Huntsville gazette., 1889-11-09
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
THE NEW GENERATION.

| :" OHlen "a bho DoJ.
Could an American statesman of
century ago come back to life, the
thing that would amaze him most
would not be, l suspect, says writer
in Harpers Bazaar, the existence OF
eectric lights and of Photographs, for
these would lie outside of the sphere OF
| public life, which would be our supposed
| Rip Van Wrinkles chief concern. Nor
would it even be. within his own do
main, the Australian ballot law, or
civil service reform, or the efforts of
great nation to get rid of its surplus
money 1t would be the spectacle of a
strange alteration in the very basis OF
government; it would be the fact that
| in organizing five new States, each OF
vast area and unknown resources.
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 commonwealths. 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 'how far" since all
five States have finally made women
voters about something. Idaho has
given them school suffrage by its con-
stitution; so have North and South
Dakota; while in Montana those women
who pay taxes will vote on all ques-
tions submitted to the vote of taxpay-
ers Moreover, in two Of these States
| washington and South Dakota) the
question OF giving women full suffrage
| is hereafter to be put to vote, and on
this question women already qualified
as voters for any purpose can also vote.
We hereabouts take all these things
very quietly, because we have come to
them by degrees. But were some Rip
Van Winkle of a deceased statesman
to open his eyes upon them suddenly,
he would justly pronounce them to in
volve more deeply rooted change than
any Australian ballot law, while the
| longest train of electric cars could not
be so much as named in comparison.
He could only end in accepting Vic
tor Hugo's high-sounding phrase that
this is-rightly or wrongly-the wom-
ans century. All the traditions about
the sphere Of the two sexes. as being
something Interchangeable and eternal,
must fail before, this simple fact
A local experiment, as in Massachu-
setts, or Kansas, or Wyoming, proves
very little, it may be urged. But the
| founding of five new States by popular
action, communities drawn together
from all quarters Of the globe. is not
only an extraordinary demonstration in
self-government, but offers. as it were,
cross section of current American
thought on government principles.
That in five different Constitutional
| Conventions. acting not merely inde-
pendently, but with an almost jealous
degree of mutual independence, the uni
form outcome should be some form of
woman suffrage, brings with it irresis-
tible differences. For good or for evil,
it is an advance along the whole line;
| il is one of those revolutions which do
not turn back. 1t is also revolution
based, like most American steps, not
merely on facts, but on principles To
some extent it is q step in the dark;
that is, we do not know in detail what
the result will be, whether on women
or on men; it is the result Of an uncon-
scious evolution which has brought
these masses of men so far. 1t is not
usually very easy to extend the suf-
frage, because this calls on a privileged
class to give up power. Yet in each OF
these five prospective Commonwealth
the hitherto governing class has to
some extent-no matter to what extent
done just that thing. No matter, again.
what was the mOtive-whether impulse
or logic, or persuasion-the concession
has been made That this has been
done in every one of the five different
States virtually settle the prevailing
course Of all our future natural de-
velopment
That the result is to be Of immediate,
invariable, and unmixed good, | do not,
for one, believe. If it were, it would
be unlike the result of all previous ex-
tensions of the suffrage. Every newly
enfranchised class needs to learn its
work, to get control Of its weapons.
and this usually involves some cut fin
gers. Women are not so unlike men
as to be free from all the perils and
weaknesses of men, aud they may even
have some of their own. Men have in
many years of voting, partially attained
to what the once famous jurist, The
ophilus Parsons, called an acquired
intelligence" on many practical mat
ters, which women, as class, have vet
to gain. Men have also learned how
to get on with one another politically,
even under apparent differences, and to
acquiesce with amazing equanimity in
the results OF election day. They are, l
suspect, a little more patient of public
evils than women. and little less an
cient in expectation. On the other