The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-02-08

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 we'll enough of. It
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. It is easy to see how a 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
dom was indeed an 'odious obligation"
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 a 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 a right
than as 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 o. 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 a 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 . country like
Russia, suffrage may be considered by
those in power as ''fancied obliga-
tom" 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 If the highest and most
sacred privileges OF freeman. That
there are odious and disgraceful prac-
tees connected with it can not be de-
MED. Most of them have grow up
around the use of the ballot by men.
They are not necessary to suffrage;
and the quicker they are removed. the
better. One OF the results OF extending
the franchise to women would be to
make its exercise a great deal more
agreeable to men The Boston election
has shown us that the exercise OF the
ballot need not be so odiOus and I'M
pleasant duty as it has sometimes
have shown US that they could hold
their political meetings without the
nece ssity of an adjacent rum-shop. that
they could make their nominations in
rooms that were not reeking with filth
and tobacco, and that they could
drop their ballots without backing
each others eyes. 1t is worth while
for women to vote. to teach men how
| it may be done with order and decency.
Indifferentism to the exercise of po-
litical duty or any sentiment which be-
Titles the right of citizenship is not to
be encouraged in a country whose well
fare depends so largely upon its right
exercise. If there is any thing pa
thetic in the political situation, it is not
in efforts made to increase the sense OF
obligation. but in the efforts SO con-
stantly made to remove 1t. Not until
| suffrage is regarded as sacred duty
will voters put their coincidence as well
as their brains into the ballot.
Nor does this duty seem any less sa-
cred when exercised by women. We are
unable to understand why it should be
any more odious for woman to vote
for new alderman than for new min
lister; why. If women send their child
rem to schools in which seven-eighths
] OF the teaching i done By women. II