England does not no~
have II In the meantime we grant female
suffrage on ale terms, the logical result
must De progress pari passu to unconditional
female suffrage.
Prof. Smith next advances the point:
You will not be able TO stop half way.
The women by their votes will break down
the limitations TO the unmarried. and they
vii compel you, logically enough, when
they are capable of electing TO make them
capable of being elected You must look
forward to complee revolution in the re-
lations between the two sexes.
Mrs. Fawcett'- reply:
One is tempted TO murmur in response to
this, "Oh purblind race of miserable men,
to imagine that the solemn institutions OF
nature can be upset by your acts of Parlia-
are not left without the guidance of eIper-
4 fence. Women have exercised the paria-
meHtsry franchise for the last eight Years in
the Isle of Man. think We should have
heard Of it, if the relations between the sexes
had been revolutionized there.
The Times then points out plainly how
little female suffrage amounts to in the
l.le OF Man:
She adduces the Isle of Man a. case in
which women have had political power for
eight years without palpably evil effects.
/ Why, there is no political power in the Isle
of Man at all. II has no army, no fleet, no
diplomacy, no national existence. Its legis-
lature is only vestry To quote this little
e1pe rlment in the Isle of Man as if it offered
the remotest analogy of the transfer OF
power over the British empire is to display
precisely that want of practical grasp OF
facts which women less highly endowed than
Mrs Fawcett are certain to show in more
mischieyous forms.
Prof. smith next quotes the example OF
the United States, pointing to the exam
Pile of Nebraska where suffrage has beer
tried and given up. Mrs. Fawcett repliei
to this by referring to the example Of the
Territory of Wyoming, where there are
no great cities, where the experiment is ye
brief and where the population is Sc
sparse as to render il harmless enough fol
the present.
Prof. Smith again speaks with grea
cogency and truthful force.
The political woman would be Radical
She would be an authoritive Radical, prone
to arbitrary as welIa st influential lie gislaton
The Conservative would stay at home. T,
the denationalze factory hands, the sno
rant farm laborers and the rebel Irish il
you add the irresponsible emotions of tn,
woman, what sort of constituency will vol
have, and in what sort of hands will Englan,
be? In the conflict of nations W hat sort of
chance will nation under female infuenc,
have against countries like Russia and Ger
many, with thoroughly masculine government
Home Is the vomans sphere, and happily
it is not political school. though female
suffrage will almost certainly make 1t tn,
scene of political contention. Law rests a
bottom upon force. and force is rule. Thi
is the reason why women have not made tn,
laws You will fling home and female
character INTO the political cauldron to coo
stead of cooling it you have made it hotter.
To this very able writer In the Time,
adds:
Women at large are. for all purposes OF
practical training in affairs, in the position
occupied by the least favorably placed por
ton of the male sex and in that position they
will have to remain until their physical
d,ferentia is got rid of. Large numbers OF
men are devoid of practical judgment be.
cause they have never been placed in circum-
stances calling it into play. The overwhelm-
ing majority of women are placed in condi-
tons even less favorable for the development
of a sound and practical Judgment, capable
of dealing with novel circumstances as they
arise. Consequently the admission of women
to the franchise must mean in the gross the
reinforcement of the inept and Impractical
( element. which is already so strong in our
political system as to constitute = seriou,
menace ~ our imperial position.