Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1901-08-22
Woman Suffrage In the West.

The opponents OF woman suffrage
are shouting from the house tops:
behold women have had the fran
chise four years in ldado, five years in
Utah, seven years In Colorado, ten
years in Wyoming, and the millennium
has not yet arrived; therefor, woman
suffrage is failure-it ought to be
abolished In those States and never
granted in any others"
IL would be waste OF words, per-
haps, to suggest that even the longest
OF these periods is rather brief time
to usher in the millennium or TO call at
tention to the fact that there is not
State in the Union with so small
proportion of its inhabitants in the
iails, poor-houses, and insane asylums
as Wyoming; or that the first legis-
latures OF Colorado and Idaho, after
women were enfranchised, passed re-
spectively n stringent anti-prize fight
ing and 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 commonwealth;
nor is it worth while TO suggest that
the women In all Of these states are so
largely in the minority that, even IL
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 existing statutes and
not be themselves violators of civil and
moral laws.
But what right have men to exact
guarantee from women that they will
regenerate the world with their bal
lots? Have they required such pledges
from any other class of citizens? Was
the result expectedwhen several million
plantation negroes were enfranchised;
and when the vote was conferred on the
VI VIC "NbbCi IL
plains? Do the political managers,
previous to each election, scour the al
legs and byways OF the cities in the eff
fort TO naturalize every newly landed
foreigner so that he may improve the
quality OF the electorate? Is it for this
reason that criminals are pardoned
from the penitentiaries, Jail doors are
opened, and the inmates OF the aims
houses are rounded up at the polls?
For this same lofty purpose has the
ballot been placed in the hands of the
illiterate Hawaiians and Porto Ricans;
and the half-savage Filipino entreated
to accept it in exchange for his bolo?
O 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 morali-
ty OF the electoral body; on the con-
trary, all, for the time at least, have
caused distinct retrogression, and
have added many diverse elements to
be dreaded and feared at every cleo
ton.
But when suffrage is asked for the
women OF the United States the most
profound apprehension is at 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 al
lowed to take root and flourish for CEN
turtles. The prophet must have had
this great body of American DIRECTORS
in mind when he spoke of those who
strain at gnat, but find no difficulty
in swallowing a camel.-Ida Hustled
Harper in New York.