Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-05-05
:. WOMAN'S PAGE :.

that by strange anomaly she could
occupy the throne of some of the
most powerful and highly civilized
monarchies of the earth. The mar
r1ed woman could hold no property;
could make no contract; had no law
full control over her own children of
her own person; she could not make
a will; the customs of society shut
her out from the learned professions
and from all profitable occupations.
1t was deemed unbecoming for her
to speak in public, and In many parts
of the world to appear in public with
out an escort. On the continent of
Europe and in the mines OF Great
Britain she was condemned to the
most brutal and degrading occupa-
tions, and was sometimes harnessed
to the plough with bullocks, or on
all fours drew loads over the tram
ways Of mines. If those who ask
now that the vote of women shall be
counted in the United States have.
any prejudice to encounter, let those
who feel it remember that forty years
| ago it would have seemed far more
| monstrous to do away with the con-
ditions of things that / have des-
cribed, than it does today to count
the votes of their wives, their sisters,
| or their mothers.
Today, woman manages her prop
erty; she is admitted to the bar of
the Supreme Court Of the United
States and to the pulpit; she manages
the postoffice; she is librarian of the
public library; she conducts the
school; she practices medicine; she
is head of the hospital; she has .ele-
waited the calling of the trained nurse
to high rank among liberal profess
sions. No man can be found so con-
sentative as to desire to take back.
ward step in any Of these things.
Meanwhile the State has been
making an equal advance. Universal
suffrage, has become the rule here,
and large extension of the ballot has1
become the rule in all free States.
The negro has become freeman and
a citizen. Everywhere that the de-
main of the State which is represent
ed by force is contracting and that
domain Of the State which is rep
resented by public spirit, by charity.
by humanity, is enlarging. , When
men thought of government CEN
tury ago, they thought chiefly of the
Jail, the criminal court, the police
and army. Today, they think chiefly
Of the college, the technical school,
the asylum, the road, the library,
the postoffice, the hospital and the
home. The rank of the State among
civilized nations is measured by its
colleges, its schools of art and science
it's institutions of reform, for the cure
of the insane, for the education of the
blind and the deaf and the dumb.
The town points with pride to the
excellence of its libraries, its schools,
it's churches and its roads.
Now the debate between the advo-
Gates of woman suffrage and its oppo-
nents is, to my mind, but contest
between two theories of the function
of the State. If the State is to do
nothing or to do little but to raise
and discipline armies. to build jails,
and to establish police courts, the less
of Belmont county, on the part of his
for her, and the better for the State.
except that even here the State must
woman has to do with it the better
largely depend upon her for the in
strumentalities which are to diminish
the evils Of war and lessen its hor-
rors. If, ON the other hand, it is to
use it's forces as to put an end to
these things; If education, justice,
science, art, charity, the promotion
of commerce and manufacture, the
healing of disease, the promoting
everywhere of increased reverence
for the individual soul, be function
to which its great forces are to be de-
voted in the future, then it is indis-
pensable that woman should have
in it's management her full and equal
sharc.-From an address delivered
at Amherst, Mass, Sept. "a, 1884.