The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-04-04
PROVO CITY.
ROBERTS GREAT SPEECH.

Roberts first speech on woman's
suffrage was a great effort, but his
speech on Tuesday was a far greater
one. He went through the meagre ar
ray of arguments in favor of equal suf-
frage with the tread Of giant, and he
tore into the veriest shreds all the rea-
sons advanced why women should be
degraded to mans level, or unsexed,
and that men haYe become so degraded
that at such fearful risk women must
don the armor and rush into the thick
est of the fight, that the poor, pitiful
men may be rescued from fearful
moral peril. OF course anything like
an extended review of this great effort
would oversize THE DISPATCH. So the
best we can possibly do is to glance
briefly at some only of the main
points made by this honest and manly
patriot. Wit, humor, pathos, sarcasm,
rich fancy, unanswers bic hard logic,
history, philosophy, religion, poetry
and good sense, all came to his side at
his bidding and ministered to him
while engaged against fearful odds.
The merciless opponent of equal
suffrage didn't leave poor Whitney leg
to stand upon or ground enough to
stand upon If he had these homely
but useful members remaining. IL
was nicely done, but we regret to see
that there was bit of bitterness in it.
We deplore this and trust that the
close of the debate has wiped out of
each gentleman's heart all memories
of each other save kindly ones. 1t was
a scorcheT in very truth. 1t was a
blister. Poor "Dave" Evans! But We'll
dig him up from his deep burial one Of
these days in the future as well as "my
friend from Utah county" Just now
we havn't time. Wells Aunt will be
historical in Utah forever after this,
and equally happy was he in answering
the sllusion to the queen of England.
In the matter of his argument upon the
expediency Of the case the speaker
was simply unansWerable. There is
not an honest man in Utah but knows
well, and will tell you also, that the
insertion of the woman g suffrage plank
In the constitution very greatly threat
ems the safety of the document when
it reaches the president. All well in
formed men in this territory are aware
of the reasons why this must neces-
sarily be so. We have no purpose in
saying this save that in stating the
truth while there is yet time, action
may yet be reversed, So that we may
avoid this danger. The eloquent
speaker. under the head of Danger to
Women,' was strong. Here he rose to
an altitude which increases ones re-
spect for state that owns the man,
amazingly. The surgeons knife was
certainly used in mercy. Roberts
would have woman occupy higher
ground than the brawling, fighting, to.
bscco-ehewing men. All right-minded
people must applaud this sentiment,
The girdling of the tree, and the
stream of politics were parts of this
great speech which would win the ad-
miration of cultured people in any
capital of Europe, or even in Boston.
These were worthy the speaker and
his great theme. They thrill the heart
like bugle blast in battle. Mr.. Rob
erts is positively right when he says
franchise is not an inherent right. 1t
is grace of government. The picture
he drew of politics in the home while
distasteful to his opponents was
grandly true in point of fact. One has
to 60 no farther than to our neighbor |
state, Colorado, to verify every word |
of it. There women sought the fran
chise to purify politics and the first
thing they did in one town with their
brand new franchise, was to elect four
saloon men to the ity council. This,
too, after the plea that they had gone
into politics and sought the voting
privilege expressly to put down the
saloon. Our ladies of Utah may be
better than those OF Colorado, but we
don't believe it. 1t depends a good
deal upon the politics and character of
their husbands. The ladies we speak
1i in this Colorado town were the wives
of republican and prohibi-
lion politicians. Certainly Utah ladies
would have done bettar un that propo.
sition than the Colorado sisters did.
We will reserve the remainder of this
great speech for another brief review
ater on, Just now we come to the
INIT of our space for today.