The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-07-20
A MArrER Of pREIupIcE.
Woman's Suffrage Opposed by Custom
Not Reason.

This is the claim Of Prof. w. !. Thorn
as in his article vote for Women" in
the July American Magazine. He
says;
1--WE just regard learning and free
dom Of thought and investiga@on rs
precious, and we popularity think 81
Luther and Reformation az standing at
the beginning OF the movement toward
these, but Lalther himself had no faith
in the light OF reason and he hated the
new learning OF Erasmus and Hutton
as heartily as any papal dogmatist.
1--WE are ourselves just at the close
of a great movement in thought which
has called out as much bitterness as al
most any in history--the teaching Of an
evolutionary view of the world. This
view, conspiciously associated with the
publications Of Darwin's Origin OF Spec
les in 1850, has now revolutionized
every department of science and al
most every department Of life.
"We are even forced 10 realize that
the law of habituation continues to do
its perfect work in a strangely resent
ful or apathetie manner even when there
i no moral issue at stake. Until about
1925 the word balcony was regularly
pronounced with the accent on the sec
0nd syllable. Swift used the word as
it is now pronounced one time, which,
said Samuel Rogers, makes me sick.
And the reader viii search in vain for
a Justification Of the acute displeasure
be feels in mispronounced names. Up
TO the year 1916 the best device for
the application Of electricity to tele-
graphy had involved a separate wire
for each letter Of the alphabet, but IN
that year Francis Ronalds constructed
successful line Of making use Of a
single wire. Realizing the importance
OF his new invention he attempted to
get the British government TO take it
up, but was informed that 'telegraphs
OF any kind are now wholly unnecessary
and no other than the one in use viii
be adopted
There was time in the history Of
the church when baptism seemed to
ecclesiastics SO essential to salvation
that anyone who failed to receive this
rite, no matter why, was condemned 10
eternal punishment III hell FIRE, ST.
Fulgentius condemned 10 everlasting
in eternal FIRE even children
who died IN their mothers womb, and
! have seen an old sermon in which
the divine declared that there were i'm
fants crawling on the floor Of bell, not
d span long. ST. Thomas Aquinas ev.
en- urged that perfect sight Of the tor
lures Of the damned IS granted to the
saints in heaven that they may enjoy
their beautitude and the grace 81 God
more richly. In the seventeenth cen
tmy Scotch elergymen taught their con-
gregations not only that il was sinful
70 walk about for pleasure on Sunday
but that it was sinful to save a vessel
IN shipWreck on that day, and q proof
of sound religion TO allow the ship and
crew to perish.
1T is custom, therefore, not reason,
that women have had to face first Of
All IN their fight for the ballot Rut
another powerful and more reasonable
cause for the opposition to woman I'M
this connection Hes in the fact that
she was as class reduced at one time
to position Of ornamental inactivity,
where he chief charm consisted in com
plete and ductile submission to the viii
81 man, and that she herself accepted
this condition as an ideal one"