The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1913-03-08
CARDINAL GIBBONS
AND EL|HU ROOT
Views of Two of Americas Great
Men on the Question of
Woman Suffrage.
Granting of Such a Privilege Would
be Loss to Women, Says
Senator Root.
What Equal Rights Imply, Clearly
Stated by Cardinal
Gibbons.

As is we'll known Cardinal Gibbons
is opposed to woman suffrage, and his
pronouncements on the subject are al
ways read with interest by admirers of
this great churchman. His words
which we print today are we'll worth
the careful consideration OF all
thoughtful people.
And now comes Senator Elihu Root
OF New York, recognized as one OF the
ablest statesmen of this day, and
makes one OF the most impressive dec
larations against woman suffrage ever
made by u public man. Here are the
senator's views:
81 am opposed to the granting of
suffrage to women because l believe
that it would be a loss to woman, to
all women. and to every woman: and
because l believe it would DO an injury
to the state, and 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 IT
were a natural right. then women
should have it though the heavens fall.
But if there be any one thing settled
in the long discussion of this subject,
He is thats suffrage il mot a. natural
right, but is simply a means of gov
ernment; and the sole question to be
i discussed is whether government by
the suffrage OF men and women will
be better government than by the suf-
| frage Of men alone.
! Women Are Different.
"lnto my judgment there enters no
element of the inferiority OF woman.
1t is not that woman is inferior to
man, it is that woman is different from
man: that in the distribution of pow =
er, of capabilities, Of qualities, our
| Maker has created man adapted to the
performance of certain functions i'm the
economy Of nature and society, and
woman adapted to the performance OF
other functions.
"One question to be determined in
the discussion of the subject is wheth-
J or the nature of woman is such that
her taking upon her the performance
OF the functions implied in suffrage
will leave her in the possession and
the exercise of her highest powers, CT
will be an abandonment of those
powers and an entering upon a field
in which, because OF her differences
from man, she is distinctly inferior.
| Would Abandon Weapons.
Woman rules today by the sweet
and noble influence of her characte
Put woman into the arena Of conflict
and she abandons these great weap-
IONS 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
i
liberty and the pursuit of happiness;
of protecting our person, our proper
ty, our homes, our wives and our chill
dren against foreign aggression
against civil dissension, against mobs
and riots. against crime and disorder
and all the army OF evil; civil society
wages it's war and government is the
method of protcction-protcction Of US
all.
I'm the divine distribution of pow.
! crs, the duty and the right of protcc.
ton rests with the male 1t is so will
men. 1t is great mistake, it is a IA
tai mistake that these excellent wOmer
, make when they conceive that tho
functions OF men, are superior to their.
and seek to usurp them.
'-rhe true government is in the fam.
, lily. The true throne is in the house.
hold. The highest exercise Of power
is that which forms the conscience, in.
; fluences the will, controls the inpuls.
es of men, and there today woman /:
superior and woman rules the world"
{ statsswomen Versus churehwomen-
i BY Cardinal Gibbons.
. The world is governed more b,
l ideals than by. ideas; it is Influenced
more by living, concrete models thar
by abstract principles Of virtue.