The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-10-23
MANNING, s. c.:
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 90, 1895.

The Constitutional convention is
now on the knotty. problem = the
suffrage = and how long they are
going to solve it we do not know.
The plan reported by the commit
tee is not satisfactory to some, and
yet the dissatisfied ones do not offer
a better plan.
Senator Irby took the report of
the committee on suffrage as an ex-
cuse to marshal his forces for his re-
election in 1896, and his speech may
have the desired effect. But to have
that effect he will have to submit a
better plan and bring convincing
proof that Tillman and his commit
tee are in league with our enemies to
break up white supremacy.
We do not see how our representa-
tives can make Constitutional con-
stitution whereby they will disfran-
ehise negroes and not disfranchise
white men without calling in the aid
Of our property-owning and educated
women.
Heretofore we have been opposed
to woman suffrage because We be-
lieved the time had not arrived for
them to take a hand in the affairs
Of government, but under the exist
ing conditions we are convinced If
the women are allowed to vote,
either by casting the vote in person
or by a proxy of their own selection,
the problem that has given Us so
much annoyance will be solved.
There is no use Of any longer brush
ing aside the thought. Woman suf-
frageis coming, and why not9 Do they
not own property Have they not
the intelligence Of the average cit
izens Are they not more entitled to
have q voice in the affairs Of this
government than aa unlettered
foreigner, who has no other ambi-
tion here beyond making fortune
and returning to the land OF his
BIRTH
We take the woman of to-day, who
is educated, and by hard work with
the needle, pen, in the school room,
the counting room, hospital, asylum,
farm, store and hundreds Of other
avocations, she has accumulated
property. She is in the race Of
progress with her male competitors,
aud in her fields of labor she has
employees who are dependent upon
her success for their support.
Is it right for such superior intel
lectuality TO be forced through and
by the forms of law to quietly submit
10 have her rulers selected for her
by those who are not as competent
to make the selection as herself ? She
is taxed, and yet a ragged negro,
who has no more intelligence than
raceoon, and with nothing but the
clothes on his back, can have more
rights under our laws than she.
II we wanted to build cotton
factory or any other commercial in
dustry, where thousands Of dollars
are involved, there would be no
hesitancy in allowing a woman to
subscribe her money to the stock,
nor would there be any question in
allowing her to hold q position
to- handle the finances of the in
stitution when it is established. Yet
we do when it comes to vote to
select men to make the laws where
by our property is to oe taxed to
support the government raise our
hands in holy horror and say the
women must keep out.
South Carolina is now in a position
to set the pace for the United States
in the way of doing justice to one
class Of her citizens that have been
held back through nothing less than
pure narrow-mindedness.
Throw down the barriers and give
our educated and property-owning
women the right to vote, and the
problem OF white supremacy is
solved forever and ever.