The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-11-02
DO Not Want to Vote.

mont encounters is the very evident
aversion of woman herself to the as
sumption of the duties and RESPONSE.
bilities of the suffrage. The fact of
woman's opposition to what her jealous
sisters of suffrage associations are
pleased to call her g Acknowledgement "
is freely admitted by the more candid
supporters OF the proposed REFORM"
and its fatal force is by them fully con-
coded. But the less candid and ra-
tional, though more Jealous, reform
ers-those who have become what may
be termed professionalism not will
ing to admit that women as body do
not want the ballot thrust into their
hands, and ask for evidence of the al
legged fact of woman's Indifference to
her inalienable right" to vote. To the
objection, "Women do not want to
vote" their answer is, How can you
tell till you give them an opportunity"
This answer is made, we fear, more
in spirit of cavil than with a deep
and honest yearning for light and in
formation, for the evidence all over
Vermont has become trite subject of
comment. Twelve years ago the legis-
lature made law allowing women
the same right to vote as men have
in all school district meetings and
the same right to hold offices relating
to school affairs" The man of twenty
one years whose list is taken in any
town at the annual assessment next
preceding a town meeting" is voter
in town meeting. So woman whose
list is similarly taken is entitled TO vote
in school meetings. This measure,
passed in 1880, was tentative, expert
mental. How has it worked? Have
the women accepted the suffrage under
this law? Has any reasonable number
attended school meetings and exer-
cised the right Of suffrage in that most
important assemblage and in that
sphere where woman suffrage should
have free course and be glorified-if
anywhere in the body polite?
Here in Montpelier an inspection of
the names on the grand list discloses the
fact that there are upon the tax roll 271
women who, under the provisions of
existing law, would be entitled to vote
in school meeting. A similar state of
things exists in every other community
in the state. Have these women en-
braced this right to vote? Have they
put this one talent to any use? Or have
they wrapped it in napkin of scorn and
buried it in the soil of indifference?
On one or two occasions, we are in
formed, during period of twelve years,
as a matter of curiosity or to save some
body's chestnuts from burning, cor
poral's guard of the more strenuous sup
porters of woman suffrage appeared at
school meeting. Whether or not they
voted, deponent saith not. One, it is
averred, was once elected on school
board but peremptorily declined to
serve. In the school meetings of Mont
pelier, women have customarily been
conspicuous by their absence. This is
undeniably true of every other town
and school district in the state.
If this fact shows anything, it shows
that the women of Vermont are not
yet prepared to accept the suffrage and
do not want it. Is it contended that
they spurn a limited suffrage? that
they will dance the whole figure or
they will not dance at all? That is not
the right spirit, and it is not the way the
suffrage has been coming to the human
race. AS we have said, the admission
of women to vote in school meeting
was tentative, an experimental, meas
ure. If it had been accepted to rea-
sonable extent, and if the result had
been reassuring, the way would have
been paved for municipal suffrage, and
for the ultimate admission of women to
vote, subject only to the restrictions i'm
posed upon the other sex. But school
suffrage has not been accepted-not
from any feeling of pique, but simply
because the women of Vermont, ex-
cepting possibly the professional agita-
tors and their immediate followers and
sympathizers, do not care to vote; be-
cause they shrink from assuming the
duties and responsibilities of the suf-
frage in any degree. A generation of
agitation has only confirmed them in
their determination to adhere to the
duties of what, in their just conception,
is the true sphere of woman.
AlmOn Meaker.