The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-26

Last Fifty Years Not the Work o
suffrngists.
A statement has been issued by Mrs
Helen Kendrick Johnson, head of the
committee of Anti-Woman Suffragists
which recently Went to Washington to
present their views, giving reasons
against the further extension Of the
suffrage movement. Mrs. johnson
says.
The suffrage movement is more than
fifty years old, and has therefore rur
parallel with the progress of womer
which has marked this era. Suffragists
declared that much of this progress is
due to the woman suffrage movement
which opponents of such suffrage deny
because they believe that the principles
and results Of the suffrage agitation are
at variance with any true advancement
either Of women or of the state. Evil
dence that woman suffrage is not
deemed progressive is seen in the fol-
lowing facts:
I'm making up their reviews of the
years progress the public prints make
AO iutAtlOll VI Liz SuCCGSEtS VI WOllldll
suffrage.
1.-THE states where woman has made
most progress are those in which wo-
man-suffrage bills have been most
steadily and decisively defeated.
There has been slight, if any, i'm
provement in the laws of the states
where women vote, due to the fact Of
that vote. and in some ways the pro-
gress of those states is behind that of
other states,
IF the suffrage movement were to
disband to-day and no woman ever
vote, not single great interest would
suffer. None of Woman's wide philan-
thropies would be- harmed, the women's
colleges would be unaffected, the pro-
fessions would continue to give diplo-
mas to qualified women, tradesmen
would still employ women, good laws
would not be repealed and bad laws
would be no more likely to be framed
literature would not suffer, homes
would be no less secure, woman's civic
work would not cease nor would there
be any more disposition than there is
to-day to remove to state where wo-
man still had freedom. ct is interest
ing to note that there has never been
such a migration of women to the suf-
frage states as to overburden the pop
ulation.)
1.-THE suffrage movement is to-day al
lied with co-education as against Wo-
mans higher education in colleges of
her own, with isms as against tried
principles, with prohibition as against
temperance, with MormoniSm as
against separation of church or state
with socialism as against representative
government, with radical labor move
ments as against thebest organized and |
unorganiZed efforts of Wage-earning
men and women, with economic indie /
pendence and the cooperative house
hold as against family life and home.
Higher education for woman has
been the special mark of her progress
in this era, but the men and women who
founded her colleges received neither Z
inspiration nor aid from suffrage work.
ers, who strove chiefly to break down
the sex barrier in education and direct
ed their efforts to the advocacy of CO.
Education rather than to the establish
ment of the higher education.
Enlightened discussions of great
public questions of public policy should
there are none on record. For example,
divorce for several causes was the first
legislation demanded by the suffragists
and to-day their standing committee on
the divorce reform demands joint leg
islative action by women, concerning di-
vorce, but makes no suggestion as to
the value or trend of such action.
Nor do they give intelligent reasons
for such bills as the one so long urged
by them, asking that the wife should
have separate earnings and valuation
placed upon her labor in the household.
It is most fortunate that no amount of
such pressure has made American leg
islators look upon marriage as a bust
ness copartnership or consider that pro-
gress required them to place wives in
the attitude of hired servants to their
husbands.
Education as well as religious deem
cy received a blow from these professed
friends Of woman's progress when the
authoritative members of the associa-
lion issued the Woman's Bible
1.-THE hollowness of suffrage claims to
be progressive may be further judged
~ the fact that no writings concerning
he condition or needs of the public
schools have been published by those
Who were using school suffrage as a
stepping stone to political advance. !
Suffrage agitation has secured school !
suffrage for women in twenty-five
tates, but it has not succeeded in in !
lucing any great number of women to l
20 to the polls and vote on school mat
ers. On the contrary, the unwise l
PRESSURE brought to bear on legislatures l
md public officials by suffrage workers .
las hindered the natural progress of wo- =
men in CONNECTION with non-political Il
,ublic school work. The small fluctua-
ing and somewhat manipulated school 5
uffrage vote is proving of little advan- Z
age and an expense, and therefore in
wo states. Connecticut and Ohio, it's II
bolition has been proposed. School v
uffrage bills have been defeated in five t
tates during the past three years. and v
bill making women eligible as school q
rustees was defeated in Kentucky in n
S97, and one requiring that at least fl
ne-third of the members of boards of 81
ducaton appointed by mayors should il
e women was defeated in New York in W
&c., d
Suffrage leaders claim that the t.
hange in laws. making them more ia n
rable to women, is largely owing to II
4 pi,-I dom dc bitt tbic "a n he Distinct !