The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1914-07-23
BRYAN OUT FOR
WOMAN SUFFRAGE;
HIS STATEMENT
SECRETARY OF STATE FORMALLY
DECLARES HIS POSITION
FAVoRING FRANCHISE
FOR WOMEN.
MEETS MANY ARGUMENTS
OFFERED BY OPPOSITION
Nebraskan Would Ask No Political
Right Not Given His Wife and AS
serts Woman Has Proved Her
self Equal to Every Task I'M
posed Thus Far.

self Equal to Every Task I'M
posed Thus Far.
Washington, July IS. - Secretary
Bryan, in a formal statement came
out for woman suffrage. He declared
he would ask no political right for
himself that he vas not willing to
grant his wife, and announced his in
tention of supporting the proposed
state constitutional amendment ex-
tending the franchise to women to be
voted upon in Nebraska next Novem-
Der.
Woman Proves Herself Capable.
Woman, Mr.. Bryan said, has proved
herself equal to every responsibility
imposed upon her, and would not fail
society in this emergency. Above all
other arguments in favor of giving
her the ballot he placed the right of
the mother to a voice in the mould
ing of the environment of her chill
dren.
The mother" the secretary said,
can justly claim the right to employ
every weapon which can be made eff
fective for the protection of those
whose interests she guards and the
ballot will put within her reach all
of the Observation-Disclosures OF govern.
ment, including the police power
Bryan's Argument.
The statement follows in part:
AS man and woman are ~co-tenants
of the earth and must work out their
destiny together, the presumption is
on the side of equality of treatment
in all that pertains to their joint life
and its opportunities. The burden Of
proof is on those who claim for one
an advantage over the other in deter
mining the conditions under which
both shall live. This claim has not
been established in the matter of suf-
frage.
The first objection which | emem,
Der to have heard was that as woman
annot bear arms she should not have
a voice in deciding questions thai
might lead to war, or in enacting
laws that might require an army 70:
their enforcement. This argument is
seldom offered now, for the reason
that as civilization advances laws are
obeyed because they are an express
sion of public opinion, not merely be-
cause they have power behind them.
Might Relieve Monotony.
Second, it is urged by some that
woman's life is already full of care and
that the addition of suffrage would
either o~verburden her or turn her at.
tention away from the duties of the
home. The answer made to this is
that the exercise of the franchise
might result in a change of thought
and occupation that would relieve the
m%onotony.
Third, many well meaning men and
women affirm that suffrage would work
a harm to women by lessening the re.
spect in which she is held. This argu.
ment would have more weight had il
not been employed against every prop
osition advanced in favor of the en-.
iargement of woman's sphere. This
objection was one raised to the high
er education of woman, but it is no
longer heard.
Fears Proved G~roundIess.
These objections, however. honest
ly advanced, have proven impotent to
retard woman's progress. May not
the fears sincerely entertained by the
opponents Of woman suffrage be found
to be as groundless as those that once
forced the widow in eastern India to
ascend the funeral pyre or as those
that exclude Mohammedan women
from the social benefits and RESPONSE
bilities which the woman of the Chris
tian world shares?
and are not the second and third
objections above stated refuted, to
some extent, at least, by the fact that
in the states which have adopted wo-
man suffrage (and in the other nations
that have adopted it, there is no agi-
tation for a return to the system un-
der which man has a monopoly of
the right to vote? Is 1t not fair to
assume that an effort would be made
to correct the mistake II woman suf-
frage had really failed to give salts
faction to the people where it has
been tried?
Rights Of Mother Supreme.
"The mother can justly claim the
right to employ every weapon which
can be made effective for the protec.
ton of those whose interests she
guards, and the ballot will put within
her reach all tn, instrumentalities of
government. including the police
power.
Politics will not suffer by wom-
ans entrance into it. II the political
world has grown more pure in spite
If the evil influences that have oper.
tied to debase it. 1t will not be pol.
uted by the presence and participation
OF woman