Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-04-19

IN voice and manner. We were speak
ing OF the progreSsiveness Of the wo-
emn Of the New South, and finally our
conversation drifbed to the ballot, Il
don't know that am very anxious to
VOTE, she said in her soft, musical
tones, but | don't exactly like being
told that l cannot This is the utter
ance OF self-reSpecting wCnnnh0cd,
that will have right because it is right,
that hates wrong because it is wrong,
and 6Ihafes even under the shadow CT
deSpotism.
THE largest individual liberty con-
sistent with the rights Of others en-
suTes the highest type OF American
citizenship and the beat government. ="
Therefore, IL matters not whether the
majority Of women want the ballot or
not, they should have in this matter
the same individual liberty" ths. men
have. If an honest man by any chance
comes into possession OF property be-
longing TO another he does not walt
for the owner 10 ask him for it; he
goes straight-way and restores it. 1t
matters not whether women ever use
this privilege, or not, it should be
theirs juss as it is mans. II is useless
to tell Inc that | have enough rights
without this, and that ii l had it
would NOT put bt to good use. AS we'll
might the thief with his hands in the
Golfers of some wealthy man excuse his
robbery by urging that the man he is
rCIbbing had enough money without
shat which he was about to take, and
that if he did not take it the lawful
owner would probably put it TO some
bad use.
In Looking Backward" Bellamy
says: ct seems to me that women were
more than any other class the victims
of your civilization There is some
thing which even at this distance Of
time penetrates one with pathos in the
spectacle of their undeveloped lives,
stunted at marriage, their narrow hori-
ION bounded so often, physically, by the
four walls of home, and morally by a
petty creed of personal interests.
From the great sorrows, as we'll as the
petty frets of life, they had no refuge in
the breezy outdoor world OF human af-
fairs. nor any interests save those of
the family. Such an existence would
have softened mems brains or driven
them mad"
Is not this perfect picture Of the
average woman's life to-day? And
what has been the consequence to her.
self and to man?
In the language Of Shylock, women
may say: "If YOU wrong US, shall we
not revenge"
Wronged of her educational rights,
her social rights, her political rights,
condemned to be Keeper at home, y
"a newer of wood and drawer of
water" she has revenged herself on
man by her stupidity, by her frivclity,
by her weakness of body, her weakness
OF mind by The Thousand and one frail-
ties springing from case of arrested
development"
The varied objections to woman suf-
frage when sifted and analysed, re-
volve themselves into this, Women
must not vote because they are wo-
men,"
On the contrary, If were asked to
give a second reason, it would be,
Women ought to vote because they
are women" that, is. human beings,
part and parcel OF that whole crea-
tion'' which ''groaneth and travaileth
together In pain until now"
Once more pharaphrasing Shakes
peare we may say: II am a woman.
Hath not woman eyes? Hath not a
woman hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with
the same food, hurt with the same
weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heated by the same means, warmed and
cooled by the same summer and winter
as man is? If you prick us do we not
bleed? If you tickle us do we not
laugh? and if you wrong us do we not
revenge?"
To hear the opponents of woman SUI
frage talk one would think woman
some strange, unclassified creature,
some rare exotic. foreign to this world,
and utterly unable to exist under its
stern laws.
A certain Kentuckian was some years
ago appointed to a Federal Office in
Wyoming. Writing home to a Ken
lucky paper he tried to show that wo-
man suffrage was a failure. The only
point he made was that women had not
purified politics there inasmuch as a
large per cent. of a candidates prospec-
tive salary was already mortgaged for
campaign expenses. The writer did
not assert that any Of this money went
into the pockets Of the women voters.
so | fail to see how his statement had
any bearing upon woman suffrage. |
think he must have realized this, for,
facts failing him, he fell back upon
metaphor and exclaimed POLITICALLY:
Would you purify cess pool by
throwing a rose into it," why, OF
course not" exclaim the opponents of
woman suffrage. "A cess pool cannot
be purified by throwing rose into it,
therefore women ought not to vote"
This, you will observe. is the sort OF
thing that passes for logic with the
anti-suffragists whether they be "most
learned judges" or ignorant clowns.
But suppose we drop metaphor and
come down 10 plain speech.
Women are not roses.
Politics is not q cesspool.
Politics is the science of good govern
ment.
Women are citizens Of this country
and subjects OF It's government.
Therefore women ought TO vote
| defy any lOglcian 20 rake this syl-
logism and show me a shadow OF falls
ity in either its premises or its conclu-
sion. THE Rose and Cesspool style
of argument Is not the one | learned
when / studied logic and somehow It is
not at all convincing to my feminine
mind.
In the course OF his graduating ora