The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-03-30
OUR SUFFRAGE DEBATE.
SOME POINTED AND PARTICULAR
REASONS WHY WOMAN SHOULD
BE GRANTED TIE RIGHT TO
VOTE At ALL ELEC-
TICNS.

theological, question.
"Should woman be allowed the
elective franchise? We affirm tina;
she should. Before we attempt to en-
roll her name with mans permit us to
speak of her former life. education and
bondage. To prove why she should
be allowed to vote, we must talk OF
women's rights in general. Give
woman the ballot and you break but
one link in her chain of bondage. I'm
sophisticated ancients held that
women were placed on earth for lim-
tied spheres of usefulness, to rear
children, attend to household affairs,
plough the fields and do all general
drudging. Even literature was de-
MED her. Up TO this time she has
been looked upon as mans inferior,
although she has gained some strength
and independence. She conducts a
farm, edits paper, pleads at the bar,
heals the sick, discourses from the
pulpit and stage, gives light to the
heather and most and best of all she
is quiet and noble mother. Yet she
is not half what she ought to be nor
W hat she will be. She is still an I'M
solved problem. Now that she has
the same chance for education, she in
forms herself of what is going on in
the outside world as well as in politics
at home. In this nineteenth century
it is time that her eyes are opened,
that she is up and doing. What our
American woman needs is her own
individual independence. No one
will deny that her intellect is equal
to mans. That her perceptive facuI-
ties are better. Then why should
woman fail to cultivate and exercise
the talents that God has given her?
Should woman he tried at the same
tribunal with man? Just as harshly
and often more so, when she has not
been allowed to make those laws? Is
this justice? Is this the manly pro-
lection you so kindly offer us? The
best and noblest men on earth are
those who have honored and respect
ed their mothers and who are in favor
of her political equality. Woman
should have the ballot because her
perception is clear and her conclusions
correct. She can more easily tell the
effect of a Certain cause, and come
veal or come woe, she has been found
on the side of truth in every age.
Woman should have the ballot be-
cause her dearest interests are often
jeopardized by mans rule.
To be sure there are some ladies of
fashion who like to be flattered by
man and told to believe that he will
ever shield and protect her, but this
will do better by moonlight than at
when right can plainly be
seen from wrong. All that woman
needs is the sympathy and forbear-
ance of humanity as a whole. She
needs this not only to enable her to
climb higher, but when fallen so low
that a glance upward is denied her.
Make life a fact 20 woman as well as
man. Let every perplexing thought
of business, every pursuit be hers as
well as his. Our cause is gaining
ground. 1t will not be many years
until such a question as "shOuld
w oman be allowed the elective fran
C hise" will be numbered with other
heathenish ideas. Instead of calling
the United States a free Republic
where equal rights are maintained,
first allow the so much respected and
adOred woman to take her place be-
side you. Then and not till then, will
we be a free and prosperous nation.
With the foregoing conclusions reach
ed, can we afford to deny woman the |
ballot? Do we not hear sounding
down the annals of history as the re-
suits of each epoch are summed up, |
an emphatic no? Does not the record |
Of "man's inhumanity TO man." show |
Us IN letters of living light that it is |
mission to purify and defy |
what is human in human affairs? |
Does not a voice come up from all |
cou ntries and chimes where weakness |
Is made the palladium of woman's
wroD gs with a deep toned emphatic
40?
This is no idle question, but one full |
IF meaning and We cannot afford to
pass it by while our country is drift
ng on into an open sea of crime made
oul by the purchase money of human
souls, Welcome the time when we
viii come with glad smiles to lift you
up from intemperance and injustice.
"Peace on earth, good will toward
men," Mrs. ETA A. CUNNINGHAM.
1t is generally admitted that men
md women belong to the same spec
es. If they do belong to the same
pecies it must follow they have like
and like endowments. If
hey have the same needs and the
anne talents they have, or of right
ught to have, the same privileges.
10 accident of sex can prevent the
quail division of natures favOrs.
Hedge a man about with laws that
ouch his personality closely, leaving
title room for individual choice, and
or his weakness. uarroWness. yacilla-