The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-10-10
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
AN EQUAL SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.

AN EQUAL SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
The Feasibility and Justice of surren-
dering to Woman Her Right of the
Ballot.
The following able address was given
by Rev. III. A. Cleveland, at the South
Dakota Lawn Fete recently held in In
dianapolis:
The admission of the American woman
to the prerogatives of the ballot. and as
consequence her occasional elevation
to Office, certainly would not render the
political condition Of the country any
worse than it now is. while undoubtedly
1t would make our political life much
more interesting. and would tend great
ly to improve our politicians and also
their methods and. manners. The COM
ing of women practically into the arena
of our politics would bring to it the
healthy influence of higher idealism,
and make purer morality operative
there. The presence of our American
women at the caucus, and at the voting
stations of the country on election days,
would work the regeneration of the ma
tons heart and the reconstruction of
all our political procedures.
want that our women should stand
side by side with our men, and be their
equals in every privilege and honor, &C.
clestical and political. They are en-
titled to this by the charter of
nature, by the nobility of their powers,
and by the splendor of their achieve
ments Always they have adequately
filled up the measure of their opportu-
nifty. There are good reasons for be-
lieving that they would make better
use of the ballot than men have made
of it, and there is no reason for believing
that they would make a worse use of it.
The victories they are achieving and
the prizes they are winning in litera-
ture and mathematics at Harvard, at
Cambridge, England and Paris, furnish
new proof, IL this were needed. of their
ability to master the most difficult of
political problems, and to pass intelli-
gent judgment upon all questions that
may come into political debate.
There can be no rational objection to
the Acknowledgement Of our American
women that does not apply with equal
force against the enfranchisement Of our
men. Fit be said that mot all women
should vote, and not all should hold Of
f1ce," the same is to be said of men.
Men themselves have so recently come
to the art Of voting that, like boys with
a new toy. they are jealous of sharing
its privilege and power with persons
who are as skillful as themselves, and
who live with them in the same houses.
We let Poland, and Germany, and Ire
land, and Africa vote, and we tax the
property Of women as We do that Of
men; why Is it that we withhold the
ballot from our own sisters, whose rights
and abilities we acknowledge are as
great as our own? 1t is only because the
tribal vanities and prejudices of our pa
gan and savage state still survive in US.
90 not object to woman's voting, but
earnestly advocate it For thirty years
/ have advocated it. The most efficient
teacher of my early days was woman.
For thirty years have been ruled with
diligence by one woman, and always to
my great advantage. The barbarian
sentiment, by whatever chivalric Ian
guage expressed, that regards woman
only as the plaything and slave of man,
scorn and with Indignation resent.
And the cooking argument is not
much better argument. Doubtless
woman does good thing who learns
how to become q good cook. Perhaps
Abraham Lincoln might have become a
good cook and earned large wages. But |
what loss that would have been TO the
nation and to the world. This talk
which we sometimes hear, that woman's
sphere is in the kitchen, and her prime |
relation is to the cook-stove, is not the |
talk of reason, but of men whose con-
trolling logic proceeds from their ap- |
petites and passions When women
themselves indulge in such talk, it is |
usually in their weary moments when a |
culinary life seems to them easier than |
an intellectual one When the tribal |
chieftain comes back VIGOROUSLY to his |
tent door, tired, hungry and annually |
selfish, and loudly proclaims that wom-
ans sphere is entirely domestic, and |
that only in that is she queenly. his ut
terance is wholly unenlightened, stom-
achic and barbarian.
The test of nations culture, as of its |
Christian virtue, is the place 1t accords |
to women. The logical outcome Of our /
girls schools and of woman's literary |
clubs is Just such meetings As the one |
you have called in the interest Of
woman's suffrage in the new State of |
Dakota. Our times are marked by ''the |
new attitude Of woman Everywhere |
increasing enlightment is extending |
the ballot. Let us do what we can to !
make the ballot in our own country the |
Of mind, OF the American |
mind, of mans and Of w0man's. The |
time will come when our girls win be |
less attracted by foreign titles than in
fluenced by American patriotism. Our
women do not enough interest them |
selves in politics. When they have the |
ballot they will become more thought
fully and earnestly patriotic. Their en-
is inevitable. 1t is the |
dictate Of justice and Of political pru-
dence. The event is transporting. When |
1t is accomplished, as it surely will be, !
/ do not wish to be seen crawling out of |
some fence-eorner, and trying to make |
my neighbors believe that have always |
been in favor of it.
A Good Example.
Among the passengers on one OF the |
outward bound ocean steamers this sum- |
mer was a minister's wife, whose de- |