The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-23

embarrass the diplomacy which pro-
tects them and their children by add
ing to the ignorance vote of the men,
already immensely strong, an ignor-
ance vote which is imposed by nature
and irreparable? One common reply
to all these arguments is that women
are concerned in all these things as
the wives, daughters and mothers of
men. Nothing can be more true and
the fact carries with it the necessity
for wider outlook and a wider men
tai training for women in the future
t'nan they have been accustomed TO in
the past. Their influence on all great
questions should be and will be in
proportion to their education. It is
only where force and numbers come
In that they ought to yield the field to
men. Indeed the educated woman
will probably it seems to me, have
an influence somewhat greater than
that of the ordinary educated man.
Her sex and the fact that she stands
outside of the rough and tumble of
politics, make the better type of man
more inclined to listen to her: and
the more knowledge she obtains. and
the more political forbearance she
shows, the greater will tnis influence
be.
In the case of the poor the differ
ence between the man and women, in
point of political judgment is neces-
sarily more strongly marked than
need be in the richer classes. The
wife of the working man has the sole
care Of the children and the home,
and in the majority of cases is over
burdened by it; her thoughts do not
travel beyond the home circle or the
merest local affairs she has indeed
neither interest or time for indimen-
tary politics and this class of women
are the great majority of women OF
this country This Is the class to
which ! belong and the class to which
you belong. The man has at least
the rough training of the public
house and its talk. of the village eau
Gus and convention. If nothing else,
and all the hundred opportunities.
forced upon him often by the mere
conditions of his trade, of becoming
acquainted with the great political
issues of the day. So that in the case
Of the educated woman the political
vote would rather diminish than in
cease the power she has, or might
have already, while in the case of the
uneducated the vote would couple
| political power with political mex.
perience, imposed by natural condi-
tions and practically not alterable by
woman's will
Does not this Insistence upon the
suffrage for women imply an absurd
Qualification of the vote as an instru
ment of power? What greater glory
can woman want than to know that
| she has raised up son or a daughter
10 the world imbued with right prin
| ciples and a power for good to his OF
| her fellowmen? Probably i'm all his
tory there is no account OF a stronger
bond of affection than that which ex
listed between George Washington and
his mother Mary. The brave, quiet
son. who when hOnors came thick
and fast and people acclaimed him q
hero and leader among men, still
sought her advice and reverenced heI
above all women. What greater glory
can any woman ask than that which
| President Mckinley bestowed upon
his mother at his presidential inaug
Duration. When the eyes of the world
were upon him. as the inaugural Ger
emonies were finished he turned and
kissed his mother thereby giving tC
her the glory of the position Of power
as tne head of a great nation, that he
then held. How would the name Suf
fragette have looked in Mother Nc
kinley's bonnet that day Ii is not
such women as these who are asking
for suffrage.
My opponent asks who appointed
woman her place. God appointed wo
man her place when ne made her the
mother of ais children. And woman
was fulfilling her appointment wher
Mary became the mother of Jesus, q
Saviour to the world. She was fulfill
ing her appointment when Mary be
came the mother of George Washing
ton, the Father of his Country. AND
in all ages past and in all ages tC
come woman will find no place where
sac can so nobly and gloriously fulfill
her mission as in the home. Presi
dent Roosevelt has said. The home
is the vital point of the nation and
what hurts the home hurts the nation.
But the intellectual. the moral and
the industrial life are created by a
hundred forces other than the politi
cal force, and from the exercise of nc
one of them are women shut out
What We have to do is to press for
ward in these fields and it is possible
and even probable that women's in.
huences in them, exercised apart from
the ordinary political machine will be
all the stronger and healthier.
| The time has gone by if it ever ex-
listed when a woman can be said to
have no interest beyond the home.
On the contrary, the public life of the
modern state cannot do without wom-
an. But If we are wise we women of
America, we shall let the franchise
alone If we are true patriots we
shall not claim it; We snail concern
ourselves in local and social govern.
ment But we shall not ask for pow
er where we can have no true respon-
sibility, Let us in the name of COM
mon sense. leave to men the fran
chise which determines war and
peace. diplomacy and finance and
those vast industrial affairs which are
exclusively masculine.
Mrs. w J. Hicks.