Middletown transcript., 1915-03-13

fault? Snch is not tn case now, but
it seems the logical esult of putting
the political equality ideainto practice.
Mr.. Wheeler referred to recent de-
cision of the Supreme Court in the case
of the Mann white slave law is sample
of what might be expected when the
the law deals impartialy with men and
women. Until this ruling the white
slave law had dealt only with the man
in the case. 1t now lbs been broaden
ed so as to hold the woman equally
guilty. The result, according to Mr..
Wheeler, will be to put stop to black
mail by women who had hitherto en-
joyed immunity under the Mann act.
'The privileges the law gives them
are by no means the only ones women
enjoy, continued Mr. Wheeler. ''As
every lawyer knows they are a privi-
legged class in court. Ihave been trying
cases in New York for fifty years and
l do not hesitate to say that women in
court get special consideration from
lawyers, juries and eV en- judges. These
are privileges not granted by law, but
by courtesy and long custom"
Mr.. Hayden pointed out that men
lawmakers in this State had be-
gun to grant women their rights"
long before the suffragettes ever
thought of campaigning the vote. He
referred to the Married Women acts of
1860, and said the whole tendency since
then had been to break away from the
feudal ideas handed down from the old
English law. In doin ng so New York
had gone to the other extreme and suh-
stituted laws which Disseminated
against the husband for those which
formerly recognized few if any rights
of the wife. And this, Mr.. Hayden
pointed out, had been done by men leg
slators without any prodding on the
part of women. The Married Woman
acts, which enabled a wife to do what
she pleased with her own property put
a stop to the evil arising from good for
nothing husbands living on end often
squandering the fortunes of wealthy
wives, according to Mr.. Hayden. The
custody of the children, in cases of Sc
paration was also taken out of the hus-
bands absolute control and left as a.
matter of settlement in court, accord
ing to its opinion as to which of the
parents was most competent to take
care of them.
Mr.. Hayden argued that the changes
in the law had given women all the best
of it and that they were now in danger
of sacrificing many privileges in return
for the vote.
GAS matter of fact" he said, they
are asking for privilege which is be-
yond their power to exercise. No pro-
position is sound unless it stands the
test of reduction and absurduB. There
are close to 5000, O00 women of voting
age in New York State. They out
number the men by small margain.
Supposing we let them vote and they
all go to the polls. 1t is conceivable
that they would cast more votes than
men. Say they do, for sake of argu-
ment and that they get control of the
Legislature. They will then be in a
position to pass any law they may see
fit to pass.
''Now suppose Just for example,
they took it into their heads to pass a
law which was so repugnant to the
, men that they unanimously refused to
obey it. Suppose that such a law were
put on the books, how are the women
going to enforce it?
'"The answer is, they can't. And
that is the whole trouble. They have
not the physical makeup for it. When
you come right down to it, they simply
can't play the game and that is where
the whole suffrage argument falls
down. "-Er.