Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-10-23
THE COMING WOMAN.
MOVING ALONG ON SOLID LINES IN
THE UNITED STATES.
FEMALE Suffrage Recognized IN Several
states-whether for Good or Evil. One
OF Those Revolutions That DO Not Turn
Back Il Well Started.

osie suffrage Recognized IN Several
states-whether for Good or Evil, One
OF Those Revolutions That DO Not Turn
Back Is Well Started.
Could an American statesman of century
ago come back 10 life, the thing that would
amaze him most would not be, ] suspect, the
existence Of electric lights and of phono-
graphs, for these would lie outside the sphere
OF public life which would be our supposed
Rip Van Wrinkles chief concern Nor would
it even be- within his own domain, the Aus
tralian ballot law or civil service reform, or
the efforts Of n great nation TO get rid of its
surplus money. IL would be the spectacle Of
strange alteration In the very basis of gov
eminent; IL would be the fact that In organ
irtng five new states each OF vast area and
unknown resources, n large part of the time
OF the organizing body has been devoted to
deciding whether men alone, or women also,
should become voters in these new born com
monwealths. Nay, his chief wonder would
lie In the fact that the final debate In each
case did not turn ON the question whether"
but rather ON the question chow far. ;" since
all five states have finally made women vot-
ers about something Idaho and Washington
have given them school suffrage by their con-
situations, so have North and South Dakota;
while In Montana those women who pay
taxes will vote ON all questions submitted TO
the vote OF taxpayers. Moreover, in two of
these states Washington and South Dakota
the question of giving women full suffrage Is
hereafter 10 be put 10 vote, and ON this ques-
ton women already qualified as voters for
any purpose can also vote
WOULD SURPRISE THEM
We hereabouts take all these things very
quietly, because we have come 20 them by
Harraaa nt,f
Of deceased statesman 20 open his ewes upon
them suddenly, he would Justly pronounce
them 10 involve more deeply rooted change
than any Australian ballot law. while the
longest train Of electric cars could not DO 80
much AS named in comparison.
He could only end in accepting Victor
Hugo's high sounding phrase that this is
rightly or wrongly-the woman's century
All the traditions about the sphere OF the
two sexes, rs being something Interchangeable
and eternal, must fail before this simple fact
A local experiment, as in Massachusetts, or
kansas, or Wyoming, proves very little, il
may be urged.
But the founding of FIVE new states by
popular action, In communities drawn to-
gether from all quarters of the globe, Is not
only an extraordinary demonstration OF self
government, but offers, as 1t WERE a cross
section OF current American thought on gov
ernmental principles. That i'm five different
constitutional conventions, acting not merely
Independently, but with an almost Jealous
degree OF mutual Independence, the uniform
outcome should be some form OF woman
suffrage, brings with il irresistible differences
For good or for evil, it is an advance along
the whole line; it is one Of those revolutions
which do not turn back IL is also revo-
luton based, like most American steps not
merely on facts, but ON principles
No matter what was the motive-whether
impulse, or logic, or persuasion-the conces-
sion has been made. That this has been done
in every one of five different states virtually
settles the prevailing course of all our future
national development
IAN ACQUIRED INTELLIGENCE
Tina. the result is 10 he Of Immediate in
variable and unmixed good, do not, for one,
believe. IL it were, it would be unlike the
result OF all previous extensions OF the suf-
frage. Every newly enfranchised class needs
10 learn its work, 20 get control OF its weapons,
and this usually involves some cut fingers.
Women are not 80 unlike men as 20 be free
from ali the perils and weaknesses Of men,
and they may even have some OF their own
Men have, in many years Of voting, partially
attained TO what the once famous jurist
Theophilus Parsons called ian acquired IN
hcAikthtt bA iuhtlN HTdGNlcta4 MATTERS, winch
women, as a class, have vet to gain. Men
have also learned how TO get on with one an
other politically, even under apparent differ
ences, and TO acquiesce with amazing euua-
nimity in the results OF election day They
are, l suspect, a little more patient Of public
evils than women, and little les ardent In
expectation.
On the other hand, this very habit OF mod
GRAFTON has It's dangers. and there are many
households which would go TO pieces had not
the wife more decision, at least in ordering
the chickens out OF the door ward. than her
easy going husband. This strong quality
again has its dangers, and the chickens some
times yield, not 50 much TO persuasive and |
angelic qualities as to a certain shrillness OF |
voice watch does not make the indoor hearth |
very tempting 70 Others than chickens What |
with the fear that women will prove too |
weak, and the yet more anxious fear lest /
they turn out too strong. there are doubt
less many persous-though the writer is not |
among them-who will look with dismay on
the action Of these five commonwealth.
But the main thing 20 be considered Is that,
whatever We may think about Il, and whether
we approve u or not, the action il taken.
When we look at the little fossil horses Of the
Peabody museum ut Yale university, and SO
the unconscious, inevitable way In which
those little creatures became larger OF size
and more compressed a. % foot--five toes,
four toes, three toss, two toes, until at last
emerged the large and single hoofed horse we
nov roe under the saddle-we can easily
Imagine that had those early races bs-en CON |
sulted they might not have approved Of the
change, and might even have filed remon-
strances and held mas meetings 20 oppose it.
"A political tendency which live new state
constitutional conventions have recognized
can certainly not h. ignored even II not one
OF them has put IL IN any final and complete
shape generation Of women who grow up /
70 - their own sex admitted o. colleges and /
voting for school officials can never look at
life precisely a. their grandmothers did, for /
whom such state OF things would have been |
tnconceivable. Before Us stands that new /
generation. and we have got, with or with
out our own approval, 10 make way for the |
coming woman 1T " III in Uaruer.1. Razar