The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-29

/ come persuaded wome
i should be given the vote
! ! can remember when t,
favor the suffrage for women to expose onesel
! to open ridicue.
Suddenly, about fifteen years ago, chang,
began.
Like fire the agitation for the extension of tn.
| suffrage swept over the country.
| For few months it ragged. Then it subsidized
| Suffrage became q tircsome subject The effcc
OF hearing it brought up like hearing some one
| sing song long out OF fashion.
| Perhaps this word fashion, gives a clue.
The carly advocates OF suffrage were
wholly out of fashion. They were as comic as
people who dress in the clothes of bygone period
And the public attitude toward them was very like
what the public attitude would be if they wore
| such clothes.
1t was when equal suffrage ceased to be comic
that it made its most wonderful strides.
SO long it remained comic it couldn't pos
sibly make a popular appeal.
Now what were the mysterious forces that
caused the change?
In the first place, the martyrs to the cause, the
ed in living down ridiculc.
Here by the way. is ono rather curious and in
tcresting quality of rdicule. 1t has no pcrma-
! ncncc. 1t can be overcome with endurance
Make an object Of ridicuc so familiar that it
becomes tircsomc and it will cease to be an OBJ
jet OF ridculc.
Is there anything much more tiresomc than an
oft repeated joke?
Those carly agitators martyrs of ridicuc, got
people used to the idea OF womens voting
Just as as the suffrage agitation became
tiresome people were prepared to take it seriously
There arc always those, however, who keep old
jokes alive
But in the matter of the suffrage joke there arc
not many Of those left. And even among those
that left trace influence that prom
iscs to change humor to resentment
Often one sees in the opponents of woman SUI
frage a mingling of ridicule and anger.
Here is a hopeful sign Soon the question of
equal suffrage will become all over the country
really live issue.
Here and there it is very much alive now.
But in many places it is only struggling for life.
Already its victories have produced extra
ordinary effect.
Even the who inclined to be con-
temptuous OF the whole matter are impressed.
Some OF them are disturbed
Arguments, in many cases. do very little APP
parent good. But by repetition they become ia
miliar. And by familiarity they may reach many
minds.
For it is only the familiar thing that large
majority OF mind tolerate TO such minds,
just as soon argument becomes hackneyed it
becomes convincing.
he = 40,
ion, so astonishing to the casual observer.
They only appear to be sudden.
They are usually the result of long years OF
ferment.
The apparent causes may be very far removed
from the real causes, may be- in fact, only slight
ly related; but the slight relation may still serve
as the fuse that starts the fire blazing:
When the arguments in favor of equal suffrage
become familiar they may in sense be said to be
almost supcrhuous.
batablc, II really ceases to be question. The
burden OF proof shifts from the advocates Of the
women to the shoulders OF the men, 1t at once !
the right OF the to give the suf- |
Where did tho men acquire such right to pos
session. How did they secure the suffrage them
selves?
And how could their securing the suffrage for
themselves give them, sex. absolute owner
ship
Men voters, of course, simply and solely
because they members OF the community, |
skarers in the common responsibility. i
But women arc members OF the community, |
too. and shares OF responsibility
The organization that call society is made
Up of both men and women.
Politics is the chief means BY which society
maintains its management.
Nevertheless men have possessed themselves of
he management and relegated women to the posi-
ion Of sharcrs who arc not shareholders.
Suffrage, then, deals not with privileges, but
with ordinary rights and responsibilities.
The marvel is that women have so long en-
iured being deprived of such responsibilities and
lights.