The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1912-09-06
WOMhN'S COLUMN
Devoted to the Cause of
Woman Suffrage.
RDITED BY MRS. CLARA S. A. RENNrE.
"woman's place is the home"

other means than marriage. Neverthe-
less no matter how much woman invades
mans sphere, man is not likely to invade
thesone universally ascribed to her and
so long as we have the institution of
home, it will remain the speciality of
women rather than men. Seemingly
she could have no simpler duty than to
keep her house clean and wholesome
and feed her family properly, bat the
modern woman cannot attend to her
traditional activities ip the old fashioned
way. To discharge even these primary
duties which belong to the most con-
sentative OF women, she finds many
pressing obligations outside her own
family circle and if she is to do her share
of the work of the world as an old
fashioned home maker as we'll as house
keeper the ballot is becoming as neces-
sary now as the broom once was. Even
to have clean house, it is necessary to
have clean streets; clean streets necessi-
tates clean mayors and the same may be
applied to schools and school boards,
pure food, health and health boards and
sanitary surroundings, and these matters
are controlled by the men. Yet the
wife is supposed to guard the moral and
physical health of her family, especially
her children, and how can she be held
accou ntable for the result when the
men are responsible for the conditions
producing the results. Her home sphere
has widened and broadened and to say
she should not vote is simply to say she
should not have the authority necessary
to enable her to properly accomplish the
work that has always belonged to her
and for which she is held responsible.
"They would have to- hold Office"
Men can vote but all men do not hold
office. Some are fitted for it ant some
are not. A woman would have to be
elected to Office by the votes of men and
women together. Women are serving
as officials already and some of those
most prominent 10 opposing equal
suffrage have been holders of public
office. The la .e president OF the Mass.
Anti-Suffrage association, Mrs. j. Elliot
Cabot, was for years a member of the
school board of Brookline end also
overseer of the poor. Yet that associa-
ton IN its published documents especial
ly objects to woman suffrage on the
ground that suffrage involves the hold
ing of Office and that is incompatible
with the duties of most women. Suf
frage does not involve office. holding by
the majority of women and in the en-
franchised states there has been no rush
OF women into Office, and the offices
they do hold are mainly educational and
charitable. In Wyoming they have had
full suffrage for over forty years, yet
only one woman has been member Of
the legislature, and none of the other
suffrage states has ever had more than
four women in the legislature at one
time.
"It Would lead to family quarreIs
and increase divorces.
Full suffrage was granted the women
of Wyoming in 1869. During the
twenty years from 1870 to 1890 divorce
in the United States at large increased
about three times as fast as the popula-
ton. In the group of western states
emitting Wyoming, it increased nearly
four times as fast as the population;
while in Wyoming it increased only
about one.half as fast as the population.
A careful investigation of the Colorado
Court records proves that there has
never been a divorce where the wife's
political activity was assigned as the
cause. "An ounce of experience is
worth a ton of prevention.
"They cannot fight and do police
duty"
This in spite of the fact that for some
time women police officers have been do
ing effective work in number of the
large cities. III no men were allowed to
vote except those who were able and
willing to do military and police duty,
women might be consistently barred for
that reason. But so long as the old, the
in6rm, the halt, the lame and blind are
freely admitted to the ballot box, some
better reason must be found for exclud.
ing women than the fact that they do
not fight. All men over 45 are exempt
from military duty, yet they vote From
the Civil war statistics we learn that out
of men examined for militrry duty, TAO
in every 1000 journalists were fo1nd I'M
fit ga of every 1000 preachers, $50 of
every 1000 physicians and 544 10 every
1000 lawyers. 1t should be remembered
that some woman risks her life whenever
a soldier is born into the world. Mrs.
Zerelda q. Wallace of Indiana, from
whom Gen. Lew Wallace drew the por-
trait of the mother in Ben Hur, once
said, "If women do not fight, they give
to the state all its soldiers" This ought
in all fairness to be taken as an Offset
for the military service women do not
render.
sit would destroy chivalry."
Justice would be worth more to a
woman than chivalry, il they could not
have both. A working girl put the case
in nutshell when she said; 81 would
gladly stand for 20 minute in the street
car going home, il by so doing l could
get the same pay that man would have
had for doing my days work." Justice
ard chivalry are not in the least incom.
patible and tie women of the suffrage