New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-03-02
ROOTS VIEWS ON SUFFRAGE
Says 1t Would Injure State and
Be Loss to Women.

| am opposed 10 granting of suffrage 10
women. because | believe that il would
lie a loss TO women. to all women and 10
every woman: and because | believe IL
would he an injury To the state. TO every
man and every woman in the state. 1t
would be useless to argue this IL the right
of suffrage were natural right. II II
We're natural right. then women should
have it though the heavens fall But II
there he one thing settled I'm the long dis
cussion of this subject. il is that suffrage
is not natural right. but is simply
means of government: and the sole ques-
ton to he discussed is whether govern
ment by the suffrage Of men and women
will be better government than by the
suffrage VI men alone.
The question is. therefore. a question
of expediency. and the question of expe-
diency upon this subject is not question
Of tyranny, but a question of liberty.
question of the preservation of free con
stitutional government. OF law, order.
peace and prosperity.
1 Into my Judgment there enters no ele-
men OF the inferiority of woman. 1t is
not that woman is inferior to man. but
J il is that woman is different from man;
that in the distribution Of powers. OF
! capacities. of qualities. our Maker has
created man adapted 10 the performance
Of certain functions in the economy of
nature and society. and woman adapted
to the performance Of other functions.
one question to be determined In the dis
cussion OF this subject is whether the
nature of woman IS such tnat her taking
upon her the performance of the func-
tions implied in suffrage will leave her
! in the possession and the exercise Of her
4 highest powers or Will be All ABANDON
ment of those powers and an entering
upon a field in which, because of her dif-
! ferences from man, she is distinctly IN
feror.
! l have said that l thought suffrage
would be loss for women. | think 50
! because suffrage implies not merely the
i casting of the ballot, the gentle ana
peaceful fall of the snowflake: but sur
! frage, If 1t means anything. means enter
! ing upon the field of political life, ana
politics is modified war. In politics there
is struggle. strife. contention, bitterness,
heart burning, excitement, agitation
everything which is adverse to the true
character Of woman. Woman rules to-
day by the sweet and noble influences or
! her character. Put woman into the arena
| of conflict and she abandons these great
weapons which control the world. and
she takes into her hands weapons with
which she is unfamiliar and which she Is
unable to WELD.
The whole science of government is the
science Of protecting life and liberty ana
the pursuit of happiness, of protecting
our person, our property. our homes, our
wives and our children against foreign ag-
eression, against civil dissension, against
mobs and riots Against crime and dis
order. and all the army Of evil, civil So
ciety wages its war. and government IL
the method of protection, protection Of
US all.
In the divine distribution Of powers,
the duty and the right Of protection rests
with the male 1t Is so throughout nature.
1t is so with men. II is a great mistake,
il is a fatal mistake that these excellent
women make when they conceive that
the functions of men are superior to
theirs and seek to usurp them The true
government is In the family. The true
throne Is in the household. The highest
exercise of power is that which forms
the conscience. influences the will, con-
trolls the impulses Of men, and there to-
day woman is supreme and woman rules
the world. ELIHU ROOT.