The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-12-08
WOMAN'S ADVANCE.
By Grace KimbaIl.

during the Armenian m~assacres IN
The eighties, and was escorted from
The country by the Turkish Govern
alent. She is president of the Pougn-
Seepsie Young Women's Christian AS
ISOLATION, and was at n time assist
ant physician at Vassar College. DIR.
Kimball says she is not a sufrragette'
but believes thoroughly in Suffrage
tor women].
The fundamental argument Tor
woman suffrage is based. like many
other problems of to-day. on eVolu-
.ionary principles, and not on consld-
srations of expediency or of conse-
1uent reforms. Woman has shared
with man the evolutionary progress
Of the race. Savagery, slavery, the
harem. have been left behind. Not
20 long ago even a primary education
was considered unnecessary Tor the
women of our race; then, as we adj
yanced, a knowledge of the three
Rs" was thought proper. But to-day,
without. her seeking or desiring, the
whole domestic, industrial, education
al and legal status of woman has
changed. She has not pushed Tor
ward into the workshop and store and
office and the professions. The mex
,rable advance of the race, the out
reach of mans inventive genius, n
demands of the industrial world, q
complexity of the social organism
have all forced women out into a
broader and a more individualistic
life. The woman is no longer the zero
by the side Of the man, raising his CO.
efficient. She stands for herself and
at her own valuation-not because
she consciously and audaciously seeks
90 to do, but because the evolution Oh
the race is bringing her to new re-
sponsibilities and to new duties in the
place of the old ones that have beer
taken from her.
What were their former duties and
responsibilities? One hundred years
ago each household was an ~independ-
emit entity. It's spinning and weaving
and garment making, Its foodstuh
preparation, it's entire conduct and
/ MANAGEMENT devolved upon the wom-
en- of the family. These duties gave
scope for great skill and executive
ability. Much Of the education OF the
children also devolved upon the wom-
en-. especially the education and train
ing of the girls. All this involved the
labor, as we'll as the skill. of the wom-
en- of the family and Of the women OF
dependent families as well. To-day
the factories, the evolutionary results
of mans inventive genius and ambi-
tious nature, have taken all these in
dustries from the home. Mans or
ganizing enterprise has taken educa-
ton and training of the young from
the home largely and placed them in
the School. Hence we have evolved
by the inexorable logic OF progress
two great classes of women-the par
asitic class, or these who are consum-
ers and employers, but non-producers,
and the individualistic class, the
workers and producers. : The first are
those who live without productive Ia
Dor on the money that others have
earned or are earning for them. The
second are those who, usually by ne
cessity, sometimes by choice, are
earning the money by which they are
supported. In this class come all
those women who, without recognized
w~age-earning capacity, are really
wage-earners by virtue Of being the
housekeepers, the mothers and the
c%aretakers of the family. oil.
Now, with the growth Of this great
class of wage-earning, individuallzed
women, the representative power OF
men has actually diminished, and is
steadily diminishing. The number OF
women who are industrial, intellect
ual and political units is enormous,
and is steadily and rapidly growing.
They are not represented by any male
vote or by any effective political pow
er, and they never will be until they
represent themselves in exactly the
same way that the men represent
themselves-by their individual fran
chise.
|. The question is, I take it, purely
one of evolution, and as such it is as
inevitably to be decided in the affirm
ative as has been the question of
the abolition of slavery, the question
of equal education and the question
of industrial and professional liberty.
No amount of protesting on the part
of the anti-suffragists, who are largely
of the parasitic class, will hinder the
inevitable evolution Of the race.
But the real efficiency Of the move
ment will come to pass when every
woman who believes in the equal suf-
frage, when every woman who be-
lieves that taxation without represen-
tation is as wrong for the woman as
for the man, sees to it that no vote
which she car influence is cast for
any man who is not honestly and &C
lively in favor Of equal rights for all
the citizens of our free land.
When equal suffrage becomes q
real factor at the polls, then it will
come to pass. Let every woman who
respects her sex see to it:that it speed
lily speaks this language which the
politician alone understands.