The representative., 1900-03-22
woman's Political Duties.

BY Prof. Rena Michaels Atchison.'
The most reasonable argument ad-
vanced against allowing women to use
the elective franchise was given by DR..
Parkhurst of New York in an article
in the Ladies' Home Journal few years
since, in which he said that women do
not seem to possess the sense of person
al responsibility. Anyone who has read
the recent manifesto Of the Chicago
AnsiSuffrag must acknowledge thai
Dr.. Parkhurst was perfectly correct in
his judgment concerning some women
that exhibited in a more conspicuous de-
erce lack of sense of personal respons-
i5iliIy for the social, industrial and po
litical conditions in which the writer's
a more total ignorance of the meaning
and intent of the elective franchise.
Any man, native born or naturalized,
not ii!o tic, insane, pauper or a criml-
nal is allowed to vote. No man is com
PEELED to vote. Imagine the gentleman
in lroadcloth and fine linen who thinks
,utirg is such a bore that they never
honor the polls by their presence unless
some anxious politician sends around a
carriage for their conveyance-imagine
these gentlemen issuing petition SINH
lar to the one sent out by the Anti-Suf-
fragists protesting against other men
voting because they do not wish to vote.
Yet such document would be just as
rational as the manifesto of the sue-
fr:lgists. 1t is not impossible that such
q ranifesto may yet be issued, for these
gertlemen, of whom unfortunately we
have a large class, who consider voting
an unnecessary bore, as we'll as the
ladies' who look with such supreme con-
dcscens ion upon the ballot box, are the
ripe soil for the rapid growth of m or-
archiaf ideas. Men and women who are
willing that others shall vote for tho n,
are willing that others shall think f)r
them, and whenever that class is large
enough, whatever the nomenclature Of
The government, you have full-fedged
monarchy.
One Of the striking features of all anti
suffrage conventions is the plea that
Womans place is in the home. 1t is
very natural that women who never look
beyond themselves and the qualification
Of their O. pleasures and deSi" T.,
should consider their own wishes the
boundaries of other women's rights and
duties. But how does it happen that
they do not insist that their seamstr ,ss
es and laundresses, the saleswomen and
cash girls. and the thousands of other
wage earning women should stay with
in the charmed precincts of their own
frequently cheerless and barren homes
This plea is very specious one to say
the least.
Women accustomed to work with
brain and muscle are neither too fasti-
dious nor too indolent to 60 to the bal
lot box. They are quite willing to help
clean up the dirty pool" of politics. II
woman is good dirt inspector in the
First ward of Chicago she might be
equally efficient in helping clean the
Augean stables of city and legislative
halls
If women would "cease to be children
nor try to be men," but think seriousely
and study honestly the social, Industrial
and political conditions under which
they live, they would not 80 easily be
the dupes of political or ecclesiastical
tyranny. Instead of spending their en-.
ergies in futile attempt to block the
wheels of the inevitable progress OF
democratic ideals, they would be help.
ing by the only effective power in a re-
puhlic-the ballot-to make this purer
safer and freer country.