The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-26

I Flease explain" asked, in response
 to an appealing glance from one of the
 defeated side l T mean" the anti-suffragist willingly
 replied, that the field of politics is a
 battlefield in winch the ballot is the chos-
 en weapon of defense and attack. There is. among certain men and women, a deeply-rooted instinct which, in the face
 of the most irreproachable reasoning,
 still tells them that the military life can
 not properly be lived by a woman
 The girls had gathered about her and
 she paused, looking into their earnest faces, You understand what I mean?'
 she said. inquiringly.
 Yes" one of them returned, but why should they have such feeling? Are they afraid the woman will hurt the mili- tary life?"
 "No,' said the older woman. quickly;
 they are afraid she may hurt herself"
 When. presently she was preparing to
 go home, one of the girls. after slight
 hesitation, detained her. There are other
 men and women." she said, "who have
 the opposite instinct, who feel that the military life can properly be led by a woman. They are not afraid she will hurt herself. Which side is right? ?"r's. /
 The anti-suffragist smiled a little sad | ly. Which, indeed, she exclaimed.
 We must wait to know. Time. perhaps,
 may tell. argument never can"
 This reply, and indeed all the other in- 1 cidents relative to that debate at the col lege settlement, frequently forced them
 selves into the foreground of my memory I during the weeks l spent last winter in Colorado. For ten years the women of l Colorado have had the use of. the ballot; | for ten years they have 'been-to use the phrase of the anti-suffragist of the set tlement-living the military life. Have | they been of value on the battlefield of politics? Scarcely day passes in Colo
 rado wherein this question is not an- | swered in the affirmative or in the mega l tive. A singularly clear-minded woman
 whom I met in Colorado Springs ex- plained to me that this diversity of reply
 is not unnatural. "Ten years is not very long period of time." she said; ''by no means long enough to form the basis of but -one true answer to so grave and | mAny-sided a question. Women in Colo | rado, in the use they have made-and not
 made = of their political power. have | helped. and they have hindered." It happened that when I reached New l Orleans several weeks after leaving Colo
 rado. the National American Woman's | Suffrage Association was meeting in that conservative city. and giving rise to con | siderable discussion among the people of l New Orleans regarding the desirability of equal suffrage as an aid in solving the political problem of the South. I heard | many impromptu dissertations and argu- | ments in connection with the subject, one
 of which 1 remember with particular | clearness.
 One evening a group of Southern wO- | men and Southern men, all of whom
 chanced to be somewhat closely allied
 with public interests of no small in- l portance were discussing the matter | with eager interest and earnestness Knowing that I had so recently been in Colorado. they asked me many questions
 as to Its influence upon public life and
 municipal affairs in that State.
 When they had put to. me quite as | many inquiries as they desired and after
 had given replies to the full extent of
 my ability, there was a momentary | silence. Then, before the ''ball of talk | could again be tossed on high," one of
 the company. wbo throughout the evening | had listened much more than he had | spoken. said slowly: You have all talked 1 a great deal about the influence of wo-
 mans suffrage in public life. But what about private life? You have argued at great length, about the effect of the wo-
 mans ballot upon other people. But
 what about It's effect upon her? What
 has 1t done to her, for her? It seems to
 me that's pretty important part of the question:
 | The speaker was not an opponent of | equal suffrage. As he frankly said, he
 was. on the contrary, inclined to regard
 1t. as theory, with distinct favor; but
 none the less, he asked, as IT have since
 heard many other persons, whether in | sympathy with the one side or the other | of the subject. ask: What has the bal | lot of the woman done in Colorado, not
 to politics, but to that woman herselfo'' | Has she. as so many earnest persons | feared she might, hurt herself with the | weapon; or has she, as no less large a
 number of equally earnest persons be-
 lieved she could. used that weapon with
 out any personal injury whatsoever, A period of ten years is. no doubt
 too small to serve as a foundation for
 single, comprehensive and unalterable
 answer even to the smallest question as
 to the actual resultant effect of equal | suffrage upon public affairs in Colorado.
 A new political expedient can not, per- | haps, be fully tested in ten years In
 the life of a State ten years form un- | doubtedly no great fraction of the whole:
 but in the life of a woman do not ten
 years mean a great deal. In one year | woman may work such injury to her
 self as to make even so immediate
 reparation impossible. That the major
 ity of those women in Colorado who are | actively engaged in politics have hurt l themselves with the ballot and hurt
 themselves very cruelty, appeared to me | during my visit to Colorado to be so un- | mistakably apparent as to leave little 1 room for that doubt concerning the mat
 ter which would have preferred to re-
 tain.
 | It had seemed to me at once interest l ing and significant that women in Colo
 rado not yet old enough legally to vote | gave evidence of such slight interest in
 their approaching political privileges.
 met large number of girls of varying
 ages in various places in Colorado; most
 of them talked to me with every appear | ance of sincerity concerning their immi- nent public responsibilities: but only one expressed an enthusiasm for tho political | situation in her State. Many of them
 were indifferent. and even more said de- | cidedly that they were sorry they lived in a State in which suffrage had been granted to woman. One of these latter added in explanation that 'it created so much excitement
 Stir up agitation 1t certainly does-an agitation that is too frequently an end l in itself. Public life in Colorado is hys- terical. That women have by their atti- tude toward their political duties belped to make 1t so is to be feared The sim | plest discussion of the most trivial mat ter is marked by a breathless tenseness out of all conceivable proportion to the | occasion.
 I very soon found, in Denver, for ex- | ample, that it was unwise to put uues- tions to any woman whomsoever regard ing any public issue if another woman