The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-18
.C0MMUNICATIoNs.


Woman Representation on the Board of
Education.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
There is an important but not suffi-
GENTLY considered question coming be-
fore us to settle this fall-that Of wo-
man representation on the board of
education. Whether you sympathize
or not. whether you vote or not, you
help or hinder this object.
As yet no sane person, man or wo-
man, has denied the justice or doubted
the expediency of our having that rep
resentation-onlyi 1t must be the fright
woman We do not pretend to inhu-
man excellence, but we do insist
and promise that our candidate shall
possess the requisite amount of right
eousness. Else how could she obtain
the nomination from her fellows? We
are a critical lot, we women We expect
much, and our demands rise accord
ingIy. One OF the strongest arguments
used for us out in Wyoming, where we
sit in high places and judge men, Is
that no bad man can live in the STATED
In Massachusetts. the other extreme Of
advanced thought, we have some of the
most refined women unselfshly sitting
in less upholstered and much more
uncomfortable places-on State and mu-
nicipai school boards. In New York
out Of twenty-seven school commission
ers Gan excellent office, by the way),
fourteen are women; in Brooklyn, five
out of eleven.
AT the national convention just con-
cluded at Denver, a woman-Mrs. A. j.
Peavy, state superintendent of schools
| for Colorado-made the address of well
come on the part Of the wo-
men Of that State; and of
the three officers appointed for the COM
! ing year, the one who will have the
work to do, the secretary and treasurer
| is a woman, Miss Dutton Of Cleve-
| land. In fact, one cannot take up a
\ newspaper or a magazine without find
\ ing women's influence notably large
| in the wide interests of civilization.
| Everywhere she is taking her stand,
and especially in the great education
al movements of the day. 1t is a high
| stand, but is she not proving herself
| equal to It's demands?
Her gown may be the last years
cut, and her hat home made, the heart
and the head are Gin it, Do you Judge
a man by his tailor? More than one
orator in this town has risen to the
| applause of a critical audience. clad
in "pantaloons" carefully and economi
cally cut and patiently reconstructed
| by the late honored and honorable
| family seamstress, Mrs Sanger.
| We are not asking extraordinary eff
| fort; we are not pleading with you
| for our own; for in spite of a few In
| dian givers, this last legislative as
| sembly could not but confirm our right
| and title to the favorable decision of
| its betters; we are now simply standing
| ftr that recognition, in default of which
the law is without form and void. If
you make a law, it is ostensibly fol
some good purpose, it is to be obeyed
1t can be abused, and by turning it in.
to an idle form of words you develop
its capabilities for evil and provoke its
almost certain abuse.
Let us all see to it that this privilege
is properly presented to the public
mind, that we take this position and
assume these responsibilities with higf
purpose and modest PRIDE recogniz
ing the results of good work alread,
| accomplished. and let us exert our God
given and by-man-at-last-allow bet
ter selves to assert and develop thi
prerogative. Above all, let US take car
that while we judiclously use this new
authority, we do not lose that old
| old charm, which has for all time dom
mated the world RID. B.