The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-02-02
WANTS WOMEN TO VOTE.
MISS Laura CLAY ON "UHi
UOMES SHOULD NAVE B4LLOT|'
Says woman's Suffrage IL the Outgrowth
of Civilization-The Women Are
Anxious for Co Education.

About a score OF ladies met yesterday
afternoon in the parlors OF Mrs. S. d.
Crenshaw. No. 2ls east Grace street. 10
hear an informal address from her SIS
for. Miss Laura Clay. on why women
Should Have the Ballot
Miss Clay is president Of the Kentucky
Eaual Rights Association ana also an
officer Of the National American woman
Suffrage Association.
She said in part.
The general principles Of representative
government are too well understood 10
need any advocacy. but are already Wen
established in the hearts Of NHgimahs'
whose mother State was one OF the origi-
nal thirteen colonies which threw or the
yoke Of England in defence Of the princi-
pies for which women suffragists stand
to-day Woman suffrage is an evolution
OF those principles. not revolution.
OUTGROWTH OF CIVILIZATION.
The demand for it is also an outgrowth
OF the development Of civilization. which
in the last fifty years mas radically al
tered the educational and industrial con-
dition Of women. There has never been
at any time large class Of nOn-self-
supporting women. but the development
Of machinery has taken from women their
old-tme household employments, so that
they have been forced out OF the home TO
support themselves in the open labor mar
kets. where they work side by side with
men, without any privilege extended 10
their sex. They are dsfranchsed labor
ors forced into competition with enfran-
chised laborers. VIII any one contend
that the disfranchlsed lab6rer holds a
position "a safe and respectable as that
OF the enfranchised onc2 Yet the census
Of 1890 shows four millions OF women and
girls over ten years Of age engaged in
self-suppOrting labor outside Of their
homes. Their Acknowledgement is one
potent cause why women must take less
pay than men for the same work. No-
men at ease who declare they have all
the rights they want are unconsciously
helping TO beat down the already scanty
wages of their working sisters who have
to buffet the world under all the disad-
yantages of Acknowledgement.
HAVE NEED FOR THE BALLOT.
The vast majority OF women. also. who
are engaged in home-making and rearing
families have need for the ballot. Their
avocation is even more distinct from that
of men than the different aYocations OF
men are from each other. Yet the prin-
ciple of representative government. which
Us based upon the impossibility Of one
class fairly representing the interests OF
another, is violated in the case of NO
men. who from the nature OF the case.
must have opinions about the interests
Of children and the home which are not
even adequately understood, much less
represented, by men. The whole of So
ciety suffers from the lack OF the feminine
element in government.
Miss Clay spoke OF the growth Of suf-
frage sentiment in the southern States.
All the States. she said, have associa-
tons auxiliary 10 the National American
Woman Suffrage Association. but organi-
cation is less advanced in Virginia than
in any other State. one of the objects
of the small suffrage association of Viz
ginia is TO have the doors of the State
University opened 10 women. Virginia is
now perhaps the only State which does
not offer TO her own daughters opp1r-
tunities for the highest education.
ADVOCATES CO-EDUCATION.
After the close of Miss Clay's remarks.
the ladies expressed a very warm interest
in the effort 10 have the State University
opened 10 women, and also i'm the bin
now pending in the Legislature to make
IL mandatory to have a woman physician
employed in each of the State asylums for
the insane. Miss Clay remarked that the
Governor of South Carolina had recently
appointed woman physician. and also
that the Governor of Kentucky at the
petition Of women, had appointed a wo-
man physician in one OF the State insane
asyums.
Miss Clay is the daughter Of General
Cassus Clay. the well-known erratic ge-
MUS of Kentucky.