Huntsville gazette. [volume] (Huntsville, Ala.) 1879-1894, 1890-07-12
THE LABOR STANDPOINT.
The Ballot as a Means of Securing {
the Working Woman Her Rights.


| The Ballot as a Means of Securing to
the Working Woman Her Rights.
| The granting of suffrage to women has
| always seemed to me, says James w.
| Clarke, in the Boston Globe, to be a
matter of essential justice and right. AS
soon as became of age, I became a
woman suffragist. l should have done
| that in any case, out of respect to my
| mother. Since then l have acquired
| five additional reasons for being suf-
| fragist, in wife and four daughters. / am
| a woman suffragist from the labor stand
point. Our girls ought to have the same
chance in the world, the same equality
| in work and wages, that our boys have.
When one man happens to have four
daughters in his house, and his neighbor
| happens to have four sons, neither the
| law of Massachusett It's nor of the United
| States has any right to discriminate
against the man who has four daughters
| in favor of the man who has four sons
and that is exactly whatit is now doing.
| The ballot is protection. | was read
| ing last night Chas. Summers speech
in the U. S. Senate in defense Of the en-
|
great argumentw was that the ballet was
| protection. He put this one thought
| in a great many forms; that with the
| ballot in his hands, all other rights
| would follow, but without the ballot all
other rights were of no avail. ''The
ballot" said Mr.. Sumner, sis
like charity-it covers all things"
That is as true for white women
| as for black men. Give women the bal
lot, and they can get every thing else
that they ought to have for themselves.
But to-day who cares for woman's
rights or wrongs, her wishes or her OBJ
/ jections? Mrs. Livermore has very eff
| fectively shown US what sort of Legisla-
| ture we have under the male monopoly
| of suffrage. l was thinking, while list
ening to her, how. quickly the Massa-
chusettes Legislature woke up when it
| was proposed to- muzzle the dogs all the
year roands Why was that? Because it
was found thatthere were 800 licensed
| dogs in Boston alone, and every one of
| the 500 was represented by ballot on
election day. The votes of 500 dog-own-
ers and their friends meant for the dogs
just what Sumner said it would mean
for the negrozprotection They were
not muzzled, in Difference to those votes.
But within few daysa bill vastly more
important to our working -Women-
bill giving to them and to children the
ten-hour day already given to men-was
kicked on one side by the same Legis-
lature, with far less time and attention
than was given to the 800 dogs and their
muzzles. This will always be so until
women have votes. AS soon as it is
known that they can make and unmake
Represen tativeSa Sens tors Governors,
ana Cons ressiherJ they willsTbs sought
afters Just ass every man who Notes is
sought after to-day, and laws will be
passed to satisfy their demands and
remedy their grievances. 4gn0atsa se
viii say this lor the press, to which
I belong; thNt, in Boston at least, the
press has given women a fair and equal
chance in advance of the law. The time
| is near when the number of women en-
gagged in newspaper work, especially in
| the higher walks of journalism, will be as
large, and as largely paid, as of men.
When that state of, things comes about,
it can not be long before the. ballot fol.
lows; for Wendell Phillips said, many
years ago, and it is just as true to-day,
| that the government of this country is a
government by newspapers; and when
| women are found to be actually in pos
session of theirhalf share of the news
paper government, it will be impossible
to deny them their RICH tful half share
of power at the ballot-box.