The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-24


moval Of political, legal and educational
disabilities. What she desired has not all
come to pass. but changes greater, prob
ably than she dreamed of at the beginning
of her public life have taken place in the
condition of women within that time. Equal
suffrage does not prevail. but legal, educa-
tional and business advantages now enjoyed
by women are so liberal and extensive that
they do not feel the need of the ballot.
Without it they have obtained all the rights
and privileges that the early suffrage adj
vocates demanded for them, and more.
They form an army in the business and
Industrial world I every profession is open
to them; their educational opportunities are
equal to those Of men; the laws directly
affecting them have been so modified that
in some States they are said to err on the
side of excessive liberality. They have free
dom where they were once hampered by
restrictions of many kinds If Mrs. STAN
ton feels that this revolution is due to the
efforts of herself and her pioneer associates
she ought to rejoice greatly. If other wom-
en- eat the fruit that she plucked, why Ia
ment when she professed to be plucking it
for them? AS for the cudgels that she has
laid down and sees no woman taking up,
she should consider that perhaps the need
for those weapons in feminine warfare has
gone by. The closed doors having been un-
locked, it is no longer necessary to batter
them down to gain entrance. Dangerous
lions do not now bar the way and agrees
sive methods are not required of those who
travel over it..
But with due credit to Mrs. Stanton and
her colaborers for what they have accom-
plished for women, truth compels the state
ment that they assume too much in taking
credit for all the changes that have come
about. They did their part in helping to
form the public opinion that finally modified
laws and customs, and their part was diff
cult, owing to the unpopularity Of their
cause; but their crusade was only one
feature of a movement which had many
propelling forces. The greatest of these
was, no doubt, the civil war. The negroes
were not the only ones to whom that great
conflict brought freedom Among other
things, it gave women liberty to work in
competition with men. Whether or not this
is an unmxed blessing is a question that
need not be discussed here. 1t is enough
to say that the absence of millions of men
from their accustomed occupations forced
their wives and sisters and daughters, and,
later, their widows, into many fields of
labor that had once been accounted outside
of ''womans sphere.p 1t was not at first
a matter of choice or of deliberate intention,
but the drift of circumstance. That the
equal rights agitation had nothing to do
with 1t is proved by the fact that the Wom-
en- of the South were as ready as their
Northern sisters to occupy the posts left
vacant by the men. and equal rights ideas,
SO called, have to this day but little ac-
ceptance in that region. Mrs. Stanton did
what her bold and aggressive nature
prompted her to. do, and she has every rea.-
son to be satisfied with results. If the need
shall arise for similar methods in future
the woman to fit the emergency will no
doubt come to the front. Meanwhile, other
customs prevail. Just at present women
are going their ways and achieving their
purposes by means in which fierce on
slaught, oratorical denunciation, 'cudgels,'
in short, have little part. Mrs. Stanton
must adapt herself to the new conditions
which she has helped to make.