The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-22
WOMEN SHOULD NOT VOTE.
Mrs. Sherwood Believes That Equality at
the Polls Would Result in Civil Discord.
On. Y. Herald.l

b ~-NAee
The giving of the suffrage to women
would bring about civil discord. In the pol
itics of to-day and of the future the engross-
ing questions will be of finance and the rela-
tons of capital and labor. Women are ig-
norant OF such matters, nor have they the
deliberate GOODNESS of Justice to cope with
these involved questions The peculiar dan
ger of this situation would be class ques-
tlon-the poor against the rich. We have all
observed how strong the social rivalries of
women are. Their animosities, their class
preJud1ces to each other are tremendous.
Should we not have the scene of Marie
Antoinette and the fshwives over again?
Imagine the late Mother Mandelbaum,
whose biography was in all the papers, and
whose picture, worthy of Rembrandt, was
published in the Herald. She was, believe,
noted Fence, who kept the police at
bay for years. Imagine her the leader, as
she would be OF a female Tammany. Imag-
inc her bringing in the fierce and wicked
role of her confederates to the political a.
rena. What terrible reminder of the
French Revolution!
The coming struggle between labor and
capital is to be fierce one enough, without
adding to the fame the pitch and resin of
the wraJhful jealousy of the poor women a.
gainst the rich. These passions of women
are far more vehement than the correspond
ing passions of men. AS in the South, long
after the men had accepted defeat the wom-
en- would go out to tear down the flag which
protected them from danger and arson
Women cannot reason when their feelings
are excited.
NOT CONFINED TO THE POOR.
And this unreason does not alone cling
to the poor. Enter a fashionable matinee
and try to struggle amid a crowd of women
for place. A women will resolutely plant
her elbows in the most sensitive part of her
sisters framework and make her way on
ward regardless of life and limb
The polls will resemble the Partisan mobs
We shall expose all our cities to the dangers
of anarchy.
Nothing but the wild teaching of Jean
Jaques Rousseau can be more impractical in
its distractions and it's generalitiesthan the
reasons given by those in favor of woman's
suffrage.
The French had an excuse for their frenzy
in ages of oppression We have no excuse.
Every American woman has all her rights
andsmore. She can keep control of her
ONA pIOpCIGy dAo WILL IL away IfOu u0f nus
band if she wishes. He cannot do as much.
She has the care of her children, if she
does not misbehave herself. She can, it is
true, take her own money away from hus-
| band and father and good safe investments
and give it to swindler to lose for her. but
she would be apt to do that even if she
had vote.
If she keep quiet the government will take
admirable care of her and her money.
Then why all this talk about the inherent
right to vote? There is no such thing.
A vote is a gift from the government. 1t is
not an inherent right. The founders of our
constitution put in the word "male'' with a
purpose. With that remarkable prescience
with which ''they builded better than they
knew" those wonderful men seemed to
have foreseen this angry and mistaken
moment as they foresaw that supreme mo-
ment when at the close of the civil war
Abraham Lincoln lay assassinated, his sue
cessor was sworn in at twelve O'clock in the
beleaguered city, a city full of spies and
the element of rebellion, and the great en-
CINE of civil government moved on grandly,
without even jar. And why of all, the
greatest and most inexplicable question of
all, why is this luminosity to man? He has
been rather fayorlte with the sex hereto
fore; now read an incorporate series of
questions and answers
who made the LAVISH
MEN,
''Who gave them the right to make the
| laws?''
Men
May women not take part in the making
| of the laws?''
''They may not. Men make the laws for
| men and women
eff a woman breaks the law, who decides
| the penalty. tries, convicts and Furnishes
| her?''
Men only
''Who sit on the juries?''
Men only.
And this is followed by diatribe of fury
as if it were the most wicked and unreason-
able assumption.
WOMEN ARE FORTUNATE.
1t is very fortunate for women that thew
are not tried by jury of their own sex.
They would get scant Justice
PORTFOLIOS.