Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-08-19
WOMEN
WILL LOSE MUCH
FOR SUFFRAGE RIGHT
WILL HAVE TO GIVE UP MANY
CHERISHED PRIVILEGES
AND IMMUNITIES

In England the husband may not
will his money away from his wife
and children his estate after death
must provide as in life. She may will
her money absolutely as she chooses
He Is responsible for all her reason
able expenditures for clothes, etc,
but. however large her income, she is
in no way responsible for his And
daughters of adult age living with
their father can also pledge his cred
il for all reasonable expenditure upon
clothes, etc. And in the case Of a
rich father the amount would be
large and he must pay:
No woman can be made a bankrupt
unless in trade.
No wife can be indicted for any
crime committed by her in the pres
ence of her husband; she is held 10
have committed il under duress
No action can be brought against a
wife for Islander or libel; it must be
brought against the husband. And that
she has large means would not alter
| the fact
The married womans property act
was passed in England as far back as
! lotU, dIltDutu anu Strengthened Ill
1874, and brought to its final state Of
splendid protection in 1892. Is il
conceivable, when we know how faith
ers toll and sacrifice to make provi-
sions for their wives and daughters,
that they would refuse or neglect to
legislate To protect those women folk
I in the possession Of the property they
bequeath to them after they are gone?
Woman i'm England is absolutely
1 protected in both property and person
under the English law to-day, and a
great legale authority, Sir Edward
Clarke, X. c., former solicitor general,
challenged the suffragists to state a
single law they desired to have
amended or passed in the interest of
woman which they could not get a
/ Parliamentary hearing for to-day, be-
cause they had no votes, and offered a
large sum to charity if proved, but
no claim has been made.
Women have voted in England up
on all domestic questions when quail
fled on the same ground as men since
the SOS: This vote covers housing
police control of liquor traffic, care of
the poor. of children, Predetermined
and insane, sanitation, etc, all those
questions about which women are sup
posed to be concerned.
Further, women are summoned to
sit upon royal commissions, to con-
slider amendments or additions to
laws, as the Divorce Commission and
the Poor Law Commission, and not
merely do they so directly initiate
laws, but especially qualified women
are summoned 10 give evidence before
such commission, so that there should
be no chance of the views of women
not being directly expressed.
What is all the fuss in England
about and whence comes militancy?
The fact is that there are in England
zoe, 600, 000 more women than men,
due largely to the drainage OF the
colonies, and, worse still, 5000, 1000, 900
unmarried women between the ages
of 20 and so. That is due to our So
called civilization. but it is in fact
barbarous condition Of things, and
proves that civilization has it's penal
ties. And a small fraction of those
women find violence an outlet for
their unhusbanded energies.
From Lord Loreburne's mastery
paper we quote the following as
throwing an exceptionally strong
fiashlight upon the resort To force. so
glibly advised and defended by some
women:
"Uutil the dawn Of the spineless age
physical force will always be mans
final political argument. From the
beginning of civilization man has ever
been ready to fight for political free
dom, and his march for liberty has
been steady advance over battle
fields. That is the common teachings
Of all history: The dread arbitra
ment of the sword is a household
phrase. The dread arbitrament Of
the Ratchet, the hatpin and the match
box is a phrase to which the Anglo
Saxon people are not yet accustomed.
And the spectacle of the employment
of physical force by women is a very
horrid and disgusting novelty, whose
first appeal was To the morbid instinct,
and now has become by its persistence
the chief revulsion of right-thinking
men and women. 1t is such a crude
challenger to our ideals Of the true
relations OF men and women.
"A physical battle between the two
sexes reflects reproachfully upon both.
Man is fearful to use his greater
strength to resist woman's known les
ser strength. He is restrained in the
bonds of age-long customs which tend
to make him physically impotent in
such a combat. For of all the times
when man is not afraid of woman
the chief is when she shakes her fist
in his face:
and now that she is smashing her
more or less puny fist in his face he Is
still not afraid; but he is very dazed.
He has been enduring the assault
without equal reprisal, preferring the
uneaualness of male nonresistance