Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-04-15
FIFTY YEARS OF
WOMAN'S PROGRESS,
susan b. Anthony.


susan b. Anthony.
Woman is happier than ever before
in the worlds history, and this TACT
alone demonstrates that the whole
human family is happier and better.
If man were growing worse and more
miserable it would be wholly impossi-
BILE for woman to be happy, for 1t Is
an axiom as old as life itself that the
two must rise or fall together. Every
day is actuated by the same object that
lmpelled Eve TO eat the apple-a desire
for knowledge-ande every one is try
Ing to utilize this knowledge for the
betterment of social conditions.
Even the anti-suffrage society, which
might be considered an exception to
this rule, is trying to block the wheels
of progress because 1t believes that it
Is better for women to bear the ills she
has than to fly to others that she
knows not of.
This has been the situation during
the past half century whenever it was
proposed to make any change in the
condition Of women: That it would
bring discomfort to her and unhappi-
ness to the family; If she received an
education it would unfit her for the
duties of wifehood and motherhood;
II the married woman were permitted
to own property she would desert her
husband and children; If those of the
poorer classes were allowed to control
their wages domestic chaos would re-
suit; If women entered the trades and
professions immortality would reign SUI
preme.
In direct contradiction to these pes
simistic forebodings every progressive
change in the condition of women has
brought to them an immeasurable in
crease of happiness.
The only way in which even an ap-
proximate estimate of this can be made
is to imagine the present generation Of
educated, property-holding, self-sup-
porting, capable, Independent women
suddenly transplanted into the condi-
ton of two generations ago-education,
even in the common branches, placed
beyond their reach; every occupation
closed to them except sewing, teaching
and factory work; the wife robbed of
her own property the moment she was
married, the mother deprived of all
guardianship of her own children.
1t is impossible to picture what
would be their humiliation, their
wretchedness, their despair. We would
see such a revolt. such a revolution,
as the world has never known.
1t was only because women were
taught it was the will of the Creator
that they should be in subsection, only
because they lacked Moses to lead
them out of the wilderness, that they
endured so long and so patiently.
But having emerged at last and ex-
perienced the joy of even partial lib
erty, they will not pause until they
have attained the full happiness of
complete freedom.
No one can observe the busy, broad
and useful lives of the women Of to-
day, the splendid work they are doing
for the world, without realizing the
vastly increased happiness the closing
years of the century have brought to
them.
The gulf between us and our fore
mothers is no wider than that which
exists between ourselves and those fu-
ture generations who shall have an alb
solutely untrammelled opportunity for
development.
This will be possible only when there
shall be placed upon the brow of wo-
man the crown of citizenship and side
by side with man she may work for the
regeneration of the world, enforcing
her will, as he enforces his, by the SUI
preme authority of the ballot The,
most powerful pen cannot put into
words the happiness which will come
to woman, and through her to the
race, when this right is hers.
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