The morning journal-courier., 1908-04-11

NpuAlutreu tHl0llS, we rear tue 0ltll- ods of our English sudraglsts will make tatters of our arguments We fear that their prowess will so over awe the men that they may deem 1t safe to kcep us where we now are pos lltlcally, it might be used us . weapon against olf cause,
 Is lt not q fact that women can woar their lives out In factories, they may ruin them in sweat shops, they may sink to degradation In the slums, they may be driven to the streets and all without . protest? but if they wish to go to the polls tO cast ballot that might reform such conditions, they arc told that such course would degrade them, But why? Are not the polls and the ballot typical of a free country? Does not the ballot mean rights and liberty? The mems answer k u stere- ,otyped one, Listen, because politics are so dirty and tho association is so demorall2ing that women would become contaminated Certainly, if conditions arc as bad is that, they need reform- ing before they spoil the men But now let us ask, How came these con- dltons?' It could not have been the women because they haven't been thcrc.
 Women may succeed in industrial or business life. pr excel as factory in- spectors, They arc most capable as teachers; they are earnest and self sacrificing for civic betterment They are often martyrs to their families, usually most devoted 10 religion and charitable work, yet they arc told
 that to vote would unscx them"
 Then it Is very consderate to remind women that the home Is their place, '' Admitted for no one appreciates q home more than women do; yet let no ono forget that about clghty-ilve per cent. of women are obliged to earn their livelihood outside of the home, and that q very large percentage of these women haven't any home, In the true sense of the word.
 These women with the ballot would not make conditions worse. Yet 1t is doubtful if the methods of the English Sunraglsts educated and clever wo- men as they are would help us. In England perhaps the methods adopted by their suffragIsts may be q necessl- ty there, to which methods we may be ultimately driven to here. Probably their conditions arc different from ours Perhaps their men are not as amen ablc to reasonable demands as are ours However. thelr woman Suffragists have stormed tn. House of Commons they lhave fought their battles in public row they have come to America 10 urge their dlsfranchlsed sisters here tC adopt the tactics that they have been pursuing.
 Mrs. W, B. Wells of London came all the way to Chicago to tell the Amerl. can surragIsts there That to win their point they must be disagrecable. . Now. disagree with Mrs. Wells, First being disagreeabe" Is not an argu- ment Secondly. it fig an acknoWledg- ment of weakness. even to politician We are not children who get mad, but reasoning women. who are advocat- ing a great principle. Then again the men whom you cannot reasen with, tho men whom you cannot convince, the men whom you cannot coax, are not worth bothering with anyway. They arc so dense that even being dis agreeable" would not affect them.
 Thc.s Is another pitfall that the wo- men suffragists Of to-day must avoid. Their success depends upon it. Take warning from the past In the late sixties" and in the "early seventies the cause of womens suffrage was de- layed berause lt was heavily laden with outside issues. There was not one un- popular ism" of those days that did not seek to, and usually succeed in at- taching itself to the cause Of women's suffrage. Women who donncd mems at- tire: men and women imbbcd with free love doctrines. and the most unortho- dox of religious beliefs (rememher that those were comparatively conservative timcs) and even communism. were all tackled to, and, in tho minds of people, associated with the w0men's suffrage movement thus detractlng from that one great principle women's right to the ballot. which aim it Is our duty to keep free from entanglement. Indvid- ually each person has right to her own opinion on any subject, but for the sake of success let our motto he Equal and exact justice to all, and our treas. ured watchword be- Man his rights and nothing more, women her rights and nothing less.