The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-04-13
OUR SUFFRAGE DEBATE.


I desire to vote because l am deeply
interested in the welfare of this State,
and of the United States and wish
that my opinions in regard to their
government may have some weight.
1t is utterly impossible for any one to
represent both his own and my ideas
as to the way in which the govern
ment shall be run and therefore /
ought to be allowed to represent my
ideas myself. One argument used
against us again and again is, that
women are made different from men.
Truly we are made different and it is
because we are different that men
cannot represent us and we desire to
represent ourselves. If it be possible
and right that my father represent
himself, my mother, my three sisters
and me, would it not be equally pos
sible and right that our neighbor with
four grown boys should represent him
self, his wife and his four sons? 1t
would not be possible or right that he
should do it, neither is it right that
my father represents us. And there
are the women who have no one to re-
present them. In Kansas women own
SIS, 900, 600 worth OF property and can
say almost nothing about how it shall
be controlled. Surely the cry of our
forefathers about taxation without
representation" is applicable to the
present.
Men consider the franchise means
of protection. Women also ought to
have this protection. Many of us do
not need it now, but there are many
more that do need it greatly and the
time might come when we, too, would
need it.
The government of the United
States and of the different states needs
the help of the women, the mothers,
wives and daughters of the country.
The best interests of our homes.
which are the foundation of the gov
eminent, demand that the "prin cipal
factor in home-making" have a part
in the government. 1t is said that a
woman cannot go to the polls and vote
without becoming less womanly
woman. The woman that would be
made less womanly by it would not
be a wOmanly woman anyhow. A
womanly woman will take her
womanly qualities with her every
where and it is these very qualities
that we hope will help toward puri-
flying politics.
Where did men get the right to
have a voice in their own government?
Have not kings and queens many
time declared that not one of their
subjects had a right to say how he
should be governed? But kings and
queens usurped power that could not
belong to them, for self government is
an inherent right not only in men but
equally in women, since women are
held equally accountable before the
law and before God for the things
they do.
This woman suffrage movement
really began, not forty or fifty years
ago but when the man suffrage move
ment began. 1t is the natural, the
inevitable result of the latter. AT
first, self-government was, seemingly,
no more mans right than it has, till
of late, seemingly belonged to woman.
Even at this very time the man suff-
rage struggle is going on in Europe,
to say nothing of other parts of the
world. In some European countries
the man suffrage movement is about
like the woman suffrage movement
here. Certain classes of men may
vote for certain things, as certain
classes of women may vote ON certain
questions. Quite likely part of the
people there say that the common
men have no right to take part in
the government, that they would be
out of their place. Do We believe |
them? Not at all. And may we not
believe when people say the same
things of our women. We are sure |
those men will at last win their full |
rights, for the tendency of the last
three centuries has been toward the
extension of the franchise. And the
end will not he, cannot be, until it
has been extended to all men and all
women. ALICE K. PEARSON.