The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-06-28
The TRUE BASIS
On What Rests the Right of Women to
Political Suffrape.

On What Rests the Right OF Women to
Political Suffrage.
Recent discussions of woman suffrage
in the public prints have tended to con-
firm the opinion l have long enter
tanned that the question is but imper-
fectly understood. Take. for example,
the familiar arguments with reference
to the requirement of military service.
While the opponents of the proposed
reform give prominence to the point
that women being incapable of bearing
arms, are therefore justly debarred
from the suffrage. its advocates attach
undue Importance thereto, and do their
own cause injustice by replying that
the same is also true of large classes of
men, thousands of whom remained at
home during the late war. Exceptions
in this, as in other cases, only prove
the rule, and if woman suffrage can be
sustained by no stronger or more con-
vincing argument, it must finally give
up the contest. The question is not
how many, either willingly or unwill-
ingly, escape from military duty, but
who are properly subject to it. All
governments hold men as a class, with
in certain ages and under certain con-
ditions. thus subject, while women. by
a rule quite as general, are exempt.
As friend of woman suffrage, base
the argument in its favor upon higher
and more tenable grounds In rights
there is no sex. Though we have too
long acted upon the contrary theory,
they are not to be classed as masculine,
feminine and neuter. or such as belong
respectively to men, women and ne
groes, but they inhere in all humanity, by
reason of a common origin, nature and
destiny. The measure of right is the
capacity for enjoyment. Whatever fac
ulty possess, its fullest exercise is my
uudoubted right and duty, subject only
to the limitations of my being. and to
the same right on the part of every
other creature who bears the image of
God
What, then. is the true basis of right
and privilege in government? Not.
surely, mere physical power. or the do
minion of might; nor yet the divine
right of any individual or class to pre-
scribe the sphere of another; but only
the needs and possibilities of the great
mass of the governed. Hence all right
full government is ever progressive.
The requisite elements in those who
participate in the government of INTEL
ligent beings. especially in our day. are
moral rather than physical-intellect,
will. conscience, faith-which women
possess in common with men. In the
government TO which they are to be
admitted. as time advances. the mill
tary power will have less and less part,
and we may reasonably expect that the
more enlightened sentiment which
leads to their admission on equal terms
with men will largely, if not entirely,
obviate the dread necessity of war.
As we outgrow and discard the forms
and usages of the past it i'll becomes
us to adhere to the logic by which they
were supported. The same argument
that now excludes woman from the suf- |
frage, formerly excluded her from BUSH |
ness, the professions and higher insti- |
tutions of learning. and even restricted |
her activities in the service of God She
now holds her undisputed place as the
equal of man in many fields of useful
ness and honor once denied her; and |
can we, at this late day, with any con-
sistency, claim that only in the domain
of rights and privileges she is to re-
main inferior? Better far to gracefully |
accept the inevitable, and, daring to
follow the path of right, trust to the
future for society to adapt itself to new
conditions. as the world steadily adj
vances toward higher and nobler des
TINY. .. Converse, in Woman's |
Journal