West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1900-12-27
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE WEST.

are shouting from the houSetops
"Behold 4! women have had the
franchise four years in Idaho, FIVE
years in Utah, seven years in
Colorado, ten years in Wyoming
and the millennium has not yet
arrived therefore woman suffrage
is failure--it ought to be abolish
ed in those States and never granted
in any others"
1t would be waste of words,
perhaps, to suggest that even the
longest of these periods is a rather
brief time to usher in the millennium
or to call attention to the fact that
there is not State in the Union
with SO small proportion of its in
habitants in the jails, poorhouses
and insane asylums as Wyoming /;
or that the first legislatures OF
Colorado and Idaho after women
we're enfranchised passed respective
ly stringent anti.prize6ghting aud
anti-gambling law or that the vast
preponderance of testimony from
all the four States is that the effects
of woman suffrage have been IN
every way beneficial to the common
wealth nor is il worth while to
suggest that the women in all of
these States are so largely in the
minority that, even if they should
stand solidly together, they could
not wholly eradicate those evils
which are so strongly implanted in
the community. There is ample
and trustworthy evidence that those
women have used their ballots in
favor of law and order, and Of
candidates who would enforce exist
ing statutes and not be themselves
violaters of civil and moral laws.
But what right have men to ex-
act guarantee from women that
they will regenerate the world with
their ballots ? Have they required
such pledges from any other class
of citizensp Was this result ex-
pected when several million planta
ton negroes were enfranchised
and when the vote was conferred on
the semi-civilized Indians of the
Western plains? Do the political
managers, previous to each election
scour the alleys and byways of the
| cities in the effort to naturalize
every newly-landed foreigner SO
that he may improve the quality oil
the electorate ? Is it for this reason
that criminals are pardoned form
the penitentiaiies, Jail doors are
opened, and the inmates of the
aims houses are rounded up at the
polls For this same lofty pur-
pose has the ballot been placed in
the hands of the illterate Hawaiians
and Porto Ricans and the half
savage Filipino entreated to accept
1t in exchange for his bolo ?
No, not at all. There has not
been class of men enfranchised
for the last forty years that has
added to the dignity, the intelligence
or the morality of the electoral
body on the contrary, all, for a
time at least, have caused distinc,
retrogression, and have added
many diverse elements to be dread.
ed and feared at every election.
But when suffrage is asked fol-
the women of the United States the
most profound apprehension is al
once aroused lest they might not be
able to purify politics lest they
should not at one sweep wipe out OF
existence the vicious institutions
which men have allowed to take
root and flourish for centuries.
The prophet must have had this
great body of American objectors
in mind when he spoke of those
who strain at gnat but find no
difficulty in swallowing a camel.
IDA Fl. HARPER in N. Y. Sun.