The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-07-20
SOME GOOD REASONS
why Women Should All Have the
Ballot,
GIVEN BY The SPEAKERS PRESENT

9peGCnG9.
The attendance at the suffrage meeting
at Garfield park yesterday afternoon was
neither large nor enthusiastic, but it was
earnest and patient Only between two
and three hundred people, mostly women,
were there owing perhaps to the oft re-
curing fact that the event had not been
judicious.y advertised.
The exercises were to have begun at
2:8O. but as the management was even
more disappointed in the matter OF speak
ers than that OF audience and as II
was necessary to wait for them, it was at
least three-quarters Of an hour later be-
fore Dr. Eva Harding assembled the plat
form with other members of the suffrage
league and announced 10 the audience
their predicament Only two of the six
billed 10 speak we're present Mrs Johns
and Mrs Diggs both having failed to APP
pear 1t was the intention, however, to
60 on with the meeting as best they
could
The first speaker was Mrs I. B Smith
Of Ottawa, who is the state president Of
the w. q. IT. u. She spoke Of the llmI-
tation of the ballot, and thought that it
was now too limited in some directions
and TOO sweeping in others There are
men, she said being born every i've min
utes in this country in an atmosphere
that viii make them not One-tenth 80
able to cope with the moral and financial
tenth so able to assert lntelllgently the
rights oil citizenship as the average
woman OF the day. She believed
In the thinking woman because
the thinking woman was sure to
bear thinking, moral children. She
believed that if woman had the ballot
she could blot out forever the curse Of in
temperance. As it is now, she said, the
whisky element rules the country. sIn
the country there are 24O 600 saloons, all
mortgaged TO the breweries These sa-
looms control in their own favor at least
an average Of fifteen votes each, or a to-
tai in the country Of 100000, nearly one
half of the total vote Of either of the old
parties. If the woman got the ballot see
what she could do"
II. I'll. Brown was next called upon and
said in substance: For forty years l
have been in favor of female suffrage
and in all that time / have never heard
one argument against it that was worthy
of intelligent consideration. The argu-
ments that are advanced against it are
not of principles; they are arguments of
policy. On our side are natures laws
and Gods purpose. Truth will at last
control the earth. Has not women done
more for civilization than man ever cOuldI
What would the church be today if it
had not been for woman and her eleva-
ting infuencel Would there have been
a church, Woman has always upIifted
man How can we refuse her the Privi-
ballot when realize that behind every
great man stood morherf The hope
of the future depends on woman's eleva-
ton What woman j., the nation must
be.
Il am a firm believer in the law Of
heredity. A slave woman will bring
forth slave child Have not the slave
mothers of the past brought forth the
slaves Of monopoly that are at the head
of our nation tOday3 No manly man can
come of degraded woman.
The woman raises the child It is
natures law that the child should belong
to her. and / say it is curse to Ameri-
can civilization chat the courts give the
child to the father.
Woman has certainly proven her abil-
ity to stand equal with man in every in
tellectual way and yet no man can stoop
TO the depths a woman can in iniquity.
Look at our women lobbyists who stand
about the halls Of legislation and play on
our lawmakers basest passions to accom-
plish most unhcly legislation. Raise her
above his
ut is said that woman cannot vote be-
cause she Cannot fight We don't want
her to fight 1t were better if we had
no armed force in the country. The
standing army is a menace to peace.
"All eyes of the nation are on Kansas
now. l know that suffrage is coming
because God is with it and it is right.
but it Is necessary that Kansas should
SET the exam p1e.f
Hon. Albert Griffin (the Republican,
was in the audience, and came forward
and talked He denounced Republicans
for falling to put a suffrage plank IN the
state platform, and also abused the mem
beers Of the party who had been in favor
of suffrage but had declared that they
would oppose it now simply because the
POpulist had been wise enough to adopt
it. 1t was simply petty spite, he said.
AT the close of Dir. GriHiln's remarks
F. Riley was called and talked along
much the same line as Mr.. Griffin.
Mrs. Eva NJ. Blackman of the Leaven-
worth board Of police comm issiOners had
Deen Oh the platform all this time and
was now called forward. Her speech
was short but it WAS to the point Among
other things she said: IF il were true
that woman should be allowed to vote
because she cannot fight and if suffrage
should depend upon brute force. our es-
teemed friend John Lawrence Sullivan
should have about fifteen votes while
Rev. Lyman Abbott should not be enti-
tied TO more than half a one.
'While we certainly deplore the re-
cent labor distur Dances. Il feel that il has
accomplished shis good at least: 1t has
awakened the women to a sense Of what
they can and should do. Labor disturb
ances tend to awake woman from her
apathy and teach her that we need legis-
lation that viii make impossible the con-
ditiOns that viii endanger the lives of
her husband, brothers and sons"
Mrs. Blackman's speech finished the
programme for the afternoon.
As the Eseninx Meeting.
At the evening meeting the number of
auditors was smaller than IN the day time
Willis Gleed was the speaker of the
evening but owing to the limitations Of
the crowd and the threatening appear