The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-04-26
CORRESPONDENCE.
More Argument About Woman
Suffrage.

Mr. EDITOR In the article, "Shall
the Women Vote?" written by Hon.
w. y. Armstrong, one finds the apo
theosis of the heartlessness with which
the male human species have ever
considered the female, where the ques-
ton was one of justice and equal
rights.
Who but a man could ever have
thought out this postulate of wisdom:
"Would it not be an act of wise states.
manship, for the coming Constitu-
tional Convention to establish female
suffrage with high property quail
fcutiOn attached to it!'
The italics are not intended by Mr..
Armstrong, but in them lies the key
to the situation.
Does any one imagine for one mo-
ment. that Hetty Green, with all
her high property qualifications,
would make a more intelligent citi-
zen than a Mary Wollstonecraft,
Mary Goodwin, or George Eliot? Or
does one not rather see that the
noblest, the purest, the sanest and
the most able women would be ex-
cluded by such a standard ofselection?
Nowhere is mans self-centred egotism
80 apparent as in his treatment of his
wife and mother; and he will willing
lv confess himself an ass to convince
her that he is made Of different IL not
quite superior clay.
Now, why should women not have
extended to her the right OF suffrage
Nf \ " alG
manp From times of savagery down
to our present, all men, except the
most enlightened, have been possessed
NV q vague dread of some mysterious
evil which was to attend the extension
~ aoual rights to their mothers, Sis
ters and wives. Is it not about time
that we got rid of this bogy,
root and branch? We have gone
so far as to believe that an
enljpnteued bad man often makes
better citizen than narrow MINDED
weIl-meaning one. Does 1T, there
fore. require any extended study of
noliticaI philosophy to explain the
natural effects on civil government OF
the co operation of an intellectual!
woman with her clean notions OF good
morals oman has never considered
any law as applicable to woman ex-
cept the law of his own lncllnatlons,
of undisputed authority over them he
has stood in his own light and SO held
the best half of our intellectually in
allowance until now; and now he
would attack some condition as aIly
"a his former objections. He is so
confirmed in his egOtism, injustice
aud greed that when he grants any
thing to woman he expects 10 near
the crack of doom.
of every really intelligent mind with
in the confines of their territory, but
shrewduess in trade is not the Surest
sjrn OF mental worth or civil desira.
hility. Some other standard should
be sought other than that or ht9h
r,r0DertU qualifications. A emma
man would fill that condition, yet he
"a not wanted for the reason that his
civilization is not ours. All mlnus
ore wanted as citizens who are able
TO educate, to refine, to enlIghten ana
to improve. The pure minded woman
more than all.
From the unciviliZed past few
things have lived that are SO lmper
fectly fitted to the partially civilized
present as the exclusion OF Won, IA
from a voice in government; ana the
fully civilized future will never
come until woman's faculties, tastes
and abilities shall be felt in dis
charging the various duties OF life
social and political.
Already the power of cooperation
has been seen and developed; alread,
such amounts of self restraint nav
been acquired by men that womel
are allowed to carry on their i've
without much impeding; already Wo
men exercise such interests, felt o.
citizens in social and public affairs, a
to combine individual efforts I
achieve good ends; and already men,
svmpathies have become actlv
enough to generate impartial discus
sion. And if, in the course OF the ie'
thousand years that have passed, tn
discjpline of civilized life hss done
much, it is folly to suppose that
cannot do more-folly to suppose tha
il will not, in course of time, 90 a
that has to be doue-emanc pate VIC
man. .> ,,,
We have nothing to fear from VIC
man. How absurd to suppose Una
social life can be harmed by keepin
the fundamental law OF social lie
the equality of human rights;
JULIEN ID. HAYNE.