The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1895-11-13
W0aAH SUFFRAGE.

niltted? is Il trio OF questions that has
become quite popular throughout our
State. This is one OF the many %fraitful
results OF the freedom of speech, and
freedom of the press and in behalf of
Nevada Suffra sist, sincere thanks are
rendered the Editor Of the Wadsworth
DJsPATCH for the courtesy extended.
This bespeaks that true -4mericaaism
which is ever ready and willing to de-
fend its most vital principles-freedom
and equality.
In the order OF transition, equal SUI
frage will ut first create sensation, hen
it will become fashionable, next an
adornment to feminine character, a sort
of protection against "the sings and
arrows" OF misguided legislation, and
finally accepted as the outgrowth OF the
highest civilization yet attained by the
human family. The versatility of our
national character is surh, that "when
in the c%otrse' OF our political progress a
reform is necessary, at the divinely APP
pointed time it germinates in the mind
! or conscience OF a few who have the
moral courage to labor increasingly to
inaugurate the same, then ii its vitality
emanates from those fundamental prin-
ciples ''of the people, by the people, TO
the people" it will soon receive the nee
essary aliment for its healthy growth,
so to speak, and this aliment is the
slowly ripened fruit of the tree '%'tolera-
ton" which was nourished by the blood
oi martyrs at Bunker Hill, at Valley
Forge and at Yorktown.
Though the colonists were the first
people in the history OF Christian civil
cation TO assert and maintain that ''gov-
eminent derives its just powers from
the consent OF the governed" it has
taken their posterity ll9 years to fully
awaken to the fact that our government
derives its powers from just one-half of
the governed-men govern, women
obey, and ask M questions about it
either. Only two States Of the Union
htC koNCi oNNOiiihG ~ thV iuil
meaning and spirit OF the original
charter. In those states women have
equal voice in e~lecting those who frame
the laws that govern "the people," and
those women manifest a political sagaei-'
ty in the economic management of the
Affairs of State which is attracting the
attention of the world. westward the
Star .of Empire is truly vending its
aAv.n
This reyeille which rang out to the
aatton nearly fifty years ago, summon
ius It to make true its boasted profess
| ion OF faith in the people to govern
themselves. has been repeated louder
and stronger until Nevada Suffragists
have caught the refrain, and have join
ed the mighty host of brave women and
brave men, who advocate equal politi-
cal rights for women, because it is the
best and safest means OF protecting the
American fireside, and our fireside can
only be happy and prosperous by the
protection OF American Industries, thus
elevating the American industrialists to
the level of their own greatness. then,
and only then, can we sincerely sing
"Land OF the free, and the home OF the
brave"
The anxious questions with those who
demonstrate against equal suffrage are:
Why women would sin against her di-
vinely appointed sphere as wife and
mother. if vested with the ballot? Who
will keep the kitchen clean and neat?
Who will rock the cradle? Now these
objections are t~antamount to just this,
and nothing more or less. Men have
made politics al institution where they
scufile for power and pelf, instead of an
institution from which should be evolv-
ell those ethical principles that would
promote the greatest good to the great-
est number. This is just what our fore
fathers ordained and established in our
Federal Constitution not one article CT
clause of which discriminates between
citizens rs to their privileges or iinmu-
mites. While the Constitution gives
the States the right to regulate suffrage,
it nowhere gives them the power to pre-
vent it. The power to regulate does
no: imply the power to prevent, to
abridse suffrage. If the State can say
that women who are citizens OF the
United States and OF the State wherein
they reside, shall not vote, then the
Staia can ~uunallv say TINT Chiunmcn