The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-07
NO JUST CAUSE FOR FEAR.

The Herald does not share the fears
of people who think the equal suffrag e
plank will in any way endanger the
state constitution.
In the first place the majority of
votes in favor of the suffrage article
as it now stands will be so large as to
be decisive of the whole instrument.
In the second place many of the sup
posed opponents of woman suffrage.
and who are not. but are merely in IA
vor of the separate submission idea.
when they find that the article is set
tied upon as part Of the constitution,
will sensibly vote in its support.
In the third place some OF the active
and now angry opponents of woman
suffrage on its merits, will rather vote
fer the constitution. even with woman
suffrage in it, than endanger the boon
of statehood.
That will leave but a small minority
against the constitution. They will be-
come smaller in numbers and beauti-
fully less by the time the vote is cast.
We wish to give credit for honesty
of belief in those delegates and others
who claim that woman suffrage has
never been fully discussed among the
people of Utah. 1t is difficult to do so
in face of the facts. But to be as char
liable as possible, they are mistaken.
The subject may not have been agita-
ted in their immediate circles. But 1t
has been talked of, pro and con, in
every city, town, village and hamlet
in Utah and is a subject with which
the masses are familiar.
It must not be forgotten that equal
suffrage prevailed in Utah from 1870
to 1887. Where are its terrible conse-
quences? Where is the degradation of
woman as its effect? Where are the
discordant and wifeless and motherless
homes as the result?
There was renewed interest in 1880
when the proposition was made to
strike the word male out of the
Utah statute on the qualifications for
holding Office. The subject was dis
cussed throughout the territory, and
the bill did not pass the legislature
until after long and repeated ANNA
ted debates on the whole question, in
GLIDING woman suffrage, when the
same old, stale arguments that have
been recently revamped by the anti
suffrage orators of the convention.
were brought up and knocked out of
any semblance to nationality.
In 1882 the subject was again thor
oughly discussed because Of its intro
duction in mild form into the con-
stitution then adopted in convention.
It was placed in the constitution. It
was accepted by the people.
This is not advanced to prove the
rightfulness of the principle of equal
suffrage. It is in answer to the erron-
eous statement that the matter has not
been discussed by the people.
We venture to say that no public
question which will be settled by in
corporation in the state constitution
has been so widely discussed among
the people as that same suffrage prop
osition. If there has been, what is it?
Look over the articles that have been
passed upon or debated IN convention,
and point out one that the people I'M
derstand and have decided upon like
that of woman suffrage.
No. There need be no fear about
the constitution receiving a majority
of votes with equal suffrage as one of
its provisions. 1t would be in far more
danger without that provision. We
speak what we know when we say that
the great masority of the male voters
in the territory as whole, favor CIV
ing woman citizens the ballot, ard
they would be supported by an over
whelming majority also of the women
of the territory.
It would be better to stop this agita-
ton now and let i'll feeling die away.
There are other important questions
before the convention that demand
settlement, and too much time has
been wasted over this one difference.
Go on with the framing of the consti-
tuition, and make it one that all ra-