Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-05
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

l Mrs. Rosa Leigh Towers in the Atlanta Consti | tuition.
 Are you in favor of placing the ballot in
 the hands of women7 No question of tht
 day is attracting wider discussion than
 this.
 Many women are pleading on the plat | form for ssideal justice. The men oppos- | ing the movement can lift up their voices | against it, while we of the weaker sex who
 neither want to vote ourselves nor to see
 other women at the polls can only enter | protest through the coIums of the press, l for the women who oppose woman suf-
 frage are not the ones who take to the plat form.
 It is important to meet the arguments of 1 able and nlluring women lecturers, who,
 in presenting their claims, give apparently 1 weighty reasons why woman should have | the right of suffrage and we should be pre-
 pared to give our reasons for opposing it. :. A short while ago. listened to one of
 those lectures on "Woman's Rights," de- livered by Q southern woman. Her argu- | unent and illustrating anecdotes were sur | prisingly convincing to many of the women l present. Is it not always so when only one | side of a question is discussed? She laid | great stress on two points: "First, women | would purify the ballot; and, second, If a | woman were taxed she should be allowed | the right to vote, for taxation without rep resentation is unconstitutional.' All this sounds well enough, but the cor | rectness of these premises can be disputed. | Are you certain that womon would purify | the ballot?
 They answer yes, and bring forward | touching instances of women who share | the homes of drunkards, of little children | who are crying for food that cannot be bought while the fathers' wages go to the rrnnshops. They want to give these women the chance to vote for prohibition and to enact laws which will benefit all hu- manity.
 am just as anxious to right the evils of intemperance as any one, not excepting the officers of the Woman's 8 Christian Tenn perGnce union themselves, but will grant, ing us the right of suffrage accomplish the desired end?
 Suppose our legal lawmakers, who are, to my thinking, the natural ones, should grant us the privilegeY Many women phi lanthropists would go to the polls, but granting your young daughter would ad- init that she had attained her majority would you permit her to take her place in line to exercise that right? Remember, the measure sues for the privilege for women not white women, not educated women, not good women, but for the entire sex. Would you yourself, my practical woman, whether Lady Disdain' or not, care to join that motley crowd, especially when you began to realize that the double vote boiled did not include any greater propor- ton of goud against evil than when it was left to the heads of our families to vote for us? There are just as many good lAeA III DIOpOEbiOu u bhciA oc4 bo there are good, strong women in proportion to ours. You know. that many good women are weak in principle and courage, and just as many men are un- worthy the right to vote. So would large number (who knows without the trial that it would not be majority) of our sex be influenced by bribs, threat or possibly by the fiatterer's tongue, which lost us our right to sinless life in Eden.
 The thew woman' Is grooming now be- meath tba brrdan that 0nprasEaS her. Many have had to give up housekeeping aud home making entirely-their time is fully occupied with the demands which fashion, society. charity, mental and phys. ical culture place upon them. And still they clamor for more to do.
 Picture the election day of the future if woman be given her rights. CD She must go to vote and so must the cook, the nurse driver. If you don't let them go you are tyrant. they think. It's the one day when their wish is as powerful as yours. Poor Jacki He leaves the incongruous scene at the polls and hurries home. No dinner, no 6res--all in disorderl But he must be very unreasonable if he can t overlook this on election day. Why there's Alderman Smith, who is so thankful that the ballot is to be purified at last. Gle is depending upon his wife's popularity for e-election.)
 The advocates of woman suffrage claim that it is not just for a woman to pay taxes and then to be denied a voics in the gov- ernment. 1 am informed that women themselves are not taxed in any state in the union, for men only pay poll tax. The woman lecturer would reply promptly: ''But my property is taxed. .' Then the argument resolves itself into this: You demand tue suffrage for yourself and all other women because you pay taxes on property Is it not rather property quail ification than female right which you urge?
 As to woman not being allowed 10 vote because she is not capable to do SO, the law need not be construed that way. Men are our heavenly appointed protectors. If we cam trust our fathers and brothers to the management of state affairs, how can We go so far as to trust men as husbands? They grant us the domain of home-a much more powerful field of action than women will ever find in politics. The o-called advanced thinkers may call this sickening seutimentality, but that does not make 1t such, our noblest and wisest men and women being the judges. Concediug womsn's ability to be politician-I have in no way disputed unlawful she not be the loser rather than the gainer by the movement so ardently the brains,. but she shouldn't undertake it unless the ''lords of creation'' will be content to abdicate their throne and in ex- change to become the queens of the house, hold and the power behind the throne, which is really the strength of the ruler, whether said ruler wear trousers or petti- coats.
 No thoughtful person is blind to the de- fects of our present ballot system, and all honor to the good women who seek to bet ter the wrongs of this world. Some of our statesmen favor educational qualification and several of our states require it. Let us lend our influence to this or some other acknowledged improvement and exert it through our male representatives.
 It has taken long ages of civilization to produce man present chivalrous attitude toward woman. Shall we rashly demoiish the pedestal upon which he has placed us? Rest assured he will not continue to defend and protect us if women are encountered in every voting precinct and political pow wow.
 Woman's sphere is to assist, to influence, to persuade; but not to govern.
 MISS ELIZABETH U. YATES