Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-24
ABRAND NEW SCHEME
Injected Into the Woman Suffrage
Movement by Able Leaders,
COMPLETE EQUALITY OF WOMEN
With Men in the Wage Earning Line Also
an Important Step.
TOUNG BLOOD FOLLOWING THE OLDER
COMPLETE EQUALITY OF WOMEN
YOUNG BLOOD FOLLOWING THE OLDER
rrRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENCE

Worlds Fair. This is proof that the mlno
Of the masses turn more naturally to cir
cuses than the questions of human justice
So long as the Roman slaves had bread they
preferred circuses to liberty, and supposl
, it is very much the same with the uneon
scious slaves of this day. A bit of fun
some extraordinary novelty, compensated
for days of misery.
Very few people of the capital appeared
to take any interest in the Woman's Con,
gress, and the women themselves as little a.
the men. Women, who have actually nc
liberty and equality under the law, took fsr
less interest in the novem ent Of those would.
be emancipators CT their sex than the de,
based negro slaves of 30 or 40 years ago
took in the acts of the Abolitionists who
were struggling to secure their freedom.
This is the history of human evolution from
the beginning. A few enthusiasts do the
thinking, the inventing, the sgitsting and
finally the mass come to their way OF look
ing at things and a forward movement is
taken which is the climax of a revolution.
II is a long and weary road for the early re-
formers. The prime actors die and others
take their places, who, being in at the death,
perhaps take the better part of the credit
William LLOYD Garrison, Wendell Phillips,
and their co-workers, are far less in the
minds of the people than Grant and Lin
coin, and vet it was such as Garrison and
Phillips who made Grant and Lincoln
possible.
Miss Susan B. Anthony celebrated her
10th birthday early In the week. For half
a century she has labored with her might to
make woman something more than the mere
slave and plaything of man. 1t was indeed
pathetic to see the gray-haired veteran sur
rounded by fellow workers as old or older
than she, holding a council of war,
upon the eve Of death, as it were,
to infuse into the younger captains
and generals something of their own high
born and never tagging enthusiasm.
YOUNG BLOOD ON THE BENCHES.
To those interested in the movement il
must have been gratifying in the extreme to
see that the ranks of the advance guard will
not be depleted by the death or retirement
of the veterans. The seats of the delegates
were crowded by young and middle-aged
women not yet known to fame,
but full of fire and ability, giving
the best evidence Of the strides
the movement is making. There appears to
be no danger of lack of leaders. What
they lack is followers. These they are get
ting, too, by the thousand. The reports
from all parts OF the country were full of
encouragement. The veterans expressed
a belief they would live to see the fran
chise granted to women in many OF the
States.
Most important, however, is the new
spirit that is creeping into the movement.
1t has always had great deal of the re-
igious spirit in it, as though it were ex-
pected that the church, supported as it is
principally by women, would espouse their
cause and demand the franchise in the name
OF God and humanity. But it is growing
belief, with many of the leaders at least,
that too close an association with church
influences retards rather than has
tens the movement. Several of the
foremost speakers and writers of the con-
vention have assured me that it is their con-
Viction that the mass of clergymen are op-
posed to woman suffrage because they fear
it will lead to an independence of reasoning
that would lessen their subservience to
preacher and priest.
Whether it be founded on a correct as
sumption or not the conviction has grown
amazingly, and out of it will probably
shortly grow a new organization wholly
secular, not opposed to the church, but d.
vorcing the movement from it and making
those joining it independent Of the infu-
ence OF clergymen as such. Mrs. Matilda
JoslYn Gage is probably the leader of the
schism, but it has enlisted many of the ablest
advocates of woman suffrage, among them
the brilliant Caroline EYerhard McCul-
Tough, one of the most fearless, radical and
able of the orators and writers.
A SIGNIFICANT EVOLUTION,
Yet more important perhaps, as marking
the evolution of thought in the movement,
is the growing recognition of the fact that |
the radical and far-reaching movement for |
the industrial liberty of all wage workers |
means the complete enfranchisement and /
equality of women with men. Every plat
form of labor organization, every enuncia-
ton of principles by Socialists, contains a |
declaration for perfect equality in law and |
practice for women with men.
This has naturally led possibly q ma
iority of the strongest thinkers of the move
ment to espouse the more radical theories |
of the mass of modern industrial
economists, who advocated ownership
production and distribution bv
the people at large, all to be operated upon
g scientific system, which shall insure work
and com Portable subsistence for all and
render each individual wholly independent
of the domination and hates and whims of
any other individual
Notable among these most advanced rea-
soners of the suffragist leaders here this
week was Mrs. Blatch, of London, daugh-
ter OF Mrs. Elizabeth Cody Stanton. Mrs.
Batch was probably listened to with deeper
attention than any other speaker when she
outlined the progress of the movements for
liberty and equality in England, which she
truly declared to be a quarter of a century
behind the United States. "What states
man In America" she exclaimed "Wouid
dare to say, with Sir William Har-
court, we are all Socialists in En-
gland to-daTP Referring to recent
incident at the Riggs House, when South
ern member OF Congress jumped ND from the
dinner table and rushed from the dining
room when he found a colored man seated
at his table, Mrs. Blatch said that such an
occurrence would be impossible among En-
glishmen, and she blushed with shame for
her country when she heard Robert Purvis
say he was tiring of the lrrepressible conflict
between the blacks and whites the constant
and oppression of his race. and
had almost determined to 90 to England to
end his days
The news from Germany of the vast in
crease Of the vote of the State Socialists
yave great qualification to most of the
leaders, and to me this new and growing in
ierest in what most Of the modern students
IF economy have agreed is the only solution !
IF the social question, and the only saliva
ion of society, is one of the most significant
ind important features OF the struggle for '
woman suffrage. E. w. L.
A Compliment TO MIR. Connolly.
W. c. Connolly, Jr., manager Of the !