The morning call., 1891-07-25
SHALL ENGLISH WOMEN vorEe

Political circles in Europe have been agi-
tated by an announcement from Lord Sails
bury that female suffrage ought to form
part of coming electoral reforms. So radi-
cal reform appears TO be a daring depar-
ture for the head Of the Tory party TO
undertake. 1t is not surprising that the
council of the Conservative Association of
England should have intimated to the Pre-
mier that bill granting votes to women
would split the party and had better be
deferred.
Under certain conditions women vote in
England at municipal, par0chial and school
board elections. For twenty years or more
bills have been introduced at various SEES
siOns of Parliament granting them votes at
all elections, and occasionally they have
commanded considerable support i'll the
House. When Gladstone introduced his
bill enargDg the franchise, an amendment
was introduced granting the suffrage to
women. and was supported by most of the
Conservative leaders, including Disraeli.
But it failed TO obtain votes enough to pass.
Lord Salisbury now realizes that if the Con-
servatives are to retain power they must try
some new policies, and among these woman
suff rage appears to him to be promising.
There is one part OF the British Empire in
which women possessed Of certain property
are allowed 10 vote-that is the Isle of
Man. The plan is said TO work TO the salts
faction of both sexes.
The battle OF women for the right to so
to the polls has been fought so often in this
country that every ne is familiar with the
arguments on both sides. In quite a num-
Der OF States bills granting the suffrage to
the sex have passed the Legislatures, but
they have olxNaVS aifhpr fai1aA hafn ba
people, or have been declared null by reason
of informality. Observers have come to the
conclusion that male Legislatures, while too
ungallant to refuse request from ladies,
have no intention of dividing political power
with the faireSt half of creation. The most
exhaustive discussion which perhaps ever
took place on the subject occurred in the
United States Senate on December Il, 1882,
on motion by Hoar of Massachusetts to
refer TO special committee all future petit
tons for female suffrage. Speeches pro
and con were made by Hoar, Morgan of
Alabama, Vest of Missouri, Bayard of Della
aware ard Beck of Kentucky. Vest moved
by way OF derision that such petitions
should be referred to the Committee on
Revolutionary Claims; this was Degatived,
and Eoar's motion to raise special COM
mittee to consider them passed by vote of
So to %. COckrill of Missouri has been
Chairman for some years; he sees to it that
the petitions are duly. pigeonholed, and
never reports.
Ladies, here as elsewhere, who are cha
grined over hopes deferred may console
themselves with the reflection that the
march OF reform is always slow. 1t some
times takes generations to educate peO-
pie. Fallacies survive long after they have
been exploded; the truth occasionally
knocks for years at doors which should not
have been closed in its face for an hour. In
the present temper of mankind there is nc
prospect that any leading civilized nation
will beStow the suffrage ON women. The
boon may be granted in little State like
Wyoming or in the Isle of Man, or in the
Austrian Province of Bukowna, where the
women vote by proxy. But no great nation
seems yet ready for the reform. Once
granted, the right 10 vote could never be re-
called. Men are not universally convinced
that it would be gain to let women vote,
and they shrink from risking a change
which. if it did not answer, could not be re-
voked. AS matter of pure theory, the ar
guments in favor of woman suffrage cannot
be gainsaid; but theory is not always con-
firmed by practice. The ladies of Illinois
the other day protested against bill grant
ing females votes. and declared that women
did not want to vote. This was on a par with
the averments which used to be heard before
the war to the effect that the Southern slaves
did not want to be free. But it is quite
evident that persons who did not realize
that voting is duty as well as a right are
hardly fit TO exercise the full privileges of
citizenship; and that to swell the voting
population from twelve TO twenty-four mill
ions by diuting it with this class of persons,
it is urged, would be, to say the least, dan
gerous experiment