Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-03-12

would seem like an acknowledgment
that the c~olonists had planned more
intelligently than their successors
could grasp.
Equal suffrage is as inevitable as
the fall of monarchies; it represents
a demand of advanced civilization as
memorable as that for the free exer-
else of religion or the abolition OF nu-
man slavery; its hand-maidens are in
ternational arbitration and world
peace. Our errand is neither q a
like challenge nor APPELLANT suppl1ca-
ton. We seek no strife and only fear
that we may lack the power and skill
to indicate that this day is chosen for
the writing of history in New Jersey
and also for righting a wrong in its
history.
There is opposition to woman's suf-
frage; it springs largely to lack of
understanding, partly from what might
be termed as intelligent o~bstinacy, and
last and least from hopeless ignorance.
The ignorant attitude respecting the
real status of woman can easily be
reconciled in some cases to hereditary
| faint. The ancestor probably worked
the nullldIi ltlildit DCSl0C bAAN "a x ~
pillow or in harness before the milk
cart.
Though woman has graduated from
| pillow harness to landowner, from an
obscure sphere to an active and promi-
nent part in every profession and in
most trades. there are still some men
and women who can or will not see
hat the logical complement to this
- - --1 1.aroI afaftYo Of
woman in a democracy is voice
through the ballot in working out the
great economic problems of the times.
/ have heard or read most of the ar
guments against woman's suffrage;
there are many, but no reasons.
"The danger of a so-called shrinking
sisterhood' is as unreal and visionary
as piracy by a phantom-fiying Dutch
man. The best proof for that is that
nowhere in woman's suffrage States or
countries under limited or full suffrage
has there been a recall OF that bene-
hcent institution. AS h doubling OF
the ignorant vote, the premise is false,
but if it were true 1t would not be @
reason. in view of the fact that it did
not nor should it have prevailed when
the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
I nlG0lS TO ll1e b1llitNt gtNtNS
were adopted
Mrs. Fisher Leads Opposition.
Mrs. Clark Fisher, owner of the Eagle
Anvil Works of Trenton, introduced
1.-The opposition. AS illustrating her idea
of the way the Legislature should deal
with the woman suffrage question, Mrs.
Fisher quoted: Undetermined, stroke
q nettle, it stings you for your pains;
grasp it like a man of mettle, it soft
as silk remains"
Miss Minnie Bronson, OF Washing
ton, d. c., was the next anti speaker.
She was "a former factory worker and
later employed in the labor depart
ment of the United States census bu-
reau.
''Too much attention should not be
paid to the enthusiasm of a new idea, y
she began. 1.-THE new idea, whether in
politics, religion or style of dress,
always arouses a certain kind of en-
thusiasm."
Miss Bronson showed that the hours
of labor for women are regulated in
t~hirty-fve States in the Union; that
In thirty-seven States employers are
required to furnish seats for their
women help. and in thirty-nine States
the earnings of women are absolutely
secured by law against any legal proc
ess for debt, which is not the case
with the earnings of men. OF the
States that do not provide such laws
two are equal suffrage States.
Says Vote Injuries Women.
The State of Colorado, she pointed
out, passed an eight-hour law, but it
referred only TO women who had to
stand at their work. The Supreme
Court held it was unconstitutional be-
cause it was class legislation. How
could the court have decided any other
way" she exclaimed, because the
women of Colorado were no longer
wards. They had beer made the polit-
ical equals of men by the ballot"
Continuing, Miss Bronson said that
wherever the women had the ballot the
cause of woman was retarted. Indi-
vidually, it was true that women suf-
fragists had accomplished much, but
only along the ines on which both men
and women were working. Last year
hfty-four laws for the protection of
women were passed by thirty-%ght
States.
Among the noted Jersey women who
are at the hearing today are:
Mrs. Harry Campton. Mrs. George
M. Jeffrey, Mrs. Fred II. colvin, Mrs.
John r. schermerhorn. Mrs. Florence
H. Lippmann, Mrs. G. r. Neuffer. Mrs
F. Ferrer. Mrs. william B. Donnell,
Mrs. Francis NJ. Eppley, Mr.
and Mrs. Edgar A. Dunning, Mrs,
Everett Colby, Mrs. Philip McKim
Garrison, Mrs. George Merck, Miss
Cornelia j. Browne, Mrs. Charles ".
Fisk, Mrs. ], w. Knoiloff, Mrs. j.. n.
Catlow, Mrs. M. 8. Decker, Miss Helen