The Dickinson press., 1909-08-14
COLUMN DEVOTED TO
WOMAN SUFFRAGE

The question of women as holders of
high Offices is agitating the pens of our
newspaper scribes just now. There are
endless dissertations on what. would
happen if a woman should be elected
President of the United States. W.eD.
Howells discusses the question genially
in the Easy Chair. in the last two
issues of Harper's maeazine. He says
that before that time comes, the
country will have become more like a
great family, and the president will be.
merely the mother of the nation. He
also suggests the possibility of having
a man for president and a woman for
vice president or vice versa.
Justice Brewer astounded the public
a veal or two since by predicting, in
an address at Vassar college. that a
woman would some day be president
of the United States. 1t may happen.
sometime in the far future we hope it
will but no one need worry about it.
The popular prejudice in favor of man
for the highest Offices is so strong that
no woman could be elected unless she
had uncommon ability, as in the case
of Mrs. Ella Flags Young, recently
elected to the Chicago SUPPLEMENTARY
of schools.
There are ONE in the United States
who are equal to the Office. There have
been many capable queens in history ;
and there are as able women in the
world today as in any former age, and
as many of them in America as n.y.
where else. If Jane Adams were
president she would fill the Office with
as much discretion as Mr.. Taft, as much
zeal for ri ~ghteousness as Mr.. Roosevelt,
and more breadth of mind than either
of them.
In countries that have not the Salic
law, no one is shocked al the possibility
of a woman as queen, but many per-
IONS are still shocked at the suggested
possibility of a woman as president.
Yet the former is in fact a much
greater risk than the latter. A girl who
happens to be born in a royal family
has just as much chance of being a fool
as if she were born in a more lowly
station !: whereas a woman elected to a
high Office by popular vote would be
pretty sure to be a woman of brains.
If the time ever comes when the
majority of the people in the United
States want a woman for president,
why should they not have her?
Mrs. Sarah Plat Decker says she has
never seriously considered the possibility
of her going TO Congress, but if she
were sent there she would interest her
self especially in the legislation for the
care and protection of children. She
says the nations children are AS well
worth conserving as its forests or other
natural resources, but much less atten-
ton has yet been paid to them
Rev. Anna H. Shaw, at the recent
National Suffrage convention at Seattle,
told an amusing incident. calculated to
encourage those who think their own
country or state will be the last to
grant votes to women. She said: -Four
years ago Baroness Alexandra Gripen-
berg of Finland told me that Finland
and America would probably be the
last countries to e%nfranchise theil
women. Two years later. after the
granting of full suffrage to the women
of Finland. the Baroness, who was
about to be sent to Parliament. met
me with a beaming face and said I am
sorry for you'll If 30 great a change
could be wrought in five years, what
country need despair!"