The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-10

such poetry and such painting. I un- | dertake to say that. t&is Is e question of right, fairness and justice. and that | 1t Is therefore a plain proposition of justice and not of poetry and scnti- ment. Why is it that woman cannot be trusted to exercise the right vote | upon the question of the taxation of her property? Why is 1t. MT. President, that this cannot be done? It Is ed- mitted by the opponents of this propo- sition that she Is the embodiment of virtue, and I affirm that were it not | for the intrinsic virtue of wornanhood, that stands as an impossible mountain | of granite to preserve the civilization of the world against the passions of man. that this world would go to per- | dition in six weeks: they admit that her chastity stands as her greatest en- | nobling virtue and brightest, ornament.
 l contend that that judgment that pre- sides over the infant at the cradle. that teaches 1t, educates 1t, takes care Of it, guides it on through youth to vigorous manhood. is a judgment more exacting than a judgment required to pass upon any economic question. 1
 undertake to say. notwithstanding
 their brain is little bit smaller than | that of man, but the sulsi are just as l prominent. and grey matter just as thick. and her heart Is as one to TAO.
 while the heart of man is one to l50, and there. If she lacks little in think ing powers. in going to make up a judgment, that is going to be counter | balanced by the purity of motive. If is | said that women should not vote upon this question. and yet the law of the | land today provides that the husband of woman cannot mortgage his prop erty without the signature of his wife, and if 1t Is homestead, the law re- quires that it must be separate and apart and independent from her husband. and yet the gentle
 man ridiculed the proposition
 that notwithstanding he couldn't
 mortgage his property without the signature of his wife. he proposes that the porter in his household, who can read and write and pay volun' tary poll tax. can come along to the polls and impose a tax upon the prop. erty of his wife. I say. MT. President that our statutes shouuld be repealed upon this subject. If a woman is moi permitted and has not the Judgment and right to vote upon this subject then I say that men should not be re- quired to have her signature to doc ument that mortgages away the home
 As a matter of fact, this prejudice against woman suffrage on this ques- tion, so far as taxation is concerned
 has its root in the egoism of nnascu- line presumption and self-constituted ed prerogative, and there is absolutely nc argument against it. The gentleman read from Wyoming, and l will als1 read from Wyoming, a resolution pass ed by the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote: Re 1t resolved by the second Legislature of the State of Wyoming, that the possession and ex- ercise of suffrage by the women in Wyoming for the past quarter of a century has wrought no harm and has done great good in many ways; that it has largely aided in banishing crime pauperism and vice from this State and that without any violent or oppres- sive legislation; that it has secured peaceful and orderly elections, good government, and a remarkable degree | of civilization and public order; and we point with pride to the facts that af- ter nearly twenty-five years of wo' man suffrage, not one county in Wyo- ming has poor-house; that our jails are almost empty, and crime, except that committed by strangers in the | State, are almost unknown; and, as a | y civilized community on earth to en- franchise it's women without delay.
 | Now, 1 want to call your attention Mr. President, to a sentiment from the East, and I read from The New York Herald: "It is absurd that an educated American woman who owns property should have no voice as to how or bS whom it shall be taxed, while iliterate laborers who work in her fields. and who, perhaps, have not yet learned the language of the country, may vote for men and methods which will virtually confscate her estate. The case of such women is glaring instance of taxa | tion without representation"
 | Now. I call attention to sentiment from the great city of the West, Chi cago. The Evening Post says; The question of letting all women vote on all questions may be debatable, but the question of letting all taxpayers vote for all officers concerned with taxation hardly seems to have two sides"
 | So much for the sentiments of the great newspapers and the Legislature of Wyoming.
 It is important that on this question we do not have to go to Populistic State or Republican State, the success sors of original abolitionists, but can | come to a Southern State that was the pioneer on the question of suf- frage reform. I refer to the State of Louisiana, and I will read a part of that Constitution: The Louisiana Constitutional Convention extended the suffrage to women in all cases where a special tax for public improvements is submitted to the property owners. All women owning property and pay | ing taxes thereon are entitled to the same voting privileges at these cleo tlons as men,"
 That Mir President. l presume, is not Populistic, nor is it the product of evo- | luton of Republicanism, but from q sister Southern State, a State charac- | terized by it's Bourbon, simon-pure De | mocracy; q State whose Southern civ | ilization is on a par with any State in the galaxy of Southern States, and, therefore, MT. President, it meets with the approval of precedent on that line, I will read little further: That this
 is rigit and equitable, moment : considerati tion will show The women owning property have their full share of the tax to pay, and they should Cer- tainly enjoy the privilege of saying whether or not they should be taxed" 1 But not only are the arguments In favor of weman's suffrage granted by the Louisiana Convention strong in point of equity and justice. but actual | experience proves the Convention tn have been right in what 1t did. The first test of this limited woman's suf- fraya in Louisiana, made at the sewer age and dIainage tax election in New Orleans, was strongly in Its favor. The | women went into the campaign in an