The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-30
HERALD Calendar for March.
CON IT'S MERITS

The promised argument against wo-
man suffrage con its merits was de-
livered in the convention by Delegate
&. Il. Roberts on Friday morning and
was admitted by all hearers to be
splendid oratorical effort. This may be
well understood by all who are famil-
lar with the gentleman's style Of pub
lie speaking and his attractive gifts
OF defamation and word painting.
But, after all, there were in the great
oraticn no objections, but such as have
been met time and again and over
turned, showing that there was moth
ing in them. They were rainbow-tinted
bubbles that only needed TO be touched
with the point of logic, or with
the gentle breath of sound reason, to
burst and leave not even a spoc Of
soft soap" in view.
The gentleman is greatly mistaken
in supposing that this question has
not been discussed among the people
OF Utah, ION its merits" until now.
When it was first mooted and placed
in the statutes of Utah it was
much debated. In 1880 when an en-.
deavor was made to eliminate the
word male" froaa the law in relation
10 the qualifications of office-holders.
9he main question OF woman suffrage
WAS thoroughly discussed, in and out
of the Legislature. 1t was still further
agitated when the proposition for the
acknowledgements of women voters was
under consideration in Congress, and
1t has been a popular subject of ques-
ton throughout the territory ever
since the act of 1887 was passed, de-
priving the women of Utah of the
elective franchise.
There is nothing that can be said on
the question on either side that has not
been brought forward, and the people
of Utah are thoroughly familiar with
the subject. The gentleman's argu-
ments % are Cd straw threshed over,
till every particle of the semblance of
nutriment has been beaten out of them.
He has simply woven them into braids
OF beauty as to form, but with nothing
in them Of useful substance.
The idea that women viii be de-
graded by going to the polls with men
is dissipated by the facts Of experience.
Why should it be more hurtful to wo-
mans refinement to go to the ballot
box to hand piece of white paper to
an election judge as men do. than to
go to a theatre or ball or on an ex-
cursion, or battle in the lake where
men are? a
Some ladies' who did splendid work
at The Worlds Fair had a tiff over
some Of their differences, therefore
they must not have the ballot Should
the men who fought in the Indiana
legislature or those who came to blows
in the Nebraska Senate be deprived of
the ballot? But the quarrels of the
ladies at Chicago. or in any other
place, were not consequences of woman
suffrage for they did not have the
elective franchise.
The degradation of woman by giving
her the right to vote is the common
est and most insulting pretence adj
vanced. 1t is in Utah tantamount to
branding thousands q our wives,
mothers and daughters as degraded,
for they exercised that right for seven
teen years! Has 1t degraded themi
Are they any the worse for their ex-
periance? Have they not respectfully
and nationally commended for the re-
turn OF their franchise ever since it
was wrested from them?
Then the claim that women who have
the franchise often Go not use it, is
met with the fact that hosts of men
who have it do not go to the polls. 1t
is the same with every notion adj
4 2
be used with equal force, if it have
any, against very large number of
men.
Man for the field. woman for the
hearth" will do in poetry. but it is
nothing but a sentiment. Man wants
to be at the hearth as well as woman,
and woman does not want to stay by
the hearth all the time any more than
nan IN the field. And If woman must
not go TO the polls because her place
is at the hearth, man must not go to
the polls because his place is in the
field. = SIG
The citation OF the position of woman
il the family with man at her head,
is fatal to the very argument which
the gentleman used it TO support.
Woman has the choice of her head or
ruler" if he pleases to have it so.
But he would not permit her to have
that choice as TO her "rulers" in the
state. Women must obey the law and
if they break it are amenable to its
penalties; the husband, father or bro
Their cannot take her place. She should
maze a voice in the making of the
laws which she has to obey, and
choice of the men who are to make
them ana execute them,
The suggestion that only the bad
women would go to the polls if women
had the voting power is contrary to
experience here and elsewhere. and if
it were true, would be offset by the
fact that bad men go TO the polls in
large numbers. # good women must
not have the ballot because bad women
would vote, then good men ought not
to have the ballot because bad men
vote.
Thus II was with all the so-called ar
guments against giving women citizens |