The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-22

AS MI. EVarts said, very w1tt1ly, ~ Women
would make poor judges but capital execu-
TONER'S
VINO can feel so great an interest in wom-
ems rights as the father the husband and
the brother? Men work and slave and live
that women may be happy and comfortable
Who so Jealous of her honor and welfare as
the man who loves her? Is another filled
with these feelings? Far from it.
Women must a1ways.be subject to restric-
lions not necessary to the other SEX They
can never dispense with the protecting
influence which society throws about them.
A man in war, in explorations, in dangerous
forests, in crowded cities, has nothing to
lose but life and limb, and he has nerve
and muscles with which he can defend him
self.
He may go where he pleases and run what
risks he pleases, but.women can do none
of these things. 1t is not custom or habit
or public opinion, but an all prevailing
truth. woman is subject to many restric-
lions which place her alta disadvantage as
! compared to man in the active work of the
world. We can not agree among the causes
which have always determined the substan-
| tlal relations of the sexes, but we know that
man-civilized man-has: ever had but one
object before him to care for the woman
he loves. To that end he has legislated,
not always we'll, but as well as be knew
how: to that end he has worked, to that
end he has made laws and has fought bat
Ties.
MAN THE NATURAL LEADER.
| The man is the natural head of the family,
| he is res for it's maintenance and Or
der. If !. v is in her right mind she
| likes to see nar u.lsband and father assume
and carry on these duties, which naturally
| the other hand, they do not like to see man
lead up to the lawgiver, the governor. If.
| on IN this position, we can believe IN no
| further domestic life. But, fortunately, all
wome n are not yet SO unsexed as that.
| And in all justice to women who do not de-
| sire the suffrage there should be no inconsid-
crate and rash legislation. The danger of
| letting loose the most impulsive and excita-
BILE half of humanity into this peculiar bust
ness of making and administering law would
| over whelm our country with darkest perils.
| The bad politician would find his richest
| resources in the fish-wife class. in the
| Louise Michel
He could not reach the better class of ..fe-
| male voters, but the others would be ready
| at his hand.
| ance and the vice of our large cities, we can
| imagine what an army of petroleuses would
march to he polls.
A woman has the inalienable right to strike
but she must not be attacked in her turn.
| ''Most women refrain from abusing their
privilege of non-combatants, but there are
| those in whom sense of impunity breeds
| the cowardly courage of the virago."
WOULD INJURE WOMEN.
| Not only would the power of female stuff
| rage injure the State, but it would inJure the
woman herself. She is not needed in eau Gus
or convention, but she is needed elsewhere.
The family is the heart of the State, and
what is the State but the widened family?
In all conservation, power and honor let the
woman keep this secluded and ,honored po-
sition.
| If voting is to be the chief power in wom-
| ans hands, or even a power of half the mo-
ment that it is contended for it will grow in
sensibly to be the motive and end-the all
absorbing object.
| Are women's votes required because men
| will not legislate awaysevils? Is government
| corrupt because men desire to shield an OPP
| potunity for dishonest speculation. author
| ity and contenance for dishonest and nefar-
| ious combinations? How could a hundred
thousand more votes help all this? Would
it not simply confuse and vitiate what NOR
| al power there might be in the smaller vote?
| The agitators know very well that the ma
| jority of women are averse to the suffrage.
They do not wish any votes taken on the
! subject. 1t is urged that if married women
| have too much to do to vote, single women
1 should do so.
| do not know that woman is any better
| fitted to understand the laws which should
govern the State because she is single. do
not know that she is any less prejudiced.
more logical or better tempered because she
is single. She has far less at stake in good
| government than the married woman, who
has given children to the State.
| Therefore l can not that the vote
would be any safer in the hands of single
women than in the hands of the married.
Are there not some hundreds of these fe-
male single suffragists rushing round just
for the sake of rushing? How many of them
are urged by purely patriotic reasons?
| But do not let US 'sabuse man. or try to
change the relations of the sexes. That
is an imbecile, frantic cry of weakness.
| Neither Congress- nor the States nor the
united voice of the whole people could per-
men and woman-husband and wife, father
| and daughter, mother and son.
| Universal female suffrage if it could be in
augurated would undo itself in time, but
the attempt to establish it must work de-
| plorable mischief The question is whether
| a few agitators shall plunge us blindfold
into the most reckless of all experiments,
whether we shall adopt this supreme device
| for developing the defects of women.
| For the sake of womanhood let us hope
| not.
If American men were to-day the barren
minded, vicious. tyrannical. creatures they
are charged with being by the women
suffragists, untitled to be legislators for the
whole nation, it would be the fault of their
mothers.
| Such a charge is tremendous indictment
| against the American woman and ought to
| debar her from the right to vote.
| M. E. W. SHERWOOD
COL. BRECKINRlDGE's CANVASS.
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