The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-02-26
WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND THE
MORAL LIFE

relation which we designate as moral
is one that is proven to be generally
beneficial to the we'll being and de-
velopment of humanity. Conversely,
that relat' on is immoral which hinders
such development or brings inharmony
or suffering to human kind. Greasy
attributes the victory of the Greeks at
the battle of Marathon over the Per-
sian hosts to the fact that the latter
were musings of the seraglio, and
later it's autocrats, which bred in them
a servitility to superiors, a lack of self
control and personal bravery, which
made them no match for men born
and bred under conditions of greater
freedom national and domestic. This
we may regard as disinterested testi-
mony of the efforts, active and re-
active, of domestic and legal tyranny
upon the human character.
Lincoln said no one was great
enough or good enough to govern an
other without his consent. Such gov
eminent would be equally deleterious
to both.
In the Occident the subsection of
woman has been greatly modified in
the last sixty years. We commonly
regard the relations of the sexes in
the Oriental harems as being no re.
semblance to the subsection of women
in the western nations. But the diff
ference is of degree and not of kind.
And in the degree that this subsection
still obtains-other things being equal
is the deleterious effect upon the
moral life. But other things are not
equal. The general intelligence OF
the Occident far exceeds that of the
Orient. The growth of intelligence
without a corresponding growth of
morality is inimicial to progress in an
acc~elerating degree. Just as the intel
l1gent crook is capable of doing great
er harm than the stupid one.
A complex highly sensitized civil
ization responds much more readily to
than does the stolid brutal
ity of more primitive conditions. Just
as the mechanism of the watch is
more easily put out Of commission
than that of the washing machine.
At this stage of our social develop
ment democratic ideals are every
where upheld. Tyranny must mas
querade in the garb of liberty or be
hunted and haunted. And the last
vestige of a bygone age the political
subsection of half of the population to
the other to the other half because of
the accident of sex (Which scientists
are claiming is a mere matter of diet)
is such a gross injustice and absurdity
that it does greater violence to the
moral life of our country than did the
seraglios to the Persian civilization
OF ancient time. Under it greed and
mammon are holding first place in hu-
man hears. Intelligent women have
grown selfish and parasitical in dis
position. So long as they can not see
that their own homes are menaced.
they are unwilling to reach for and
exercise the potent power of social
motherhood that might save the child
rem of the rising generation from fac
tory and mine, to a noble and efficient
citizenship. That might save their
sisters from white slavery to virtuous
homes. That might benefit the world
in countless ways If they were not
more willing to sit at ease than to be.
come a responsible unit of the worlds
life. Under it men are feeding their
minds upon sophisms that are as de-
biliating to the mental fiber as is in.
action to their muscles-advocating
democracy yet denying to others, and
giving reasons therefor. No new
moral yistas open to those who close
their senses to the moral issues of
their time, where there is no vision
the people perish" To stand still is
to go backward in morals, as else
Where. Give women the right Of self
government 50 long withheld and the
moral life OF the nation win receive
. new impetus; and new visions OF