Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-14

/ of expression, for the underlying
principles of our individual liberty are
identical.
SO we women, as part OF the human
family demand most righteously and
in true democratic spirit our political
freedom. Indeed, so stunted and
paralyzed is the rights of some that
they discourage all attempts which
are working toward better and
more responsible citizenship. These
unprogressive and crippled citizens
have that type of mentality which
has worked against every step In the
advancement, not only of women, but
of mankind generally. Their argu-
ments are always reactionary ones,
with no tendency toward progress.
Why are not all women reaching out
toward this splendid goal of their en-
franchisement? Just this: Tradition
has taught some to scott at II and
fear lest their very independence
would detract from their matri-
monial or prospective matrimonial
desirability, and lest the removal
of this last shackle of primitive
days should cause the disintegra-
ton of the family. The same fears
prevailed years ago against the edu-
cational advancement and the elimi-
nation of the legal disabilities of
women. When class discrimina-
ton and religious and prop
erty qualifications determined the
participation of men in their
government they also were con-
fronted with "unfitness for the bal
lot" when they desired the removal
of these limitations. 1t is since their
personal contact with governmental
affairs that they have been able to
appreciate the worth of being free.
DISTINGUISHED women cannot appre-
ciate the benefits derived from ac-
tual participation in the regulation of
the conditions under which we live.
Does 1t not seem that the distrust
concerning the ballot for women is
out of proportion to the services she
has rendered humanity? Has her
past warranted the assumption that
she will demoralize politics? Does it
really seem likely that larger pro-
portion of women than of men Will
become unduly and extravagantly in
terested In politics.
We are witnessing q great recon-
struction in our government; q move
ment toward better public life and
policies. The old regime has failed to
cope with our present-dav '~
this transition to a new order of
things will be Incorporated women's
acknowledgment. Not only in Amer
lea will this become fact, but In all
civilized countries.
President Wilson once said "he
should like to make the young men of
the rising generation as unlike their
fathers as possible, not because their
fathers lacked character or intelli-
gence or knowledge or patriotism. but
because their fathers by reason of
their advancing years and their es-
tablished position In society, had lost
touch with the processes of life; they
had forgotten what 1t was to begin;
they had forgotten what it was to
rise; they had forgotten what 1t was
to be dominated by the circumstances
of their lives on their way up from
the bottom to the top, and therefore
they were out of sympathy with the
creative formative and progressive
forces of society,"" When people say
women should do as their mothers
did" they forget that the young wom-
en- of today need the education and
inspiration of this same Creative"
and formative" progress of society
as well as the young men. We must
be, for the benefit of a higher and
better civilization, in some respects
different from our mothers; we can
not stand still; we must march on
with men as comrades in the new
conditions that confront new genera
tons
The phenomenal progress the suf-
fra gists have attained in New Jersey
is the reward of dignified, law-abiding
and constitutional methods. We sum-
mon the suffragists of New Jersey to
this last year of our campaign. We
ask all who believe in the gradual
and orderly extension of political
rights to class after class of the cit
liens as they prove worthy OF II, to
help us secure the vote for the
women Of New Jersey.