The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-06-15

this land from the millions Of schools
of vice. Men entrust women with
their dearest interests, their honor,
their children, and their sacred homes.
Why fear to trust her with the ballot
with which she can defend these.
"But," men say, "Woman does not
know enough to vote" Bancroft says
the original charter of Delaware placed
the government in the hands Of a
royal council because "politics lie be-
yond the professions of merchants,
poor cobblers, pitiful mechanics"
This is always an excuse for exclud-
ing DISTINGUISHED class, hence it lie
very natural that women should
undergo the same condemnation. The
woman who votes will study history
as one who is making a history, civil
government as citizen, and logic as
thinker who must act. If woman
is thus led to study and broaden her.
self the home will be broadened intel
lectually. If she thinks more of the
questions of the day, she will plant
the germs of political thought and
action in the minds of her children.
and as result we will have a genera
ton of thinking boys and girls who
will grow up into men and women Of
firmness and stability. There is
nothing this government SO much
needs at its head as firm, stable men;
men who will stand by their princi-
Piles. There is no better place than
the home and no better time than
childhood to inculvate the principles
of craftsmanship. "But women are
too busy to vote''. A great many
women spend more time reading the
novels. doing fancy wolk, going cal.
ling, than would be required to read
the political newspaper and 60 twice
a year to cast their vote in the ballot
box. eff women voted it would
divide families" But families and
countries have quarrelled longer and
more over religion than politics. If
woman is left to choose her religion
why not her political party? And is
woman not just as intelligent, is she
not just as capable offorming the vital
questions of correct opinions of the
day as man? "The most refined
women will not vote" 1t is the most
refined, the best educated, the most
cultured women who are asking for
this right. And even then this right
should not be with held from those
who will. at will cause man to be-
come less refined" 1t is not neces-
sary that women should change her
nature. She does not want to take
up the work in mans way. She
wants to do in her own way what man
does in his. She seeks to bring the
woman mind into those offices and
empleyments which have always
needed it and which will always be
partial without it. "Woman does
not want to vote" Wherever the
right has been given it has been ex-
ercised, and the best proof of her
wishes is the use she makes of the
ballot when she has it. But it makes
no difference whether all women want
to vote or whether most women want
to vote, as long as one woman wants
this right men cannot justly deny it.
But some women say 81 have all the
rights 1 want" Have they, if mar
ried, the right to control their earn
ings, have they the right to make q
will, have they the right to their own
children if the husband at his death
wills them to the guardianship of
some one else? In many of the states
of the Union, woman does not have
these rights, and one who does not
have them and who says she does not
want them is not capable of judging
for herself. She has no right to shut
herself in the circle of her own in.
terests and say she does not want
such rights. But men say, "Woman
has all the rights she ought to want,
the wife's property ought to belong to
the man because the law casts on him
the burden of supporting the family.
There must be a ruler and the hus-
band should be that one." All mar
ried women help their husbands earn
the money, consequently, they have
an equal right to say for what pur-
pose it should be used. But think of
the vast army of women who have no
man to support them; are the rights of
these to be ignored? The ri ght of man
to legislate for himself and woman too
is upheld by laws which are sane
toned by mems vote alone. If woman
does not suffer from the absence of
political power, it will be the first in
stance in history where a class de-
prived of political rights has not. 1t
is an axiom in history that no class
can legislate for subject class. "But
Paul says woman must be subject to
man." To argue as some have that
because the divine power foretold
that the fate of should be that
of a slave to his brethren, it is the
duty of his brethren to hold him in
is just about as sensible
as to reason because God told woman
the necessary result Of sin would be
that of her own subsection, it is there