The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-03-11

9l2OAJs AAA&" IL
LOSING GROUND WITH THE WOMEN
The advocates OF woman suffrage in
Massachusetts, ask the legislature TO PASS
Law giving the sex the right to vote 1t
municipal elections. but they show their
distrust Of public sentiment By bitterly
opposing 8 proposition shst the question
b. referred 70 the people.
The leading Republican journals. like
the Boston Journal and the Springfield
Unioa, oppose the passage Of the proposed
bill on the ground that there Is no evil
dsncs that the change il desired BY the
majority Of men or Of women. After more
than thirty years Of agitation only very
small proportion Of the women Of Massa-
chusetts feel enough interest in the mat
ter to sign petitions in favor OF suffrage.
The majority Of the women Of the most
intelligent and thoughtful commonwealth
IN the Union do not desire the suffrage.
Why should theyf Before the law In all
our states woman has all the rights and
immunities granted every vote-casting
man, and practically woman has the best
Of any man before an average jury. A
Jury always decides for the woman. If she
can make any kind Of showing that will
stand in law OF equity.
Doss anybody suppose II Thomas Hen.
derson Boyd had been found standing
over the dead body Of Ursula Unfug With
smoking pistol that any jury Of men
would have acquitted him on the ground
Of Jealousy, passion. transient insanity or
sslf-defense. or listened for moment to
anv pretense that he was "a good man
gone wrong" whom the voice Of q siren
had lured into the whirlpool Of vice and
crime' Oh. no: he would have been
promptly convicted. OF at least man.
slaughter. The lack Of the ballot surely
robs q woman Of no rights of life. liberty
or property Az . matter of fact, woman
suffrage il not favored by the mass Of
women or the mass Of men. because IL il
= barren idsiity; II rights no wrongs; It
corrccts no disabilities. 1t IL . mere
matter Of expediency and the nero wish
of q few women to vote is Of no more con-
sequence to the state than the mere wish
of . few women to enlist in the regular
army. Moll Pitcher took her dead
husbands place in the battery of artillery
at Monmouth. but We do not because of
this fact think IL cxpedicnt to enlist
women In the regular artillery today. So-
ciety would gain nothing by enlargement
Of tho suffrage. and would lose something
h.-S o ~At.s A.. al
demorsiixing Of woman's power and ca
paciiy a. . hamanizing companion for
man.
As a rule the women would vote
with their men. whether their men were
good, bad or indifferent; IL they did not
vote with their men they would become
mere masculinities in women's clothes of
which tho world has already enough and to
spare. In the broadcst sense socially and
politically women are IS rule hu, the re-
fiections Of their men. When men are
cruel and coarse women are no better
The French Revolution. the war of the
commune. the old slave South and
the Homestead riot are cases in
point Women have assisted at
lynchings At the South. and in
fact no greater popular fallacy exists than
the belief that il women voted they would
refine and humanise politics; they would
not; but practical politics would In time
desex and demoraliss them. Women in
the mass are good or bad. Just as the mas
ealine public opinion they respect is good
or bad. On the stump Mrs. Lease and
Mra Cougar are just as coarse as their
male associates. In the matter of parti.
sanship women would Re Jus; a, bad as
men. When Judge Maynard MAS repudi-
sted IVY his own party In New York state
the Woman Suffrage party got out their
strictly confidential" circulars Tor the
guidance o! their voters. one Of those
circulars described Judge Maynard 40
specially entitled To cur fgiendship "
cause 10 keep him on the court of APP
peals bench. A great effort Is made -
defeat him, and every vote 10 needed.
Whatever Is sA.d against him, II 10 our
duty to stand by our friends, and the more
our friend 10 assalled the harder ne should
work for bis success The reeipien,s of
the circulars are repeatedly warned tina,
whatever they do must BE done quietly. "
These women. 'tas mothers and wive.
Of the land" did not care whether Nav.
nard had stolen or forged: IL 10 sAs SQUAD
on the woman suffrage question they wsrs
ready TO make him jadgs Of the court Of
appeals. The women in Wyoming vote On
all questions concerning liquor saloons.
gambling. the social evil. etc. jus, sbou.
as men do in states where women do no.