The Ketchikan miner., 1908-03-28
WOMAN SUFFRAGE DOOMED

WOMAN SUFFRAGE DOOMED
 .,diss Phoebe Couzins, according to an exchange. has abandoned female sufferage. She renounces it with re- gret no less emphatic than decision. but she gives it up, all the same. Her defection is blow. because the name of Miss Couzins has been linked with that of Susan s. Anthony. throughout long decades. It Isad to be Susan and Phoebe Miss Couzins went into the national democratic con- vention at St. Louis in 1876 at Miss Anthony's behest and secured an in dorsement of the movement, from Tilden's supporters, aided by Col. Waterson, who must have had au eye for one of the most beautiful women of her time. Miss Couzius. herself a southerner of the old type and the daughter of a prominent wartime leader, drove the first sufferage naii into national political plank in the country. Now she IS sorry she did it.
 '.From that day until year ar tSo ago" said Miss Couzins, II have consistently. and all the time, urged the necessity for woman sufferage. l must now withdraw many of the things I have said in behalf of wo- men. have campaigned in political years, speaking with democrats and republicans and I have believed that T knew that women were honest. wholesome and proficient. But they are none of these things-as politi- clans. After seeing the work of wo- men in those states which have grant ed sufferage. I state emphatically that they are as much under the dominion of priests and preachers today as they were in medieval days. Religious freedom and political purity would be impossible with women in politics.
 "Women have not a particle of re- gard for vested rights, and women
 vino would deliberately go about to destroy property rights long establish ed are menauce to our republican form of government. The very strong est example of the disregard uf vested rights is the manner in which women went about in California declaring that they would make bankrupt all those engaged in the manufacture of
 brandy and wine. the chief industry of California. and the woman who
 had put up the money for the sutf- craze campaign in California was Jane Stanford, whose wealth was derived from this very industry. Consistency thou art a jewell. .'The participation of women in politics does not raise the tone in the least. I have seen lovely women take
 their carriages and go into the slums
 of the city where smile and some silver would bring easy votes. and spend their time on election day to put into office men who had broken all
 the laws of the decalogue, save possi- bly, that of outright murder. Then. too. I have been forced to the mourn ful conclusion that women were not designed hy their creator for the | rough and tumble activity of public | and political life. They hayn't the l necessary stamina for public life they can't stand up under it as men
 can. Nature hasu't endowed them
 with the needed nervous force. Then
 they cannot look at public questions
 impersonallv they persist in con-
 founding personalities with principles.
 ln all movements requiring organiza-
 ton women is failure. In philan- thropy, art, literature. charity. wo-
 men are all right. but when it comes
 10 politics they are distinctly out oI
 place.
 II speak as one having knowledge
 and I say that it is my firm belief
 that the woman sufferage movement has reached its meridian and is doom-
 ed"