The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-05-29
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

A WELL-WRITTEN LETTER IN BE-
HALF OF THE FEMALE SEX-WOM-
ANS RIGHTS CONSISTENT WITH
REASON.
To the Editor:
OF all the problems now pressing upon
the advanced forms of society for i'm
. mediate solution, none is of more vital
importance, or of wider relations than
that known as the Rights of Women"
It is question which involves so many
deep-rooted social, civil and religious
customs, in regard to the status of
women, that all efforts to extend their
opportunities and activities in line of
diversified industries and social action
have excited the most strenuous oppo-
sitions and bitterest dissentions, and
have been met with manifold objections
Objections, which If closely analysed,
will not hold water; because the funda-
mental principles governing the rights
of men never rested upon or were modi-
fed by question of sex. Sex as sex is
fact irrelevant to them.
Che rights of every human being to
\qual share of happiness and freedom
tved from the same Divine source,
ctive of sex; and no concession
can be more harmful to the human race
than that which permits one part of the
community to fix the appropriate aims,
efforts and ideals of another portion.
Every one has the unalienable right
70 the full use of all the powers allotted
to him; to develop and extend Them in
short to define life for himself as far
as is consistent with the public welfare.
Why, then, should man say unto
woman, 80 far shalt thou go and no
farther"
BY what right does he define the
boundaries of her sphere and activities?
The usages of mankind vary so much
in different climes and countries that
it Is still to be shown whether the sphere
\ we have assigned her is the true one
Nor the limit set to her activity is Just
\ Sjae proper one.
\Among all primitive people, as among
the savages of today, woman's sphere
was and is that of beast of burden; to
do everything that is mental and labo-
riohs: to be cuffed and kicked into sub
mission, or prodded to greater exextions
with thrust of the spearpoint Among
the Romans she was sold by the father
to the husband, who possessed unlimited
right over her life and liberty.
In states more advanced, as in Asia,
woman's province was and is one of
sensuality, bounded by the walls of the
harem. While in Europe her early do
minion Of slavery secured by blows and
locks and bars, was but exchanged for
the milder sphere of servitude, obtained
by sedulously intoxicating the idea into
her mind of the duty an inferior owes
the superior.
Woman labors side by side with her
husband in slave, countries, under the
lash of the task-master; while in mod
ern France her sphere Is comprised in
any responsible business situation.
The giving of industrial and political
mission, or prodded to greater exertions
right to women clashes not with
such ~ of our feelings as are
notions. off, pr0prietya~ that ARE as
, evAnescent- as the custom of which
they, are the results. Custom which has
for ages been sytematizing mistakes
until wOman's wrongs have been almost
crystalized! Custom which argues that
the acknowledgment of women conflicts
with our ideas of the feminine charac-
tel; that it burdens" them, and that it
deteriorates from their peculiar femi-
nine charms! n
In Scotland, the women, though ex-
cluded from office, have for generations
voted on everything that is decided by
popular vote; a privilege which has
neither hardened them nor made them
''unfeminine.' .>-.4-.' .-t-~
Besides the plea that the equal rights
Of women is condemned by our feelings
may be urged in defense of many alb
surdities of the present as we'll as the
past, Among the Turks the feelings are
) outraged il woman's face is seen un-
\ veiled; and in times past men were wont
to blush and blame women for any
signs of that literateness which it is
now considered a disgrace for her to be
without. f
The argument of woman's mental in
1 feriority as bar to her claims of equal
rights has long since, in the light oil
history, ceased to have bottom It is
doctrine on a par with that of Mo.
hamidinism which maintains that
women are soulleSs. -. -~e
Taking into consideration the centur.
les of disadvantages under which the
women have labored in every depart
ment OF learning, thought, and skill
the ages in which she has borne The
shackles- welded by custom and preju
dice; prohibited from cultiyatinE thu
higher faculties, or, extending her AAld.
Of development: her many achievement.
prove her to be a capable competitor o
81 man in all the arduous and noble un
dertakings of life. ~ -.
: In all the departments of government
science. and literature, so long and 81
jealousy guarded from woman by man
In the short period which has elapsed
since the removal of intellectual ant
social letters. she has won no small
share of renown. History has produced
many a powerful and sagacious queer
from Zenobia down to the Empress
Catherine In the exact sciences Mis-
Herschel and Mrs. -Sommerville hav,
gained applause; while philosophy, 20
litical economy, and politics have beef
more than nobly represented by Madam
de Stael, Harriet Martineau, and Mad
am Roland. Poetry has its Browning
and Hemanses: the drama its Johann;
Baillie; while fiction has innumerabl
worthy representatives in it's Bremers
Austens,. Dudevants and others On tn
stage woman has so often demonstrates
her equal, If not superior, capacity wit
man that it needs no comment.
II those, who in the face of all thes
facts. still have the hardihoAd to main