The Worcester spy., 1899-02-26
WOMAN 4Yn HER EnrR

WOMAN Ard HER VOTE.
The annual hearing of the petitioners
for a constitutional amendment grant
ing full suffrage to women took place
at the state house, in Boston. Tuesday.
All the old guard We're there. and Mrs
Julia Ward Howe, Miss Alice Stone
Blackwell. Col. T. w. Higginson, Rev.
Nathan Wood of the Commonwealth
Avenue Baptist Church and others
spoke. The remonstrants, among
Whom We're four women from Worces
ter, We're out in larger numbers than
ever before. The anti-suffragists have
no old guard, for their movement is in
the nature of back fire to the other
and was formally organized but a few
years since, but they rallied to their
cause several trenchant speakers
among whom Worcester again was
we'll represented. Each side was given
one hour and fifteen minutes in which
to lay its case before the committee
put the petitioners were allowed the
last quarter of an hour in which to
overhaul their opponents arguments.
twenty-five years ago it would not
have been necessary to write these
facts to Worcester readers. for the
public. or at least the feminine portion
OF it might have been. depended upon
to know them in time, SO considerable
was the interest taken in the question
of woman suffrage then. Worcester
was, II not the cradle. at least the rock
ing chair of the movement and sur-
fragists even now coniure bv the en-
thusiastic conventions held here and
the earnest orators and workers who
flourished here so or more wears ago
The prominent women OF the city. those
who were leaders in its philanthropies
and social events, are said to have lent
! their influence TO the cause. while the
young women and girls, influenced by
the atmosphere of protest about them,
grew up with decided notions Of their
own as to mans injustice and wom-
ans rights.
The Indifference with which the an
nual hearing of the petitioners rnr
woman suffrage is now received is in
Itself commentary of the most point
ed kind upon the change that a quarter
tof 4 century has wrought in the outlook
and ambitions of the women Of the
city. The woman suffragfsts shake their
heads when you mention the fact. and
sigh over the backsIiding of their sis
ters, but the truth is that the women
or Worcester have been. not too friyoI-
Gus, but too earnest, to concern them
selves for long with the fata morgana
| OIL equal suffrage. After the fiercest
battle the smoke eventually clears. and
after the vain shrielings and foolish
olusterings of the great days of the
feminine suffrage movement, the INTEL
lectual atmosphere is clearing percept-
IDLY. Women are finding, themselves
ana While they may not be able to
chop logic with the suffragists. they are
coming to feel with q surety that is
above argument that the hoped for
woman lies in being more wornanIv..no+.-
more manly; that the cry for en,IaI
suffrage was born of restIessness and
mlsdlrected ambition More and ,nore
'liey are coming to see that the giving
OF their socalled political rights In
women, and of the duties that always
go along with rights, must inevitably
pe accompanied by a loss of power in
/ the performance of those fu,,otio,,.
winch She and she alone. must per-
form; and that, even granting that she
could fulfill them satisfactorily. it
would be unjust to demand it of her in.
addition to all that she must be per
lofce. They see that the question is, In
the final analysis, one Of expediency.
not OF abstract right or wrong, and
'hey perceive even more clearly not
only that what the early agitators mis-
took for the core of the better order
was but a husk that would be sloughed
with the natural growth of society. but
also that it was their intellectual ana
moral power along other lines thai
deceived their followers into accenting
as vital germ of progress what was
never more than the fossil of a false
hope. g,
For woman suffrage is fossil rha
petitioners will continue year after wear
to present their petition at the sfata
house, and a few states, each with Il
population half as large as that or
Worcester county, viii grant -sufrrara
to their women folk as a good natured
Joke or pretty compliment. The re-
monstrants will doubtless go on collect
ing signatures and holding parlor meet
ings But it is to be hoped that thev
VIII not be led astray into taking. the
situation too seriously. There is nothing
to worry over.
THOMAS A. FLYNN.