The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-03-23
OUR SUFFRAGE DEBATE.
THE LADIES CONTINUE THE ARcU-
MENT FOR THEIR POLITICAL
RIcHTS-AND INCIDENTAL
LY GIVE Mr.. WILSON
WHACK OR TWO.

u lhOAO oiO ASooOA1c WY "OA1SA
should vote:
!. 1ST. Because it is simply justice
justice to themselves and justice tt
: men. All single women who OWL
! property pay taxes. All married wo
men who with their husbands OWE
property, help to earn the money with
which their taxes are paid, conse.
. quently they have the same right to
say for what purpose their money
shall be used.
The disfranchisement of woman is
also an injustice to man. For instance:
A and b pay an equal amount of tax
es. AIS family consists of four SONS.
BIS of four daughters. Bonds are to
be voted. A approves and b is OPP
posed to the bonds. An election takes
place and A with his sons cast fue
votes while B can only command one.
Although BIS family works just as
hard for the money with which their
taxes are paid; although they are
equally intelligent and we'll inform.
ed, A has all the advantage whether
he is on the right or on the wrong
side. Is this right? Is this justice?
End. Because it is a duty. An OBJ
legation every citizen owes the gov
eminent which protect them. WO-
men are citizens in every sense of the
word, and as such it is their duty to
help protect the homes of their coun-
try.
3rd. Because it is a privilege, and
one which every citizen ought to have
the right of exercising regardless of
race, color or sex. A privilege which
true man would protect with his
life; yea, one for which thousands of
men willingly gave their lives, that a
portion of the citizens of America to
whom it was denied might enjoy this
right without regard to color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude." Do
you think women prize it less highly?
Much more might be said in favor of
all these reasons, and many more be
given, but as 1 wish to add a few
words in reply to Mr.. Wilson. will
leave them for some one else
1t seems to me Mr.. Wilson could not
have made greater mistake than to
go to Genesis to prove (?) woman's ine-
quality. There is nothing better than
the Bible, nor better place in it, than
the first and second chapters of Gene
sis, to prove at least aDOman's equality.
By reading these chapters carefully
he will find that in the creation God
began with the lower order of beings,
and each day thereafter created an
higher order until all was completed
and pronounced Every good" Wo-
man was the last of His creations.
The inference is very plain. Again
he says "Sarah obeyed A braham and
called him lord" which was perhaps,
right and proper enough, but we are
also told that the Lord said to Abra-
ham, sin all that Sarah hath said unto
thee hearken unto her VOICE. In
other words saying-Sarah's judg-
ment is good, she understands the
circumstances, her interests are the
same as yours and she has right to
be heard in these matters.
We think Mr.. Wilson could just as
logically conclude from the passages
quoted by him, that a woman has no
right to "teach" a school and "usurp
authority over the man." as to say
they have any relation to the exer-
else of the right of suffrage. Again
he says "what we need is mothers in
the true sense, etc." am intimately |
acquainted. with one woman who has |
gone to the polls more than once and |
voted, sometimes with her husband,
sometimes with other women and then |
gone home and attended to her house.
hold duties, and was just as good a
mother and hOusekeeper as before, yes
a little better. And there are many
such in lola.
L cannot understand how a Christ
ian man can hold such an opinion,
when we know the voice of the sa-
loon keeper, the gambler, the intem-
perate and the home-destroyer of ev-
cry description will be raised against
woman's suffrage, and for that reason
alone if there were no others every
good man should favor it. We be-
lieve they will. l should like to ask
Mr.. Wilson and every other voter
did not the women of this country
help to save it once? Who has not
heard of Anna Ella Carroll, the friend
and counsellor of the great Lincoln.
or read of Dorothea Dix and the army
of brave and noble nurses; of Elizabeth
Blackwell and the Sanitary Commits
sion? OF Clara Barton and Mother
and thousands of other
patriotic loyal women, who, in camp
and hospital, at home and at the front,
and on the field of battle even did a
noble and heroic part for the Union
and free government.
Who then shall challenge the right
of the women of this country to enjoy
the highest and dearest right that can
be exercised under the government
which they sacrificed 80 much to save.
In the language of Wendell Phillips,