Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-04
NOTABLE EVENTS.

NOTABLE EVENTS.
Progress Of tho Cause Of Woman Suffrage
During the Last Century-Imperfectio
in the Constitution.
There are two significant facts in this
centennial year of the Government
which no sagacity of the fathers could
have forseen, and which, indeed, nc
political view of century ago seriously
entertained in the forecast of American
developement The first is that women
have the privilege of voting on school
questions in fourteen States and four
Territories, that in one State (Kansas)
they can vote at municipal elections,
and in one Territory (Wyoming) they
enjoy complete political equality with
men. The second fact is like unto it,
for it is that at the late municipal cleo
ton, in the very shadow of Faneuil
Hall, where the pivotal doctrine of the
Revolution was proclaimed, and of
Bunker Hill where it was defended in
arms, nearly one-third of the total vote
for the school board was cast by
women.
TIE spectacle of women in public life,
OF course, was not unknown in the
mother country, where the traditions
of Elizabeth are still part of the glory of
England. and the reign of Anne is still
described as the Augustan age. The
Countess of Richmond, mother of
Henry VII, was a justice of the peace.
The Countess of Pembroke was heredi-
tary Sheriff of Westmoreland. Henry
VIII. made Lady Ann Berkeley COM
missioner of inquiry under the great
seal, and there were old English wri-
tiers who held that women might hold
almost any of the great Offices of Eng
land. In New Jersey, under the con-
stitution of 1776. "all persons profess
ing belief in the faith of any Protest
ant sect, demeaning themselves peace
ably, were capable of being elected to
office and enjoying equal privileges and
immunities with others" 1t recog-
nized the voting of women by specific
ally speaking of ''his or her ballot"
But in 1907 they were deprived of the
right. In Canada. nearly fifty years
ago, they were sternly forbidden to
vote. But very few years later. for a
sectarian purpose. they were allowed
to vote at school meetings.
In all such instances, however, there
is no evidence of serious purpose to
enfranchise women as constituent
part of the voting force of the COM
munity. and although in New Jersey a
constitution adopted in the year of the
Declaration felt compelled to face the
logic of the situation, and enfranchise
all Protestant inhabitants upon equal
conditions, few years later the incon-
gruity of the grant with public senti-
ment and with the general theory of
the State led to its revocation. For
about forty years the agitation for the
adoption in every State of the New
Jersey suffrage provisions of 1776 has
been steadily prosecuted, and the
question may be truly said to have
passed the stage of mere ridicule.
Meanwhile the changes of the laws of
property in the case of women have
marked the gradual disappearance of
the old theory that men and women are
one-namely. men; and the admission
of women to vote upon school ques-
tions is really the overthrow of the last
barrier.
If, as lately in Boston, a woman may
properly and peacefully. without insult
or abatement of her modest womanly
dignity, and without the least harm to
her sphere" go to the polls and drop
a ballot for a member of school COM
mittee in one box, it is only Harlequin
who argues that she can not with the
same propriety drop ballot in the
next box for mayor. In Vermont in
deed, the lords of creation are to be
brought to book in an unexpected way.
A petition is in circulation asking the
legislative sons of Revolutionary sires
that the property of citizens who are
deprived Of representation shall not be
subject to taxation. Those sons will
not retort that women are already vir-
tually represented. because they know
that there is no such thing in our polity
as virtual representation. A widow
who pays taxes upon property Of q
million dollars il not virtually repres-
ented by the man whom she pays to
drive her carriage.
Yet argument however admirable.
and logic. however conclusive. do not
avail with the English-speaking race
like actual experiment Its wisdom in
declining to mold its political policy by
consistent and excellent theories, its
custom of repairing the old house in
stead of razing It and rebuilding from
the foundation. are constantly justified
by experience. Our own experience.
also. as people of that race, amply
confirms this disposition. A hundred