Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-01-15
Woman Suffrage.

lowing paper, ny melHDeIS Vi TIC SllVel CiuD
in order that it may be given wider circula
ton:
After the almost passionate interest manifest
ed in this subject by some of its advocates, thu
public will expect from us some weighty, if no
convincing, arguments in its favor.
Failure on our part will indicate one of three
conclusions Either that the question is MOI
entitled to the merit that is claimed for it, O.
that its adherents are not sincere in their out
bursts of enthusiasm, or that they are unequa
to the task of advocating and defending it.
If failure there be, it will come from inability
for the question certainly has the merit, and its
supporters are actuated by the profoundest sin
cerity.
Taking casual glance at this question, one
would likely characterize it as all extremely
delicate and intensely interesting one. Further
more, the suppostion is that, with long ac
quaintance neither characteristic would lose
any of its lustre.
Interesting: Every word uttered in rebuke
Of this crying injustice of our time is, as ii
were, light in the darkness, every sentence a
sensational disclosure.
Delicate In several respects. In few, il
is the reverse. The accession would be strong
in numbers III some Eastern states, it is
said the female population exceeds the male
and alphabetically speaking, if the women
would all turn out, and the stay-at-home vote Of
man remain as it sometimes is, they would out
number us at the polls two to one.
The accession would be strong in moral tone
Women would be the conservators of public
morals. This is evident when we observe the
composition of a congregation at church.
There is the preacher, deacon or two, per-
haps a stranger, and few pesky boys. The
rank and file of the congregation is made up by
the sisters
1t Is delicate in political view. The slave
has no legal power to free himself. Woman
has no mandatory process whereby to present
her claims. Her strongest weapons would like
ly lie in the line of pathetic appeals but liv-
ing in our modern atmosphere, she will more
likely demand justice Of her oppressors, or in
vite them to get off the earth.
It is delicate in domestic point of view.
We men might complacently tell foreigner or
stranger that we have always been doing our
own voting and ofice-holding, and the plan has
worked very we'll so far, but when it is our own
mothers, wives, sisters and daughters who are
to be kept in the rear the case puts on differ
ent phase.
Another point of deicacy is the physical one
Right here lies the main reason why this has
been allowed to remain an open question for the
last six thousand years. If woman had had
the physical strength of man, Adam might pos
sibly have hoodooed Eve into believing that he
was entitled to do all the voting and hold all
the offices for the first three months, and when
the April elections came round, if he had in
sisted on the precedent, a few days after you
might have seen man going round with pair
of black eyes and distorted nose, while the
question of "equal rights to all and special priv
ileges to none" would have been settled, so far
sex was concerned, for all time to come.
In the further consideration of this subject
can we find any other excuse or explanation for
this wanton abuse, or rather monopolization of
power
There are few circumstances that would
seem to have placed man at the head of the
counsel in former times. Among these might
be mentioned emigration, navigation, and war.
The practical details Of these nearly all devolve
upon men, and they formed large part of their
duties in former times. But when the cowboy
encircled the ranges of Montana, Colorago,
Utah and Arizona, the last vestige Of the