The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-11

on every step or IT'S progress, ana at the
same time discharged all the duties of a
woman-duties such as never could have
devolved upon a king-certainly shows
ability of the highest order.
She Has Not Helped Women Speciti-
cally.
II am compelled to say, however that
in her long reign can recall nothing she
has done to advance the status of wo-
men, However much j appreciate her
splendid record 1 can not but remember
that in all matters connected with women
she has been very conservative, never
wholly yielding her assent to any inno-
walton until it was already practically es-
tablished. / have no recollection of her
ever giving her influence for any i'm
provement in the laws relating to women.
| Take for instance, the three great move
ments-the abolition of the contagious DIS
eases acts, the obtaining of property
rights for wives, and of suffrage for Wild
ows and spinsters. In the great battle to
abolish the existing c. D. acts which
meant the legalizing of prostitution in
| the garrison towns of Great Britain and
India, and the recent attempts to re-es-
| tablsh them, l do not know of her Civ
! ing particle of assistance to the women
in their heroic struggles with Parliament,
| although it never was more needed
| Through the entire fight for woman
suffrage. opened by John Stuart Mill in
| 1866, carried forward by Jacob Bright and
continued by distinguished men and wo-
men down 20 the present day, the Queen
| has never thown her influence on their
! side-never shown by look or sign that
| she favored a larger liberty for women
| The same is true in regard to the efforts to
| obtain property rights for married women
| The Queen has appeared oblivious when
| word from her might have turned the
| scales. Grant that she may not have the
| legal power to determine what shall be
| the laws and customs of England, never
! theless her influence in favor of great
moral and social movements has a weight
| second only to absolute authority.
1.-The difficulty with the Queen all the
way through-one horn or the other of the
| dilemma we must accept-has been either
| that she felt popular sentiment would not
| sustain her or else she has lacked the
| philosophy to discern the relation between
| political power in the hands of women and
| the improved conditions of society which
she herself has labored sixty years to adj
vance 1 am inclined to think she has
| failed in this perception rather than that
she has desired to cater to the populace.
America must always have great re-
| spect for the Queen, because of the SYM
| pathy she manifested for the Union at
| the time of our Civil War. She was be-
| tween two powerful magnets-Gladstone
| in favor of recognizing the belgerency of
| the South, and John Bright, standing
staunch in his loyalty to the North. If
| 1t were true as is so often declared, that
she is only a piece of putty in the hands
| of the men who surround her, how did
she arrive at a decision between two such
| intellectual forces as Gladstone and
| Bright? There are many other instances
which show that not only has she strong
| convictions, but also the courage to stand
| by them This was conspicuously evident
| in our recent war with Spain, when the
| md har inQ1. tho
| United States.
The Queen as "a Moral Force.
"WhiIe the Queen and her cabinet may
very honestly have desired to avert the
present war yet with the franchise
| broadly extended in England as it now is.
all had to put there ears to the ground
| to learn what was the voice of the mass
es on this question. All of them together
| dared not carry out their best Judgment
in opposition to the wishes OF vast ma
| jority of the voters of the kingdom. Had
| Queen Victoria been at the head of an
| absolute monarchy, instead of being a con-
! stitutional ruler. she might have enforced
| her own individual wish and will, with
| out causing the overthrow of the govern
ment. But the Queen of England and
Empress of India has no more power to
| compel obedience TO her own individual
| opinion than has the President of the
| United States to enforce his own personal
| Judgment Mr. Mckinley, without doubt
| would as gladly have aVerted the war
with Spain as would the Queen that in
| Africa, but he also was compelled to view
the matter from a political standpoint
| Would the vast majority of the voters sus-
tain him? What would be the effect on
the party which elected him, and whose
interests he was bound to consider? Had
he right to disrupt his party, demoralize
! his administration, invite his own impeach-
ment by Congress, throw the country into
confusion and disregard his oath to obey
| the will of the people which evidently de-
| manded war?
IAN of this simply demonstrates the
danger of a government based on what
| is termed the fighting half of the people,
and shutting out from all participation
| i'm public affairs what men themselves
| call the better half of humanity-better
at least in the sense of being the con-
| SENATORS of peace and home and family
life. The old adage that a stream can
rise no higher than its fountain head is
not truer than is the fact that the Presl-
dent of a republic. or the ruler of a con-
s,itutonal monarchy, can do nothing in
safely without the sanction of a vast ma
| iority of the voting constituency. For
either the Queen or the President to have
carried out their undoubted desire against
| war. each must have had from some
source balance Of power 10 place in the
| political scale on the side of peace and
arbitration and in nelther. country could
such be found except in the votes of wo.
| men. No one can believe but that had the
| intelligent women of England and the
United States had the power to sustain
| their respective governments, both Queen
Victoria and President Mckinley would
| have insisted braveIy and unhinchingly,
upon the submission of the differences be-
tween themselves and the other nations
| to a court Of arbitration. We cannot i'm
| aeine a commission of twenty intelligent
| Spanish and twenty intelligent American
women comforting together and deliberate
ly deciding to send out their husbands and
sons TO shoot each other in order 10 settle
the difficulties between Spain and the Unit
| ed States. No more can we imagine 1t
| possible for a commission Of twenty Eng
| llsh women with the Queen at their head
and twenty Boer women, led by Olive
schreiner determining upon any method
of settlement except that of arbitration.
On the irish Question.