The San Francisco call., 1897-06-27
WOMEN AND THE REPUBLIC.

Into the duli-glowlng Literary horizon OF to-
day there has fioated another faint luminary,
sent there TO crowd back some other lights. 1t
does not bear comparison, however, and there
is small doubt that 1t will pale entirely away,
presently relegated by its own insignifcance.
Helen Kendrick Jones has published work
entitled Woman and the Republic" which
falls directly in line with the recent move
ment in the East against womRns suffrage.
In all agitations of any moment there will and
must be counter movements, although as a
usual thing the opposition comes from outside
the ranks, Miss Jones has opened fire from
within the lines, but the flash is very faint
and the report is scarcely heard at all.
Woman and t5e Republic is more an at
tack upon the remarks OF the suffrage leaders
than upon the movement itself Susan B.
Anthony, Miss Stanton, DR.. jacob and others
equally well known have been quoted and
their words lung bte OK at them much in the
explosive style of the schoolboy debater.
"The movement to obtain the elective fran
chise for women is not in harmony with those
through which woman and government have
made progress" says Miss Jones, and she
spends eleven chapters and a conclusion in
trying to prove that as man advanced TO the
position he now holds in America, England
and France, woman naturally, in accordance
with the rightful trend of affairs, retired
quietly to her home and left the affairs oi
state to man. She claims that the attempt 10
en- franchise woman is a movement suicidal to
the democracy-that every where in the world
where women have the voting privilege the
government is a failure. She quotes history
and articles and letters az an appalling rate,
but after one has laboriously pushed aside
the tangled branches one by one because
they have the semblance OF sOlidity, and
emerged into the light of day again, the real
ization comes that 1t would have been easier
10 have pulled the bushes up and flung them
away.
For Miss Jones' book is q delusion-it as.
sumes something which it does not have. II
is q work without humor, wit or wisdom. Il
does not please, it does not interest, nor does
it instruct. We can forgive the existence of q
book that is cleYerly written, even though lis
underlying purpose is not sound; and we can
tolerate one that is sound, even though il
does not scintillate with touches of sarcas N
and bright illusions But when a book opens
with an involved sentence which SOUNDS like
every other sentence in The whole Work
when after reading one page and possessing
yourself OF an idea, you read another page
and become puzzled TO know which one the
idea came from, there is certainly something
lacking in the makeup.
Miss Jones view of the case may be a con.
scientious ope-doubtless she has convinced
herself that she is right and the numerou:
weIl-known ladies of whom she writes were
wrong-but she will fail lamentably 10 con
vince any one else. The physician who cure:
the ladies of this day and generation OF thit
popular malady must be wise one, and the
doss will have to be carefully prepared and
disguised with the most subtle fiayorings anC
made so extremely palatable that they viii
seek for it. woman and the Republic" /,
certainly not the right prescription.