The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-09
WOMEN POLITICIANS.
IN ENGLAND THEY ARE WORKERS
AND HAVE INFLUENCE.

The Women's Political Leagues of Europe
and Their Vast Membership What
John Stuart Mill Said-''The Peer and
Equal of Man in Politics."
| One of the things which Lady Henry
| Somerset finds hard TO reconcile with her
preconceiyed idea Of the enterprise and
energy of American women is the apparent
| Indifference of the great majority TO politr
| ical issues and privileges. AS compared
with Englishwomen of all classes Ameri-
can women, though first in the field as
claimantsfor the right Of sharing political
powers with men, are less actively inter
| ssted in political work, less we'll informed
on the issues of the day, and enjoy fewer
rights of franchise, Twenty-four of our
states and territories confer certain minor
privileges of voting or of holding school
Offices on women, while twenty allow wom-
en- to have no voice in the management of
public affairs. Wyoming is the banner
state. Kansas grants municipal suffrage,
while in the other states the privileges en-
joyed by women are confined to educational
matters only
In England women vote for the election
of members of municipal and county coun-
ellis and school boards, sit themselves as
members of school boards and county coun-
ellis, and a woman has for more than fifty
years held the throne of the powerful
United Kingdom and governed wisely and
well. There yet remains for them to win
the right to vote for members of parlia-
ment only.
EnglishwomeE declare frankly and I'M
afectedly the party to which they belong
Conservative, Primrose, Liberal or Lib
eral Unionist-and one meets in England
many more men who acknowledge unre-
servedly their championship of woman's
cause than can be found to admit their
sympathy with woman suffragists in Amer
lea.
John Stuart Mill once said that there is
only one department of intellectual activ-
ity in which woman has ever shown her
self the equal of man: 1--WE have had no
woman poets like Shakespeare or the
Greek poets, no woman painter like Mi
chael Angelo, no woman musician like Bee
thoven or Mozart. In all these depart
ments man has never had an equal or
rival in woman. But there is one depart
ment in which woman has shown herself
the peer and equal of man, and that is in
WV 10Y pa " pOilSiSo Win WHlSu
we are told she has no capacity to deal.
There are certain great queens-Elizabeth
of England, Catherine of Russia and some
of the Indian princesses who were the
equals in every way of any man who ever
held the same position. l suppose pros
perity and greatness in this country never
reached greater heights than in the days
of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Anne and Queen
Victoria"
Englishwomen are well organized in
political work, and work with men accord
ing to regular party methods. Men advise
with women in the interior and important
things of politics, and women use all
means to commit men that are up for cleo
ton to parliamentary suffrage for women,
and when the candidates have espoused
the cause the women work for their cleo
ton by all the regular political methods
and by unique and strategic measures Of
their own, quite out of the ordinary line
In house to house canvassing the women
are said to be particularly successful, from
their superior tact and gracious manner of
approach, learned through long experience
in charity visiting.
Every one has heard Of Lady Randolph
Churchilis energetic canvass during her
husbands candidacy for the ministry, and
Mrs. Brand, wife of a member of parlia-
ment, canvassed the entire district with
her husband, charming the electors with
her singing while he devoted himself to
their political education. She sang>to the
electors in the open air, by the rivcr side,
as well as in the great political meetings,
and enthusiastic crowds greeted her every
where. The Review Of Reviews says: "If
things continue to go on at the present rate
the candidate who cannot put a capable
into the field may as well retire
from the contest"
Ladies also bring up the electors in their
carriages, instructing them frequently in
the modus operandi of the electoral right
denied to the fair instructors. An anus
ing story is told of a young lady very active
in fighting an election for her father, who |
brought up to the polling place a man who |
said he could not vote unless she went |
with him, because he could not read or
write and was so confused and puzzled he |
could not get through the terrible ordeal |
alone Arriving at the polling booth with |
be : helpless but legal voter, the lady was |
q lfronted by placard on which she read, |
- No women admitted to this room" and |
" Is obliged to retreat, followed by the /
n IN who had right to enter but had not |
SO hclent courage 70 go in without her for |
lea of what might happen to him. It is |
4 common thing for women to address
audiences of voters from the toughest,
most depraved and ignorant classes in so
;iety as well as those of more intelligence I
and refinement
A lady travelling in England writes Of
Intending mass meeting of the great un-
washed, where an elegant and titled lady,
ichly dressed, made as good a stump
speech as she had ever heard from the sill
Ter tongued orator of the American cam
'aigns. The speech was refined as well as
ogical. containing only passing allusiou
o woman's suffrage, and was listened 10
With marked attention by the incongruous
audience. 1t has been rumored that fair
anvassers sometimes buy votes with
,isses, but this is most emphatically de-
lied by the women, except in the case of
'eautiful lady who, great many years
go, allowed the voters to take their ballots
rom her lips with their own if they sup
'orted her candidate
The Liberal Federation and union OF all
he Womenis Liberal associations through
ut the country is an organization of 20
ssclations containing membership of be-
ween TO- and 50, 900 women. It's mem
ers and delegates are of course warm sup
orters of home rule and Of the Liberal
arty.-New York Sun.