Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-07-18
BY MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL

There are two basic principles against
woman suffrage.
First, no electorate has ever ex-
listed, or ever can exist, which cannot
execute its OWE laws.
Second, no voter ever claimed, or
ever can ,ialm, maintenance from an
other voter.
Law consists of a series of Thou
shalt-nots. but government does not
result until an armed man stands
ready to execute the law. S~uffragists
claim that the moral forces ought to
law Is made for the law-breaker, who
always uses physical force.
A dozen ruffians could prevent a
hundred women from depositing a sin
gle ballos. Surprising the ballots. how
ever, deposited by the indulgence of
men, women will surely be called
upon to .legislate upon subjects of
which no woman has ever had, or ever
can have. practical experience.
The entire execution of the law
would ne in the hands Of men, backed
up by the irresponsible electorate
which could not lift a finger to appre-
bend or punish a criminal.
The relation between voting and
maintenance is based upon the prin-
cjple that no voter shall be COM
relled to maintain any person who has
a vote which may be cost against his
benefs ctor. No principle Of govern
ment Is worked out with more mathe-
NAUTICAL exactitude. On attaining his
majority a man loses all claim to
maintenance as long as he is a voter,
II he should become q pauper he at
on, e loses his vote.
The s~uffragist claim that a wife rem
ders services to her husband, which en-
titles her to maintenance is not sound
Maintenance has nothing to do with
service. A wife may be paralyzed
within an hour of her marriage. She
is, however, just as much entitled to
maintenance as If she shaved forty
years for a husband and fourteen chill
dren. She may become insane, but
her husband is still bound to maintain
her, nor can he get a divorce from her
on the ground Of her insanity and ir-
ability to perform any service. A
wife's maintenance is her equivalent
for a vote.
The fact that in the suffrage States
women have peer deprived of enor-
nous property privileges proves that
the principle is working. In Colorado,
Utah. Idaho and wyoming a wife has
no dover. She is jointly responsible
for the support Of the children. The
homestead may be mortgaged or sold
without her consent. Non-support of
q husband is a ground for divorce.
gix women in Utah were divorced by
their husbands for non-support.
The phrase taxation without repre-
sentation is tyranny" was never Meant
or taken in the sense that the payment
of taxes carries with 1t a vote.
Taxation, in its inception, meant
protection. Property owners paid to
have their property protected. The
property is taxed, not the individual.
Nobody has proposed that the property
of minors be exempt. The idea that
taxation carries with it a vote Is
peculiarly ludicrous when employed by
suffragists from the South. If no one
should be taxed who has not a vote,
then 100000 900 negroes should be ex-
empt from taxation; also all lunatics,
minors, and criminals. all inhabitants
of territories and the District of CO.
lumbia. The million or more foreigners
added annually to our population
would be exempt for at least five years.
If Carnegie. Rockefeller and Morgan
should choose to become aliens, they
would be exempt.