Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-04-17
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
BARRIERS IN THE WAY.
What 1t is That Impedes the Progress OF
tho Womnn's Suffrage Movement.

the Womnn's Suffrage Movement.
According to Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
who spoke recently before the National
American Woman Suffrage Association
at Washington, the chief obstacles in
the way of woman's progress are;
1. The apathy and indifference Of So
Oiety to all reforms.
2. The lack of thorough and wide
spread organization. Lecky has we'll
said "The success of movement de-
pends much less upon the force OF its
arguments, or upon the ability of its ad-
vocates, than the predisposition of So
ciety to receive it." Conservatives are
made up largely Of those who are afraid
of every thing new, and of those who
are too lazy to entertain new line Of
thought and action. They take it for
granted that our earthly arrangements
are permanently established for all
time. Though they see the marked
changes made, from the remote past to
their day, yet they can not believe that
as marked changes will be made in the
| future.
The apathy of society is large factor
in every step of progress. Each re-
form demands an entire change in pop
ular thought, and new line of action.
This, to that large class who accept
things as they find them, who be-
lieve implicitly in the traditions Of
their fathers and never do any think
ing, is troublesome and heretical.
From want of use the muscles of their
minds are flabby; they can not entertain
new idea. You might as well ask
those who are not trained gymnasts to
stand on their heads, as this class to
grid up their minds to thinking. To
their vision the principles of govern
ment, religion and social life all run in
parallel lines together Now PROPOSE
! tion to change one of these lines, they
readily see, puts it out of joint with the
remainder; but they do not understand
that change in all directions is the law
of progress, and that in due time, with a
new current Of thought on many other
vital questions all the lines will be
changed until parallel once more, when
woman's political equality will be in
harmony with the changes in all other
directions.
3. AS to organization. For many years
we had no forces to organize. Each in
dividual was free lance, to say or to do
whatever she listed. The few States
that took any action whatsoever, did SO
independently of the rest. Though the
methods and specific demands were the
same, they were so not from any concert
of action, but from the same injustice
suffered. Until the war, a National
Committee that rarely met was the only
bond of union. When the slaves of the
South were emancipated, and their po
litical status was the same as ours, we
urged the abolitionists to unite with us
in an Equal Rights Association. But
they, believing that the freedman stood
a better chance for enfranchisement
than the woman, refused the proposed
affiliation. However, our Equal Right.
Association was formed, but owing tt
divisions on the anti-slavery question
and the pending Fourteenth Amend
ment and some personal differences, i
lived but brief period, and from it,
ashes sprang the National and Amer
lean organizations. And now, aftel
twenty years of grand work on differen
lines, we have come to the conclusion
that in union there is strength; and add
ed power in thorough organization. II
uniting all our forces to-day under on,
banner, with the hearty cooperation o
every friend of the movement, victor,
might soon be ours.