The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-28
SEATTLE, SUNDAY, JANUARY IS.
A Case Of woman's Rights.

A Case Of Woman's Rights.
Among the many morals to be drawn
from the conclusion OF the Roberts case.
there is one which bears upon q ques-
ton kept much before the public mind
by agitation. The vote that excluded
Roberts was cast by men. 1t was d.
rected by the women Of this country.
No granting Of the ballot, no right of
equal suffrage, no direct participation In
the active work OF politics could have
made this palmer or completer. The
country owes to Its women its escape
from disgrace and tacit recognition of
the right of Mormonism to defy the law
at pleasure. And that small body OF
women who plead for the ballot and
picture its necessity owe to the commu-
nifty a confession that NO political In
vestiture could add to the completeness
of their power. ,s..ta ,..,... ..,,,,
It is demonstrated. wholesQmely. hap.
PLY, without innovation or revolution.
that when the course of public events
touches upon the real life, the real In
terests Of women, they have now In
their hands a control of action, even In
the legislative body Of the nation, that
existed before ballot systems and rises
above and beyond them. Strike at the
home. deface and mock at morality, at
tempt to countenance a system that Is
based upon woman's degradation, at
tack actual instead Of fancied interests,
and she exerts her power. 1t is swift.
irresistible, memorable. The house Of
representatives obeyed without ques-
tioning, would have obeyed no matter
what the difficulties or the technical
obstacles. the voice more potent than
any other that has ever sounded in the
ears of mankind; the voice of womanly
purity. of the royalty of motherhood
and the sanctity OF wifehood pleading
for its own.
In support of the suffrage we hear
principally that 1t would tend to purify
politics by furthering such reforms as
appeal most strongly to the gentler sex.
The answer to that is that such changes
as the women of this country set their
hearts upon and demand in the name
Of right and womanhood they can OBJ
tain. Men who knew something of po-
litical combinations secuted the idea, a
year ago, that Roberts could be exclud-
ed from the house. There was no least
probability Of 1t until the women took
up the issue. They did not need the bal
lot. Somewhere in this country there
is home whose touch is strong upon
the heart strings of every man who sits
in power at Washington. Somewhere
in every man worthy Of the name there
Is the determination that womanhood
shall have and enjoy its just demand.
And from the moment when 1t could be
said that the women of this country
asked, for their honor and the reverence
of the homes where they preside, that
no polyganist should enter congress,
there was no more possibility OF seating
Roberts than II he had been a leper.
Whatever else the true women of this
country ask for they can have The
days of chivalry have not passed away
from human ken. Still the highest and
hottest impulses that move men are d.
rected or strengthened by the hand that
never held sword or ballot. Still to win
honor in his lady's eye and presence
tempts man to the heroic. Still unseen
knights in homely garb are passing to
and fro from worlds end to worlds end,
seeking to glorify life by worthiness
thar may win a woman's tender smile.
What is the ballot, what are outer IN
fiuences, what the conventional meth
DDS Of winning and holding power
against this mighty and eternal force
that makes the world go round? with
a wisdom greater than that of man,
woman has refused to stir him to i'm
practicable efforts. She has declined
e ask for impossible vsforms. She has