The morning call., 1893-05-20
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WOMEN IN POLITICS.

WOMEN IN POLITICS.
meeting of advanced thinkers of the
feminine gender was lately held al Boston
to discuss the political issues of the day.
One lady read paper ON "McKinleyism
vs.. Free Trade" another discoursed on
the question whether the Republican
party had gone to stay. another on the
question whether Cleveland understood
Democratic principles, another on the
prospects Of populism. and others on sim
liar topics. We are told that The debates
were warm. and that on most subjects
new ideas were evolved, from which it
was inferred that men might have derived
profit and instruction from listening.
There is no reason why that should not
have been the case. There is nothing in
the female mind which debars women from
understanding political problems or any
other problems. So far as Psychologists
can ascertain, the quality of the female
mind is Identical with the quality of the
male mind. In every branch of human
knowledge, including politics. women
have proved themselves as capable of
grasping and solving disputed questions
as men. 1t is the fashion to deride
and the derision is often justified by the
lack of information which women possess
in comparison with men. But where
woman has taken from her piano and her
dressmaking time enough to acquire as
much knowledge as men possess it is mere
affectatlou in men to assume that women's
opinions will be less sound than those
which are formed by the bearded sex.
n air ais
mans; their perceptions are quicker;
their power Of comparison less apt to be
clouded by prejudice, passion OF bad
habits.
AT the same time the participation of
women in politics is antagonized by we'll
defined and thus far unalterable objections
On the part of men. In many countries it
has been proposed to endow women with
the suffrage, and several times. in different
places. it has seemed that the concession
was about to be granted. But it is notice
able that just al female suffrage seems on
the point of winning it is defeated on some
side issue, and it is relegated TO the limbo
of dead projects. That was the experience
in Ohio, Indiana and Oregon; Great Britain
has the same record on the subject. 1t
seems that while men are often willing to
give the ladies a complimentary vote
Wyoming is the only modern community
in which they have gone any further.
Nothing appears to be better settled than
that in the present condition of public
opinion there is no chance that men will
admit women to equality al the ballot-box
On the abstract question whether women
should or should not vote, the civilized
world Is divided; but up to the present
time the division is so unequal that the
practical solution of the question in favor
of the sex is as far off as ever. Political
discussions by ladies must thus be regarded
as speculative disquisitions by disinter-
ested parties.
In this condition of the public mind it
may be question whether ladies would
not turn the present awakening of the
female mind to better account if they di-
reeted their attention to the development
OF women's chances as money getters
rather than to the capture of political
rights Within the past generation
women's opportunities of earning a living
have vastly increased, and the law has Sc
cured them possession of their earnings.
No girl at the present day need marry for
the sole object OF providing herself with
some vocation in which her prospects of
self-suDport are as good as her brothers.
The trouble with the situation as it stands
is that few girls can be brought to forget
their sex and to engage in the battle of
life on equal terms with boys.
Politics. or the science of conducting
public business-is small thing in COM
parison with the great concern of self
support. Political controversies do not
begin to interest men as much as the
question of their daily earnings. Nor
should they take closer, hold on the
minds of women. 1t would better women
but little to be able to vote for President.
But it would help the sex vastly if every
girl-no matter in what stage of society
was educated to earn her own living and to
look the matrimonial world indifferently in
the face. Such a reform would bear moral
as well as intellectual fruit. Power goes
with the purse; she who pays her way
laughs at the domination of man and the
subsection of women. She believes In abso-
lutte equality; this won. if she desires
political equality. it is within her grasp.