The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17
THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MARCH.
Its Lnder-Day Advocates Regard
Man Their Enemy.

I
| The soul of a movement marches on
to Its ultimate destiny Outlines it's ar
I dent followers believe themselves to be
moving in one direction when the relent-
less trend of circumstances is bearing
them toward an opposite conclusion. The
final intention of a movement may gem
orally be found embodied in it's carrier
utterances. Time passes, events play
about II. people come into il from differ
/ ent bouIes, and for different reasons but
the great undercurrent that gave it birth
moves steadily on, unheard and unseen
perhaps, until like certain rivers that be-
gin in torrent, sink into subterranean
ways, and rise again with an added i'm
pulse, the spirit of the movement stands
revealed and its ultimate object can be
known of all.
The woman suffrage movement has
reached such an hour of revelation. Care
full study of present conditions in our own
and other lands will show that old pur-
pose has reasserted Itself, that new pur-
pose is trying to build upon another
foundation than the old, while the open
declarations of political life tell whittier
the movement tends and what point it has
attained.
Woman suffrage received it's first i'm
pulse more than hundred years a go in
the extravagant teachings of Jean
Jacques Rousseau. 1t came into being in
this country amid the upheavals that
marked the year 1S4s. 1t sprang directly
from the radical wing of the abolition
movement ana its socialistic allies that
founded communities were individual lib
erty expressed disloyalty, and was often
carried so far as to invalidate the mar
riage tie. French women, imprisoned tor
political crimes, appealed to their Social
list sisters of the woman suffrage move
ment, and foreign radicals. both men and
women, visited this country to proclaim
the abolition of the State. of the Church
OF the marriage relation. and the estah-
lishment of woman suffrage as "A neces-
Sary cOrrelatiVe.
The movement stands today at its first
4sal fNnT-V Ina lid
verting to some Of its earlier utterances
and conduct. They have published a
Bible that reveals the soul and intelli-
gence of the movement Law and religion
are attacked. and man is denominated
womans enemy Another leader in re-
yerting to the early type is organizing
crusade against a country that grants
woman far more legal privileges than
man. The new leaders meantime, have
thrown aside the old arguments. and
ceased to utter the ringing war cries that
confused the battle and misled the I'M
wary.
Politically. also, the movement has
reached a turning point The places
where its attacks have broken down the
barriers that hedge about the Constitu-
ton in a Republic are those where Nor
monism and Populism have made "A stamp
ing ground. The Populists, the Prohibit
tionists, the Free Silverites. and the
Social Labor party have had woman suf-
frage planks in their platforms. Some of
these have called halt At the last
.momentouS election the PopuliStS and
ProhibitiOnsts omitted the familiar de-
mand. The latter party compromised on
an appended resolution. thus calling at
tention to the omission. The Social
Democracy and the Socialist Labor
parties were true to the decla ration that
has marked their platforms in every land
whose peace and order they imperil.
Such is the social and political attitude
of the suffrage movement today, and il
behooveS every woman to consider her
personal relation to it. If she believes I'm
suffrage il should receive her aid in the
hour of its trial. II she does not believe
in suffrage she should give help to those
who are striving to lay to rest the haunt
ing presence Of figure that has doomed
athwart the patch of waman's rr,iross. /
10, these many years.