The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-22
UNDER THE SKIN OF
 WOMAN SUFFRAGE
(Hartford Courant.) )


 phrase goes, years before the term " as used at all in this state. for in. my native Massachusetts the need Of movement was realized we'll over twenty years ago. So, when an ear- nest young woman tells me that if [. ann not 8 snffragist 1t is because IT haven't given any thought to the subject feel certain sense of annusenaent.
 E Now. during the past twelve months have watched the rnanifes- tations sof the suffrage' movement in this state with some attention, and two points which impressed me deep- 1y a year ago have only intensified their impression as the time passed on :sone point is the absolute novelty that their s.causeE' seems to be to. many nniddIeaged suffragists, the other, the warp ed mental perspective of even clever women after they get under the full dominion of this tn-s teresting and dangerous obsession.
 As regards the first pofnt--fhere has been for years past in Hartford an organized body Of women favor ing woman suffrage; this organization is, think, composed a1nost entirely of women who are niddIe-aged and even elderly; their founders and leaders were women of brilliant men tai gifts. There have been many Wo- men in Hartford earnestly desirous Of woman suffrage for a. long period of time but the middle aged enthu- siasts, lately converted to the scause' never before showed the faintest sign of interest in their views. The sole excuse, exp1anation. what you will,s for this anomaly, which to the mind of a consistent anti seems puzzlinE to say the least. is that the positions Of women hasss changed in the past -T-- IL ia Burning neeessity which, by. i'm ' pIication, 1t was not before Ger tainIy if woman suffrage is a desir- able5or necessary n1easure now, it was so twenty, thirty; forty years ago and a women who ist now 40 or 50s or O. years of age. an ds who during the past year CT tSvo has taken up this craze; never having given one moments ip ! dependent personal thought to the matter but carried away by an hours shallow argument at a, suffrage tea is not likely to be a valuable addition. to the voting body of the state.
 With every added year of my life T grow more amazed at the mini- mum quality of actual thought that is given by the average woman to anything, I mean to- anything In the. abstraefs Women give immei1ae thought to what may be called ssp1an- nIngsts they will do wonders in that way, but actual independent thought to the best limit of their minds seems to me to be exceedingly rare among women Secondhand thought. ready made ssopinions,'' views and creeds and :scausesss assumed as quickly as she assumes a new outline Co her hg- 11re that is the mental attitude of the average woman in2these days
 My second point. tn e warped men tai perspective of the really ardent suffragist, is something that we have fnl a prominent Hartford suffragist say that she and that all thorough-going suffragists with hes felt, as deep fundamental conviction, that woman suffrage was the most important question now before the " orld.
 What can be said by sober, steady minded men and women in face of such fanaticism as that To me it is saddening to see clever, resourc efu1 women lavish their time, their strength and the money which some- one worked hard to earn for thernl on this hollow idol of Votes for Wo-s men,
 One personal word hope may be pardoned for. It was once inti- mated to me by a recently converted suffragfst that saw only one side of the question; have found it so dfff- cult to make myself clear on this matter that am anxious to do my best to do so here.
 Of course I see clearly the point of view of the intelligent suffragist. The oreticaIly, many of the suffrage ar guments seem sound, but in my opin- ion! argument on one side or the oth- CT seems rather futile waste of time. The mature mind that cannot from it's own experience. and it's own Knowledge of the world, form an opinion as to the expediency or wis dom of extending the suffrage to wo-l seams ff1 me a. mind not vvOrf1 n arguing with
 sBut the accusation of narrowness, and not having an open mind issYery general with the sufragfsts as regards the s.antis,s' and it comes I think largely from a nisapprehension on the real question at issue. The intel Hgent anti suffragist is not, as I was told the other day that I was-st per fectly satisfied with things as they are,s--she sees, as yfvidly as does the suffragdst, a thousand bad conditions that call for remedy, but she cannot. see that the ballot would render any aid in remedying these conditions. The suffraEe question in it's last ana1-s ysis is, and is only granting the franchise to women for the best good of the people. You cannot hold an opinion on such a question as that as you can hold an opinion relative to. this or that party, or this or that party rneasureS your party may be in power this year, out of it the next such and such a measure may be de- sirable under certain conditions, un-s desirable under other conditions, but, if you grant the franchise to women you are absolutely committed to permanent and enormous change. I heard a bright young suffragist say the other day that she felt that if women had the vote we should scarcely. feel any change, things Awould be as they now are. ssonly more so.n [ think that after the first cir GUS festivities there would be little apparent change for some time; but, after things had settled themselves a bit and the reaction after triumph had set in, and the sheep had. so to speak. realized that they were not as the goats: when the worst political element began to realize the weapons in it's hand, then would come the ,,yua kening Of many Well-rncaning