Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-11-30
WILL VIRGINIA
WOMEN VOTE?
sTandSOH of President Says "YeS, Within
Five Years." Before Norfolk Equal
Suffrage League.

IN ulScuSSlDR toe apathy SHOWN mere
previous to lectures on woman suffrage
by Mrs. Benjamin Valentine and Miss
Mary Johnston, a gentleman who keeps
in touch with the political conditions
throughout the State, made the remark:
eve might as well get in line, for
votes for women are coming"
That this opinion is gaining ground all
over the State will be seen from a po-
litical prophesy made by DIR. Lyon G
Tyler, president of William and Mary
College, and a grandson of the late
President John Tyler, of the United
States.
That within the next five years the
women of Virginia will be granted the
right of suffrage and will take an active
part in the battle of ballots, was proph-
esied by DR.. Tyler in a recent address
before the Norfolk Equal Suffrage
League in Norfolk. He said in part:
Great political and sociological
changes are always brought about with
a suddenness that is star tling, and Gov
erner Mann did not go far enough the
other day when he said that the women
of the Commonwealth would have the
ballot in ten years"
Diverting his attention for a few mo-
ments to a matter that he said was ger
name to the subject of his lecture, DR..
Tyler remarked that he considered it
shame, and a reflection on the State
that women are not admitted to our
higher institutions of learning. He
added that he would lend every effort
toward having this condition remedied.
In scholarly dissertation DR.. Tyler
msde his points in favor of votes for
women mainly in the field of prior ar
gumentation. He contended that wO-
mans right to vote is something she
should never have been denied; it is
necessary and universal. He traced the
progress of the past few hundred years
along other lines of human endeavor
and indicated the marked changes,
sometimes revolutionary, in the posi-
tion of woman, more particularly in ed
ucation. This last movement DR.. Tyler
believes will be the crowning effort and
will come before many are aware.
''Virginisns are prone to be supercil-
ious," continued the speaker, in ex-
planning the reasons for the delay in
giving women the ballot, land this,
coupled with the supreme indifference
of the women themselves constitutes
the greatest obstacle to the securing for
women of the rights which are now de-
MED them. Virginians are said to be
very fond of joking, of poking fun at
one another. We are not inclined at
times to take things as seriously as we
might.
''This spirit is now giving way to a
more thoughtful consideration of the
subject at hand by the electorate of the
Commonwealth. The women too are
beginning to realize the good that can
be done and the wrongs that can be
righted when they have the right to say
who shall make laws for them. Person
ally am in favor of giving them the
ballot and if they do not see fit to exer-
else that right can do no more"
Harking back to the shibboleth of
revolutionary days, taxation without
consent, DIR. Tyler pointed out the alb
surdity of keeping the ballot from wo-
men from the standpoint of history. 1t
is nothing short of a prejudice, he be-
ieves, a disease on the body polite.
In a diagnosis of this disease DIR. Ty-
Ter sought the termination of the idea
of unequal suffrage rights at a time
when physical strength prevailed in the
affairs of men. Since different stan
dard, intellect, is now maintained, and
since intellect has no sex the time is
ripe, according to DR.. Tyler's reason
ing, for change in the suffrage laws
of the State.
Anybody with two eyes and two
ears" declared DIR. Tyler, ''can see that
the women are going to have the ballot.
When they have the ballot the power of
Morality in any community will be
doubled. 1t remains for US to arouse
them from their indifference and from
an acceptance of conditions as they are
which is typical of mankind. People
accommodate themselves to their en-
vironment very readily. 1t will be re-
membered that after the fall of the
Bastile it was necessary in some inst
ances to drag the startled prisoners
from their dungeon cells to the open
and to liberty"
In concluding DR.. Tyler referred to
the progress of the equal suffrage move
ment in England and on the continent
He dwelt briefly on improved conditions
wherever it bad been adopted, at home
or abroad He called the attention of
his audience to the fact that it has not
been restricted by religious convictions
because it has been adopted in Catholic