The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-04-17
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.
The Logic of 1t.

we lake pleasure IN puDllShlng the
letters of several lady correspondents
in favor of woman's suffrage. They
are able, pointed and eloquent; as we'll
as tartaric and aciduous. They re-
mind one Of the interesting fact in
natural history, that it is the female
musquito that carries the sting and
goes for the blood. The emotional
nature of the sex is shown in the fact
that every one of these writer's is mad,
mad all over, mad all through. They
regard difference of opinion as per-
sonal assault and heinous insult.
But it seems to us that they lose
sight of the real question at issue. 1t
is not whether women are bright and
smart; nor whether there are some
women better fitted for the right of
suffrage than some men; but whether
in the present condition of affairs in
this country, the women-not some of
them, but all of them,-should be al
lowed to vote; and whether the Peo-
pies Party should make demand for
this right as part of its national plat
form. Those are the questions that
must be kept plainly in view, and no
rage or wrath or vituperation should
obscure them.
These who try to reform existing
abuses find themselves in pit, walled
in by vast mass of unreasoning ig-
nOrance among the voters.
Now, say the ladies, this being so,
how can you refuse to supplement- this
male ignorance by an equal amount of
female ignorance? Hasn't the woman
as good right to make fool of her
self as the man?
Very true; but how is this going to
improve existing conditions? How is
it going to make reform more easy of
accomplishments? How will it help us
to save free institutions? Can you
cure the evils of ignorance by doubling
the sum total of the ignorance? We
all know how it worked in Colorado.
There the Peoples Party conferred
the right of suffrage on women. and in
return, the women turned around and
at once crushed the Peoples Party in
OAAoO UOs anu AJJuAOu ~ SlCdUly oil
over the Union. II all the women of
Colorado had been as enlightened and
high-purposed as our correspondents
they would not have done this thing;
they would have sustained Governor
Waite and his friends and good gov
eminent. Instead of doing this they
went in with the gamblers and the
thugs to help plutocracy to strangle
free institutions.
But, say our lady correspondents,
you are opposed to women's suffrage
because they will not vote the Peoples
Party ticket. The should have the
right to vote as they please.
True; but is it wise for us to give
them the power, through ignorance or
frivolity, to destroy everything we hold
dear? Does not the instinct of self
preservation compel us to say to them
-"Wait!"
And,-above all, should we initiate
the Populists of Colorado and burden
ourselves, as national party, with the
advocacy of woman's rights; to be de.
ASoOSN, POI OCCd uSC VI UIldU VCTv
advocacy; or, if after hard struggle,
we win, have the very women we have
enfranchised, bury us hundred faith
oms deep and destroy the liberties of
mankind?
We could pick out thousand women
Of acquaintance on whom we would
cheerfully confer the right to vote if
we had the power, and who would hon
or the trust reposed in them; but to
enfranchise these we must enfranchise
millions more,-like the poor black
women of the cotton fields of the
South, or the abandoned white
wretches of the slums of our great
cities. And suppose the ignorant and
vicious vote and the modest and vir-
tuous refrain. What theno
It is now a grave and terrible oues-
ton whether representative COVE rn-
ment can endure on this continent
We are in the very throes and agonies
incident to the answer to that ques-
tion. Many are Of opinion that we
should move in the direction of the
curtailment of the right of suffrage
rather than in the direction of it's
indefinite expansion.
We expressed the belief. the other
day, that it would be an injury to our
women to engage in the brutalizing
struggles of American politics; and
to this our lady correspond
ents reply, that women now have
to meet degraded men at the hearth
stone. Not necessarily. The sensible
woman does not, as rule. pick out a
brute for lifc-partner; and if she
makes mistake the divorce court