The Dickinson press., 1909-11-27
COLUMN DEVOTED TO
EQUAL SUFFRAGE

written by Justice David j. Brewer of
the United States supreme court, and
published in the Christmas number of
the Ladies' World. are certainly from q
high enough authority to merit the care
full consideration of thinking men and
women:
THE question of female suffrage, like
the ghost of Banzuo, will not down. 1t
has passed beyond the days of ridicule
and we hear no more of its advocates as
short-haired women and long haired
men. 1t is being considered by thought
full men and women. animated by the
desire of doing that which shall be for
the best interests of all.
Speaking abstractly it is difficult to
see how the capacity to vote. and to
vote wisely. depends on the mere matter
of sex, or that that fact alone decides
for or against equal suffrage. 80
I'm favor of female suffrage is the
belief that it will tend to cleanse the
polls and purify politics. 1t is asked
who is doing most effective work in
elevating the character of our public
schools, in cleaning and improving the
appearance of cities, in suppressing
intemperance and vice? And if all
feminine strength a be brought into
active effort. will not the result be a
wonderful change for the better? 1t is
said, it is true in response TO this, that
the actions of the women reformers show
a radicalism 80 intense as to be retroac-
tive and destructive; that instead of
using such remedies as are reasonable
and moderate. they attack vice in a way
that offends and will ultimately do more
harm than good. But will not ex-
perience correct this evil?
"And now, what Of the future?
Female suffrage will come. Not fully
at once, but by varying steps. Wo-
mans broader education. her increasing
familiarity with business and public
affairs will lead to it. And why not?
The chief reply is the home. God for
bid that it should be jeopardized, for
upon it in all its fulness depends the
best social life. In fact. it is the basis
upon which growing humanity depends.
And in it woman must ever be the
great factor. the unchallenged queen.
But female suffrage will not debase
the home. or lessen its power and in
fluence. On the other hand, it will in
troduce a refining and uplifting power
into our political life. 1t will not stop
marriage. neither will a higher educa-
tion. The great natural laws of our
being will always assert themselves.
Speaking at a Vassar commencement a
few years since, l overheard one of the
graduates say to two others, Il am SIM
ply disguised: three-fourths of the girls
are engaged already" Evidently she
was not n of the happy ones. 1t is to
he hoped that she Jared better afterward.
But woman. conscious of her ~indepen-
dence and capacity to support herself,
will demand true manhood in her hus-
band. Children will come. However,
the glory of the home will not be in the
number. but in the quality of the off
spring. Race suicide is not the worst
offense. There is wisdom in the fable
of the hare and the lioness. The former,
boasting of her litter, snereed at the
latter for her single offspring. YES
was the reply, but he is a lion.' To
load a home with so many children that
a mother cannot give to each the full
blessing of a MOTHER care and attention
is far worse than race suicide. Not
crime, but mutual self-denial should and
will place reasonable limits on the
family group.
Union in effort is the growing lesson
of the times. Our first parents were,
according to the allegory in Genesis,
driven out of Eden, that garden which
gave mar all things to live with and
nothing to live for.
Hand in hand they went u of Eden !;
hand in hand they must enter the new
paradise, arander and nobler than the
pristine Eden. because wrought out of
the tborn-growins earth by their united
labors. and into which have entered and
shall enter all of human toll and struggle,
s%elf-denial and sacrifice. hopes and
aspirations, faith and worship"