The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-01-25
EDUCATION AND SUFFRAGE.

EDUCATION AND SUFFRAGE.
Two Lines In Which Women Have Ac-
oomplish~i Much During 1894.
The year 1894 has been busy one for
women. Some of them have been actively
engaged in praiseworthy pursuits, and the
rest have been displaying equal activity in
calling the attention of the public to
themselves.
The part which woman have taken in
politics during the last year has been
most significant. In the states where
equal suffrage prevails they have been
important factors in the elections.
In Colorado they not only voted
at the last election, but they voted to
such good effect that there will be women
in the next state senate. In Kan sas,
whore municipal suffrage prevails. and
where the name of Mrs. Mary Ellen
Lease, who, by the way, has succumbed
to nervous prostration, is one to conjure
by, the instructive sight of women man.
aging an entire town is to be seen. Tho
returns from the city of Spring Hill April
. stated that women had control of all tho
municipal offices. including tho mayor
atty,
In the East, especially in New York,
woman's political activity has been
marked. The spring of 1891 saw a more
popular demand for the suffrage than
even the most ardent suffragists had ex.
pected to see. IT became fashionable 10
demand the ballot. Parlor meetings for
the instruction of the ignorant and the
conversion of the opposing took
the place of afternoon teas. Women
prominent in society, in philanthropic
work and in professional life all took an
active interest in the amendment
which the suffragists pctitoned to
have inserted into the state
constitution granting women equal
political rights with men. The constitu-
tional convention refused to allow the
amendment to be inserted and acted
upon by the people, and, therefore, the
suffrage agitation of the spring was to
certain degree failure. But, in that it
aroused an interest in woman's rights
where that interest had been most con-
spicuously lacking before, and removed
from the plea for equal rights the stigma
of unwomanliness, it was far from a
failure.
When the women of New York failed to
obtain the right of suffrage they promptly
went to work, says the New York World,
to show how we'll they could have used
that right and how we'll they could get
along without it. The government of
New York city was VIGOROUSLY
corrupt. All the better influences we're
needed TO overcome corruption and
make good government possible. The
women OF the city in large numbers
banded themselves together TO do what
they could i.s she cause of political whole
someness. TIE iToman's Municipal league,
exercising a great educational influence,
worked valiantly for reform. The name
of Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell is inds-
solubly associated with the overthrow of
the Iammany tiger, and there we're other
equally active workers in less prominent
positions.
Miss Helen Dortch of Georgia has borne
up under the blow of having the Georgia
legislature decide that a woman was in
eligible to hold tho Office of private secre-
tary to the governor.
Over in Onehunga, New Zealand, Mrs.
Yates has shown skeptical world what
woman can do as mayor. Unfortunately,
Mrs. Yates has shown it in such a way as
TO discourage the idea of feminine Office
holding. She does not admit the rights of
man either as man or as alderman, and
her council meetings are said to be scenes
of incompa able tyranny.
Education. lily women have prospered as
they have done in other lines. Harvard
university has pledged Itself to look out
for the welfare of Radcliffe college, once
Harvard Annex. A woman, Miss Agnes
Irwin, has been chosen Radcliffe's dean,
the first ono in its history. Columbia's
annex, Barnard, has also a woman at its
head in the very efficient person of Miss
Emily James Smith. Tufts college. in
Massachusetts, has opened its doors to
women. Even tho stronghold of conser-
vatIsm, Scotland, has felt the influence of
the times, and within the last few months
the university of Edinburgh has admitted
women to its medical school.
Women have gained positions on school
boards, noticeably in tho case of Boston,
where the achievements of Mrs. Emily
Fiield on that body are pointed to with
pride. Mrs. Fifield has managed to make
tho board pass an order which fills the
hearts of Juvenile Boston with despair. Ii
is to the effect that the apple woman and
taffy sellers must end their careers as
purveyors of school luncheons and permit
the absolutely hygienic New England
kitchen tc minister 10 the MONDAY
wants of young BoStonians. Such ar
eminently practical measure as this shows
what women would do If 1t were their
province to serve in public posit ions more |
largely.
Keene Is Coming.