The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-30
PHOEBE C0UzINS.
she Talks About womanss Suffrage
in Colorado.

she Talks About Woman,s Suffrage
4 in Colorado.
The Utah Woman's Press club enter
tanned a distinguished guest at its reg
ular meeting at the home Of DR. Ellis
Ship last evening. Miss Phoebe Couz-
ms addressed the members of the club
and some invited guests, among them
Mrs. F. S. Richards, Mrs, Nelson, Of Og-
den. and Mrs. Jakeman, or Provo.
Miss Couzins gave an address in easy,
conversational style, dealing chiefly
with her recent study Of the conditions
that led TO the adoption of woman suf-
rage in Colorado, as we'll as the manner
in which the gentler sex used its
newly granted rights in the late cleo
ifion.
She told detailed and amusing
STORY of meeting of farmers and
their families in a ss.afaern county en-
the 4th of last July. a large crowd
had assembled from the country side
lonly to find the grove where the meet
ling was to take place transformed into
a veritable lake by the storm that may
/ be expected on independence Day. But
the weather did not diminish the size
fof thr a. fence or dampen it's en-
thusiasm, and a large barn and some
Wheat bins sery: as an auditorium
Everywhere there were large assem-
blages for the purpose of ratifying the
emancipation of woman.
4 Mss Couzins spoke in no mild terms
lof the ''un American principles'' ex-
hibited by the government during the
istrile, especially the exhibition in
| Colorado. She had followed the cases
lOf sons -trikers in C, dorado and but
! fou' out of IF ,-six wee convicted Of
overt acts of insurrection
/ The speaker said a great impulse is
given to wonlan's thought by her
iemancipa ton. Circumstances showed
1 that the women of Colorado had an in
/ telligent apprehension of the needs of
appointed in the way some of them
voted, there was no doubt that they
/ had made a careful study Of the issues
of the day.
The only woman who asked for in
| structionS on voting in the district of
| the Brown Palace hotel was a servant
| in the employ Of the hotel, while it was
not attempted enumerate the men who
had asked for such instructions. Miss
Couzins had observed that in the
homes of miners there were books on
the latest political questions and that
those books were read carefully by the
wives of the miners.
Miss Couzins eulogized the govern
ment of Switzerland, which toierates
no man worship" Every question is
submitted for debate by the people six
months before it is voted upon. 1t has
been demonstrated in this country that
representative government is a fail
ure. The Swiss government, which ap-
proaches more nearly the ideal of a,
government for the people, by the
people and of the people might be a
model to our own.
The speaker attributed the interest
IN woman suffrage shown in the late
campaign in New York to the study of
law by many of the prominent women
|of the state who had entered the law
classes of the New York university
and who were inspired by a desire to
correct the injustices found in the
statutes.
Miss Couzins was emphatic in her
statement that the "Edmunds commits
sion" had acted in an unauthorized
and arbitrary manner in depriving the
women of Utah of the ballot. If men,
who had enjoyed the right of suffrage
for II years, had been thus debarred, a.
fierce battle for rights would have been
waged.
Miss Couzins finally urged the ladies
to use their influence with the men,
beers Of the constitutional convention to
make the question: Of equal suffrage
one to be decided by majority vote.
1t was that saving clause, by some
great but unknown author, that won
emancipation for women in Colorado.
The imperative mandate and 'ini-
tiative and referendum two of the
rights enjoyed by the Swiss, should
also be incorporated in the new con-
stitution.
A solo by Miss Maud Pratt, reading
by Mrs. Boyden and an essay on Ten
nyson by Miss Laura Hyde, completed
ing.