New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-03-02
WOMEN RAISE QUESTION: WHY FORCE WOMEN ~ VOlE?
" AnwaA Anti Suffrage Arguments
Miss Ida NJ. Tarbell Gives
Reasons for | Ter Belief That
Suffrage Would Not
Benefit Women.

The assumption that the improvement
Of wOman's position depends upon the
vote is quite as unsound as the charge OF
her inferiority. Sixty years ago 1t was
held that the only road to the broad ana
full plan of education which the new
democratic scheme made imperative was
the ballot. but that scheme has been
realized to the full without a single WON.
ans vote. Free and diversified profes.
sional opportunity was said to depend
upon suffrage. but a woman can be al.
most what she will to-day. II has not
taken vote Of hers to set professional
doors ajar and they will surely swing
further open, ballot or no ballot.
Undoubtedly the argument for suffrage
which to-day causes most hesitation
among the thoughtful and sympathetic
who are not convinced Of the wisdom Of
extending suffrage to women is that fair
conditions and wages for the great body
of women in industry can only be realized
by giving them the suffrage, that they
need it for self-protection. The rapid ad.
vance which protective legislation for
women and children is making, the abso-
lutte certainty that it will be soon as per-
feet as has been conceived and will be
improved as rapidly as it is learned how
to improve Il, the absolute certainty that
wages depend not on votes but economic
laws. are the best answers to this.
The woman in industry is after all but
a transient-hcr working life averaging
but a few years. She graduates from
shop or factory TO real life. The best
that can be done for her is TO see TO il
that this brief industrial period does not
impair her physically or morally for her
high functions. and, above all. that il
does not lead her TO believe even dmly
that there are happier or more useful
things than those TO which she instinct
lively turns. A training that will lead her
10 apply her powers with appreciation and
enthusiasm TO domestic and not TO politi-
cal life l. what she needs Moreover as a
class the industrial woman as We see her
to-day will pass as this country regains
the industrial balance IL has lost. as the
present unhealthy and abnormal atten-
ZION given to manufacturing ceases and
commerce and agriculture are restored to
their proper place.
harmful and unsound implication in
the suffrage argument has been that
womans position in society would i'm
prove in proportion as her activities and
interests become the same as those OF
men. This implies OF course that mans
work in society is more important and
developing than woman's. But both are
essential 10 society. and who can prove
that one essential factor is superior 10
another essential factor? Argue as
scientists Will as 10 which sex is prl-
mary and which secondary. they prove
nothing. since the race ceases when
either breaks down. As for woman de-
veloping more perfectly under masculine
conditions. all the laws Of growth are
against il. Her apititudes and instincts
and functions are different 1t is IN
following them that she grows most
easily. Unconscious living along the
lines OF ones nature is always most JOY
Gus and fruitful. Doing mans work
in a mans way almost invariably means
for a woman circumstances ire
ton self-suppression. II is costly 10
society and to the individual. for ii means
at least the partial atrophy OF powers
and qualities peculiar 10 woman and
essential to the harmony the charm
and the vigor Of society. Her differences
are her strength Their full growth CON-
pletes the human cycle. To suppress
these differences is TO rob not merely her
individual life but the life of the world
OF its full ripeness.
IDA NJ TARBEHIA