Griggs courier., 1896-12-25
A Few New Straws In The
Suffrage Way.

Mariana w. Chapman. Brooklyn:
Some Of the late arguments against
woman suffrage are based on new
grounds. Perhaps the most remark
able is that of the editor of the N. Y.
Evening Post, who. i'll a late maga-
zine article, calls the ''boss" q neces-
sity in modern democracy who would
have entirely too much upon his
hands with the doubling of the vote
through woman suffrage. Some of us
are inclined to think that the last
clause is true but if men cannot dis
pense with these services the remedy
would seem to be q division of work
under more bosses. Otherwise we
must suppress the country for the
sake of the bosses, SO as to kindly
see that they are not overworlsed. If
this humanitarian ground is rejected
and the difficulty is solely one of man.
ipulation, then democracy belongs
properly to q small republic and our
dimensions become appalling. In
range with this come later declara-
tions from other opponents denying
the basic principle of the Declaration
of Independence, but even this cannot
invalidate the claim of woman suf-
fragists, for any government, in the
minds of common sense people, will
have it's divisions along lines of
property, education, intelligence,
capacity or at least morality. That
heritage, in all these directions, des-
cends without distinction of sex is
now generally conceded.
We have no original sin in being
born to present conditions, but we are
culpable indeed if we refuse to make
them better.
We are impressed that our suffrage
field is ripe for the harvest because
the logic of events is with us. Educa-
tion is doing it's work. and over all
civilized countries women are increas-
ingly alive to the evils that surround
their homes, and to the narrowness
which surrounds their lives from the
old concensus of public opinion. They
are arousing themselves, perhaps in
some cases with feverish haste, to do
the things which they know ought to
be done in some way; and they 10 not
yet see that the larger part of success
lies in the pressure which men put
upon government officials and that
women cannot exert that pressure.
They do not all see that indirect force
means an immense amount of effort,
where a smaller amount would tell i,
directly applied. Also, that woman
suffrage would bring the possibility
of helpfulness to thousands of women
who would be quite equal to casting a
ballot. but who are not equal to the
greater emergency of public work.
Present conditions are full of practical
questions which are suffering for lack
of the better strength that would come
with government by humanity not
divided by the line of sex. Some of
these days the story will read little
like Drummond's. of the Evolution
lists, "Each worker toiled in his own
little place-suddenly these workers
looked up; they spoke to one another;
they had each discovered a law; they
whispered it's name. Henceforth their
work was one-the world was one. and
mind, which discovered the oneness
WAS one.
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PETER e. NELSON.