The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-06
HERALD Calendar for April.
WELL DONE, FAITHFUL SERVANTS.

WELL DONE, FAITHFUL SERVANTS.
The delegates who voted for the
suffrage article as part of the consti-
tuition of the State Of Utah are to be
congratulated on the position they
have taken, and the leaders of the con-
test on the suffrage side are particu-
larly TO be commended for their en-
deavors to settle the controversy, and
secure to the women of Utah the rights
and privileges which they should en-
JOY and which were pledged to them
in the Democratic platform.
While the principal speaker on the
anti-suffrage side was a Democrat, the
vote shows that after all his fervid
oratory and the time given to him to
vent his views, he has not made a sin
gle convert from the Democratic ranks.
We do not think he has been any more
successful with Republican delegates.
But four out of the fourteen delegates
who voted mo" on the main question
are Democrats. The five delegates
who were excused from voting were
Republicans. Counting them even as
not against equal suffrage but as
against putting it in the body of the
constitution, only fifteen Republicans
showed themselves on the side of the
opposition.
1t cannot be said that the anti-equal
sufrragists did not have all the oppor-
tunity they could ask for the express
sion Of their opinions. It has been a
costly struggle More time and money
have been wasted over this fight than
is justifable or defensible. 1t was
known from the first that the great
body of the delegates were committed
TO equal suffrage. Therefore, after the
first outburst of eloquent denunciation
and repetition of the old exploded OBJ
jections to woman's exercise of the
elective franchise, all the rest Of the
rhetoric against the suffrage article was
mere display and buncombe. And the
separate article scheme was but a ruse
of the enemy to kill the provision if
possible.
The action taken in the convention
is not only commendable as the proper
thing to co on principle and in the re-
demptior of promises, but as a matter
of public policy. It will or should put
an end TO the strife which certain plot
ters desired to provoke. Postponement
of action meant no end Of chickering's
and contentious, that would have pro-
duced i'll feelings and reawakened ami
mosities that have slumbered, as good
people hoped, in death. There is no
need for them now.
However, if the opposition which has
been so diligently worked UP had con-
tinued, its promoters would have been
astonished at the responses in
favor of equal suffrage that would
nave come from all parts of
this territory. Ii is no new ques-
ton. It has been discussed almost
universally, and the settled convic-
tons Of the majority of the people
have Ions been that women are en-
titled to a voice in public affairs as
much as men are, and that denial of
that privilege is an injustice that is
indefensible on moral and political
grounds.
The Herald has only praise for the
gentlemen. particularly the leading
Democrats, who have advocated wo-
mans cause. We refer specially to
those Democrats because they were to
the front in the fray. and it is the
Democratic platform provision on wo-
man suffrage that has gone into the
body OF the constitution-not as a par
tisan measure. but as the right thing to
do--because delegates of both parties
fFled fof II and all of them are enti-
tied to their epeed of credit.
We trust the agitation over this
really simple matter will now cease
and the strong feelings that have been
excited will quiet down. There need
be no fears for the result. except to the
class of men who. lusting for Offices
for which they are not fitted, cannot
expect to gain the votes Of those high
minded, intelligent, pure women about
whose degradation" they were so So
licitous and so timid.
The constitution cannot be defeated
if all the opponents of equal suffrage
and of statehood unite against it. The
great majority of the citizens of Utah
want their proper position as integral
units of this great republic and the
vote of next November will carry this
commonwealth into the Union as sure
as the sun shines for all.