The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-06-19
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ters, Circulars.
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HELPLESS MOTHERS.

HELPLESS MOTHERS.
Woman PowerIess to RectIfy Tier Chill
dren's Wrongs Because She Can Not
Vote.
Olympia Brown, as there have come to
me reports Of horrible wrong and out
rage done to the insane and the unfor-
tunate paupers In almshouses and
eleemosynary institutions. Women
come and ask us to do something about
it. But what can we women do aboutit?
We have no power. Every one Of the
officers Of these charities, these guar
dians Of the poor, these physicians and
attendants at the insane asylums. holds
his place as reward for services done
to some political party. Every one il
entitled to place because he has voted
Harrison up or Cleveland out, or some
thing of that sort. II we had ballots,
then we could remove these offensive
members, and put woman in the care Of
her own sex. We have not power. The
legislative bodies of this nation have
been almost showed under with our Pc
titions, and to no purpose. We must
keep on trying, and band ourselves to-
gether and demand the right; We must
preach and pray and exhort, and never
cease; that is all we can do.
Those of you who have read Victor
Hugo's beautiful book, .Ninety-three,
know that the interest centers in three
little children who had been carried
away as hostages and placed in an upper
room in the great tower OF La Torgue;
and their mother has wandered for days
and weeks over the fields and through
the valleys and on the highways, in
search of them. She has besought ev-
cry one she has met to aid her to find
her children; at last, weary, dispiritcd.
almost overborne. her feet bleeding
from the briers and thorns along the
der on the other side is the tower OF La
Torgue, just being besieged by the
peasant army: they have set fire to the
tower, and as the mother peers over, al
| most frantic, she catches q glimpse of
her children, looking out of an upper
window, far beyond her reach: and
there, helpless and despairing. she sends
up one great, terrible. heart-rending
cry, . cry in which all maternity seems
| to be centered: cry SO terrible that 1t
| pierces the hearts of all who hear.
Those hard-handed peasants pause in
their work of destruction; those soldiers
stop their bloody carnage; and one hard
man, q representative Of the aristocracy.
cold-blooded and violent, hating the
peasantry-that mans heart is touched
| by this cry of motherhood; and he turns
back, takes the key from his pocket, un-
locks the iron door, climbs up-up-
through the flames to that upper room,
and passes down the children one by one
into the hands of their mother, amid the
shouts Of the soldiers of both parties.
| Now, we are like that peasant woman.
We see our children hedged about with
difficulties. surrounded by temptations.
shut in with the evils of the world. We
see our sons demoralized, our daughters
outraged, and our hands are tied; there
is nothing that we can do but to cry, TO
cry aloud and spare not, until our
| voices shall reach from ocean TO ocean;
| until the very heavens shall rend
| asunder; until some man shall be found,
strong enough and good enough, pierced
| by our cry, to unlock the door of legis-
lation, and give to the motherhood OF
America an opportunity to protect her
children.
woman's Wrongs.
Women are one-half OF all American
citizens, says the Woman's Journal.
They are subject class politically.
They have special rights to protect and
special wrongs to remedy. As wives.
mothers and widows, they are oppressed
by unjust laws made by their political
superiors. As workers, they are exclud
ed by usage and public opinion from
most positions Of responsibility. honor
and profit, and are thus obliged to work
for smaller compensation than men re.
ceive for the same amount and quality
OF work. So long as Massachusetts
mothers, living with their husbands
arc not legal guardians of their own
children-so long as Massachusetts,
cities and towns pay female school
teacher only one-third the average pay
they give male school-teacher. thu,
setting the precedent for private EN-
!, ployers of labor to imitate-so long al
/ OuE l6lS0 StduuOIu IA SOSldl AuoAdlo NiU0 u
rs yenial in men what it holds unpar
donable in women-so long there vii
be . "woman's cause" to plead, An.
the phrase will not be outgrown.
Unjust Taxation.
The principle involved in woman suf
frage. says Lucy Stone. is that whicl
gave the keynote to the war of the Rev
olution. Women pay millions of dollar:
In taxes about which they have neithe
voice nor vote. In some Of our towns
one woman pays larger tax than hun
dreds Of men who pay only poll tax
Every one OF these men has vote as +
the amount of the tax this woman shal
pay, and as to how her money shall b
used. But the woman herself is denie,
: the right to vote at all. 1t is the gray
est injustice of the present day. Clel
gymen should preach about it; editor
should write about it; lawyers shoul
: expose this crime against women
against justice and against the integrit
of the government itself. Women. a
, infinite disadvantage, must urge thei
own cause. But it depends now. for thi
year, on the individual legislator
show whether he holds the right of h