The Washington herald., 1912-02-20
Rr DOROTHY DIX.


ever, that women give Of their lack OF
sex pride is when they permit themselves
TO be classed politically with the on
Ecourings OF the earth.
The criminal. the idiot. the insane, and
womsn-these are the despised ones TO
whom a voice in government is denied.
And women submit meekIy to the CLASH
iication. Apparently they esteem the
murderer or the thug TO be of the same
morals as themselves. Apparently they
think that the raving lhnatic has as
sound Judgment and is as capable OF
forming an opinion on q subject as they
are. Apparently they hold their mental
fly as no higher than that Of the Glib
berinK idiot.
They do not finch under the measure
less contempt that man show for them
by bracketing them with the outcasts Of
society Aside from the simple human
Justice that makes II iniquitous for half
Of the world to rule the other half, for
no other reason than because one hair
happened TO be born male and the other
half female land that is particularly in
defensible in a country that is alleged to
have a democratic form Of governmenD,
one would think that the mere knowledge
that she was classed with the criminal,
the idiot, and the insane would make
every woman so mad that she would tie
ner bonnet anu OuL anu AShN AOA
the ballot until she got it
They Have No Pride.
One might suppose that this stigma,
this slur against her womanhood that
ranked her with the degraded and the
cursed, would rouse the pride OF the
meekest.' and stir the blood of the most
sluggish. But it doesn't touch the great
majority Of women at all They have
no pride in their sex.
When Kipling wrote '"The Female of
the Species which was poor poetry
and worse natural history, but insult
Ing as the famous woman hater knew
how to make 1.-THE magazine which
words: "It is like the lash OF whip
across the face of every woman"
Can you beat that for a slurring innu-
endo Yet women didn't resent the sup
position that they would stand being
struck across the face, metaphorically
or physically.
I, myself. sat in a theater as long as
as I could endure it, while a man told
what he said he saw Of the working out
of woman suffrage in Colorado. He open
" declared that none but women OF the
underworld voted in that State, in spite
of the election statistics that show that
practically all Colorado women vote; he
affirmed that he saw women by the hun
dreds sell their votes for enoney and
shamelessly introduce sex into politics.
He described the Colorado woman
voter as such a monster of graft and
guile as made the most abandoned ward
heeler an angel of innocence beside her.
Had the picture he drew been true Of
the Colorado woman. It was a thing to
make that theater a place Of wailing and
tears, and bow every woman's head in
shame, and yet there were women there
who sat up and loudly applauded every
fresh attack Of this man upon their sis
ter women.
They had so little sex pride that they
were actually willing to pay to hear a
man tell untruths that reflected on other
women, and that relegated Their sex to
par with the lowest of humanity.
When you come right down to brass
tacks. the real reason that so many
women oppose woman suffrage, or are
indifferent to it, is because they have
absolutely no pride in themselves and
no sense of the dignity OF womanhood.
And this is the most inexplicable phe-
nOmenon in all nature.
The Humble Rich Woman.
Take, for instance. the rich woman;
the woman who has houses and lands
and stocks and bonds. You would think
that the mere fact Of her possessions
would make her a suffragist, and that
she would feel that she should have the
right to say what taxes were levied
against her property. But she doesn't.
She is humbly willing in the vast major
fly Of cases for her footman and her but
Ter and her chauffeur, and even for the
male beggar to whom she gives aims,
TO vote what taxes they please upon
her. She doesn't presume to settle such
affairs for herself.
You would think that the educated
women of the country. the college wom-
en-, the high school graduates. the club
women, would wTithe under the knowl-
edge that they are not supposed to have
as much intelligence as the most ignor-
ant male foreigner or iIliterate male
negro. But they don't. Every day you
can hesr women say that they believe
that questions Of politics should be left
to men to settle.
You would think that the mother who
has gone down into the valley of the
shadow to bear child and who has
given her nights and days to its care,
would feel that she was entitled to have
at least half interest in its guardianship.
But she doesn't. She tsmely submits TO
a law that gives it to the father just
because he is a man and she is a
woman
You would think that the women who
give their lives 10 good works and up
lifting humanity would feel that they are
desirable cftizens-quite as desirable,
say, as the pardoned convict Not So
Mrs. Russell Sage, Miss Helen Could
Miss Anne Morgan have no vote; but
tens OF thousands OF drunken loafers
who have served workhouse terms have.
Yet women have so little pride they do
not resent this discrimination against
them.
The Main Trouble.
That's the trouble with women. They
have no pride. They have so little pride
that in marriage they do not even pre-
Sume TO pick out their mates; they have
10 little pride that a good woman con-
Biders q man with any sort of past
good enough for her to marry; so little
pride that q wife doesn't demand any
recompense for her work in the home
but her food and clothes, and in business
she will take any kind Of wages she can
get Women have so little pride that In
the churches they will do all the work
and let men do all the bossing, and in