The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-07-04

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would be too great a punishment for 81
man TO come out of the penitentary, after
months and years of imprisonment for
such small crimes as horse stealing, bur-
| glary, murder, rape, etc, and lose the
privilege of voting the remainder of his
| life.
SO valuable is the franchise in the eyes
| of men that even n criminal must not
be deprived of it. So about $50 came
! out of the penitentiary within four years
and now have voice as to who shall
make fhe laws and who shall administer
them and what these laws shall be by
which the people are governed-the people
| governed in this case being both men peo-
| pie and women people.
Yet the property tax payer, If she be-
longs to the women people, is refused
the franchise that is considered so valu-
| able 70 men that even criminals Crowded
they belong to the men people, must re-
tain it at al hazards, even to the extent
of being pardoned from the pententiary
before their term has expired.
Not only must the property tax payer
| not vote. but she is told she must not even
want to vote on matters that affect 50
vitality herself, her children, her home,
her property.
oh, II is pitiful to hear from a woman's
lips, II don't want to vote; l would not
if could; have all the rights and priv;
leges | desire"
Do women know that in saying thu
| they proclaim to all that hear them
| the utter se.fishness of their small souls,
the narrow horizon that bounds their
petty lives?
If your husband and your children and
your home are all that you could desire;
81. a..
| no ghost that sits at your table; no anxiety
when night closes down, happy art thou
and Blessed among women, and If you are
a thoroughly selfish woman you can sit
at ease and be content, obvious to the
misery of the suffering women around you.
Bur, pray, don't expose your seitishness
and parade it as a virtue.
The large-souled woman, possessing all
| of these same blessings looks with I'M
utterable pity upon the many not so
blessed as She, and rising from her happy
content with hands outstretched to her
| suffering sisters, says, II have not all
the rights | want until every one of my
sisters has the same rights under the law
that my good husband accords to me. |
4 will never rest or keep silent until the law
is as good as good man."
Yet it is little she can do, for her hands
are tied and she is rs powerless without
the ballot as criminal man would he If he
served his term unpardoned.
Men foreigners and men negroes had
the franchise thrust upon them, so eager
were men that every other man should
possess this inestimable privilege they
value so highly-foreigner or negro, IL
literate, unable to speak the English
Language, it matters not, they are men,
that is sufficient. They did not wait
until these men asked for it, or even
wanted it, for a man without the ballot
was too dreadful to contemplate, even
though he is pardoned criminal. -
Women have asked for the franchise y
because they know its value; because
they would prize it-knowng that every
privilege brings a corresponding duty
and willing to perform that duty at any
sacrifice to Observation-Disclosures they
know of wrongs that could be rghted z
If they possessed it. Educated, cultured
patriotic women-in whose veins flow the
blood of men and women who suffered and
died that we might be free people in a
free land-have asked for the franchise.
Property tax payers who are taxed
| without voice rs to the amount of
taxation, or how the money so raised shalE
be used, and women who are governed by
laws made without their consent have
asked for it.
| The 4th of July is drawing near and
we shall hear it declared, as usual, that.
governments derive their just powers;
from the consent of the governed" and
taxation without representation is tyr
amy" and this is government of the
people by the people for the people,"
| Let us be consistent, honest and truth
mean: Governments derive their Just
powers from the consent of the men
governed" Taxation of men without
representation is tyranny" This is a
| government of the men by the men
and for the men,"
| The answer to this righteous request
has been so far, 'angelic, adorable
women, we love you and think too much
of you to permit you to drag your skirts
through the mire Of politics."
We ask for simple justice, and receive
frOth and aattery and an imaginary Pc
destal instead.
We are forced to ask if this "rnire''
| is any worse than the filthy pools of
| tobacco juice we wade through, and skip
over, and dance around, and drag our
skirts through, that cover the sidewalks.
, the cars, the boats, the halls, floors,
! everywhere we turn outside of the sacred
precincts Of home?
/ If this "mire" is so filthy, why are
| men so eager to wade in it themselves?
Why so anxious that every other man
should also, that even criminals must be-
pardoned so as not to forfeit the great.
privilege of wading in this self-same
/ 'mire?"
| Yet this is justice from mans point
of view, and men pirate of liberty while
I depriving one half Of their best citizens.
1--WE say best adyisedly) of the privileges
: the rights, the liberty, they stand ready
to fight and, If need be, die for, to retain,
for themselves.
| We thank God, however, that the real
meaning Of justice and injustice is be-
coming better understood every day by
thank God and take courage, and wait
for the dawning of better day, when
men shall love justice and-just.
! WHITE RIBBON.