The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1902-03-27
A MELANGE OF
LIVE TOPICS
Penned for Journal Readers
by a Local Scribe.
W0MANISM.

the new-woman is receiving all
along the line. This IS true Of
misguided women, both as to their
aspirations for suffrage and the
desire to usurp a broader sphere
of industrial activity.
Though Massachusetts, land es-
pecially Boston,, is regarded as
the center of advanced thought,
including womanlsm, in this coun-
try, it is very clear that the woman
suffrage sentiment in that state is
very weak. The proposition to
invest woman with the elective
franchise has for many years been
agitated in that commonwealth,
and perhaps had it's origin there.
At almost every session of the leg
islature attempts have been made
to consummate the object, but
have always met with dismal fail
ure. The perennial introduction
of a bill having this object in
view was made a few days ago and
resulted in it's being defeated by a
vote in the ratio of one for to four
against the measure. The same
fate befell, quite recently, a bill
of similar import in the Iowa leg
islature. Iowa in in the West
where several states have adopted
woman suffrage and where the
sentiment in its favor is supposed
to be strong. Kentucky allows
women to vote in school elections,
but few days ago bill was in
troduced in the Legislature to de-
prive this sex of that right, and it
is almost certain to pass, as it has
been ascertained that the good and
pure women of the state almost
universally refrain from exercis-
ing the franchise while the bad
and undesirable ones avail them
selves of it with the result that
some very unworthy ofice-holders
are forced upon the state.
1t seems to the writer that the
experience of Kentucky in this
matter should forever close the
ballot-box to women. Even if the
more refined sex could be provided
with separate voting places, the
good women would necessarily
come in contact with the bad ones
if all should vote. 1t would be
impossible to so regulate the con-
'ditiens as to insure good women
from shocks and insults by bad
ones in the exercise of their So
called rights. The writer believes
that the overwhelming majority
of the good women of America do
not desire to be placed in such a
position as that which their exer-
else of the voting privilege would
produce. If it be admitted that
woman is naturally qualified to
perform functions of this nature
and in consequence thereof she has
the inherent right to do so, never
theless she should forego that
right if it proved detrimental to
herself and to society at large.
But it is very doubtful If woman
is, in fact, naturally endowed with
the prerequisites to constitute her
an intelligent and stable voter
that is considering her as a class
as compared with the men as a
class. She is wanting in expert
ence in external matters, and is
far more influenced BY her SYM
pathies and her intuitions than she
is by Judgment derived from OBJ
servation and deductions. But
sympathies and munitions at long
range are valueless, and are just
as apt to be wrong as right, though
they are generally right if exer-
cised within the domain of obser-
walton of their possessors. A re-
cent governor of Colorado charges
that the women voters of that
state are utter failures because of
sentiment, their sympathies and
their prejudices. There is little
doubt that if the matter should
be reopened all the states which
have adopted woman suffrage
would repeal it. The state of
Washington, which is quite near
the woman's rights states, was
sometime ago the scene of an at
tempt to introduce this innova-
ton into its government, but it
positively declined to adopt it.
Some of the foremost educators
of the country in those institu-
tions Especially in the West)
where co-education prevails de-
clare in unqualified terms that
this system of instruction is
rank failure; a college for the
preparation of female physicians
has just been closed because its
faculty declared that women were
incaDable of heinp successful nrsc-