The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-25
PROS AND CONS OF WOMEN.
From the Philadelphia Record.

From the Philadelphia Record.
In 1863 John Stuart Mill published his
treatise on THE Subsection of Women.
1t was manly. a sympathetic ana. OF
course, very able exposition or the wo-
man question IN most OF It's aspects. N
great deal has since been said in more or
less impassioned and rhetorical form on
the same question: but We doubt II IN
| the discussion much have been added to
Mills contribution to 1t. I'm the twenty.
seven years that have gone by since Mill
wrote the Tyrant, man. has been stripped
of the sceptre and the rod. and his alleged
victim in her emancpated state has
stepped into most Of the professions and
employments which formerly he consid-
cred exclusively his own. She has become
preacher. lawyer. doctor, musical direc-
ier, merchant. hotei-keeper. editor and
traveller. and withal carries latch key
and rides a "bike." She stands forth
to witnessing world. redeemed. regen-
Grated and disenthralled!
And now comes Frederic Harrison. n
critic. 4 scholar, a philosopher and keen
observer, who declares what he con-
ceives to be the result. He says: 1T Is
seven years women have proved them
slves SO greatly suprior to their mothers
and their grandmothers that the passage
from slavery to freedom has wrought any
change so vast-or, indeed, any change al
all, except Il certain perceptible loss in
tenderness. modesty and charm and a
very marked increase of restlessness, self
assertion and conceit." In quoting Mr..
Harrison perhaps rashly, We hasten to
say that we do not pretend to back him;
but. on the contrary, We venture to sug
gest that the change in woman which he
remarks. even If it exist. is due. no doubt.
to the somewhat puzzling transition from
darkness to light and from slavery to free-
dom. As soon as she shall adjust herself
TO her new environment we may be sure
that woman will win back all the tender
iS
guished her in the old days Of subjection,
and which so firmly held the Tyrant in
their silken chains.
We have mentioned the various parts
which woman Is now playing in the world
of business and in professional life: but
one door only. 1t would seem, remains
shut against her. That is the door of the
polling booth. She is denied the ballot.
enthusiasm. desire 1t. The late David
Dudley Field, however maintained that
she is fitted for it, and deserves it. His
statement of the question from his point
of view Is so pertinent that We think we
shall be doing our readers a service by
laying it before our readers a service BY
a paper prepared by him. entitled Amer
lean Progress in Jurisprudence." and
printed In the American Law Register Tor
the current month. He says: what is
meant by the people? At the time of the
great Declaration the people meant adult
white men. After the civil war. and for
y u
white or black. What is meant now? In
the state of Wyoming by the people is
meant adult men and women. white or
black. In that most advanced of all the
states in TINS respect woman as we'll as
Il man votes for the representatives Of
state. Why should she not? She counts
IN every enumeration of the census: her
| name is on every taX-roll; she is the nurs-
er and instructor of youth; she forms
more than man the habits. tastes and
manners of all the living: she is as deeply
interested as man In good laws we'll ad-
ministered; she suffers as much from bad
ministration. and profits as much by 4
good one. | repeat, why should she not
vote as well as man? Certainly. 1t is not
because she is not as capable to rule. In
modern times. three of the greatest rulers
OF the world have been WOmen-Maria
Theresa of Austria: Catharine, of Russia,
and Victoria, of England. II does not be
come man to say that any one of these
great personaSeS was not, at least, his
equal in the capacity and art of govern
ing. And in these States. who will pre-
tend that it is Just and decorous to give
the right of voting to ignorant blacks,
when 1t Is refused to intelligent women? ?
Political and social movements are some
times slow in their coming; but come they
will. and 1t Is the logical sequence of our
frequent saying that this is a government
OF the people. by the people and for the
people, that every true man should allow
to the wife of his bosom and the daughter
of his house the same voice in the gov
ernment of their country that Is allowed
to his brother and his son. For use. it is
enough to say, that though in many
States and nations the right Of voting for
holders of the less important offices has
been conceded to women, yet 1t has been
reserved to an American state to be first
in the long procession of ages to place
upon the head of woman as OF man the
crown Of a free and equal suffrage"
If our fair readers should think we have
given them the bane in quoting MIR. Har-
rison, no doubt they will find the antidote
ia the quotation from Mr.. Field.