The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-07-08
Woman Su ffrage.
"A Comprehensive Statement of Fundamen-
tai Objections.

tai Objections.
New York Times1.
The Legislature of New York State
has seen fit to place the question of wom-
an suffrage squarely before the present
electorate. Every man of voting age
must meet the issue courageously, IN
telllgently, with clear vision. The answer
of New York State to this long pending
query should be forcible and definite.
The proposed amendment to the State
Constitution should be voted down by
such majority of the voters as to de-
prive the advocates Of an Objectionable
and unreasonable arrangement of the
political and social structure of any
further hope of success in this State.
The question involved is not new, a the
arguments of the suffragists are old and
were long ago refuted and sent to limbo.
Their ceaseless and noisy agitation has
not developed single new idea. Woman
suffrage would result either in needless
political muddle or in social and poiti-
cal turmoil which would tend to weaken
the State, to stir up discord in society
and in the home, and would put obstacles
In the way of progress which the wisest
craftsmanship might fail to overcome.
The grant of suffrage to women is re-
pugnant to instincts that strike their
roots deep in the order of nature. 1t
runs counter to human reason, it fouts
the teachings of experience and the ad-
monltIons of common sense. Although
women have other capacities without
number, held in equal distinction and
some in higher honor, they have never pos
sessed or developed the political faculty.
Without the counsel and guidance of men
no woman ever ruled State wisely and
well. The defect is innate and one for
which cure is both impossible and not
to be desired. That they lack the genius
for politics is no more to their discredit
than mans unhandiness in housewifery
and in the care of infants and his small
endowment of those finer qualities of
charm and tenderness that steal away
half of lite's sharpness are reproach
to him. There are two human estates,
the mans and the woman's. Their
boundaries are traced by no imaginary or
effaceable lines. Nature has marked
them by metes and bounds that no hui
man being ever yet overlooked save with
the conscious intent to transgreSS her
laws.
For the intelligent use of the ballot
men in their daily callings undergo
ceaseless training The hand of the
law has within its reach every man and
every woman, but in their business affairs
men are in such immediate touch with
controlling authority that they find them
selves all the time forced to take thought
about the laws that help or hinder them,
whether they be good or bad, and in what
way they may be bettered. The mer-
chant and the manufacturer, men en-
gagged in the business of banking, insur-
ance, real estate, foreign trade, the law
yer, the doctor, the blacksmith, the far
mer, men In all the thousand branches of
male affairs, habitually and necessarily
form reasoned opinions of the efficiency
of government, the virtue of laws, the
policies and the promises of parties, the
character and the pledges of candidates,
and they 60 to the polls prepared to cast
ballot that will, so far as it may, give
effect to their convictions and their de-
sires. Some men, many men, reason
foolishly, vote foolishly, but their mo-
tives and their decisions have at least
some discoverable relation to the public
aspects of the questions at issue. When
that relation is not discoverable men have
to admit that they vote in feminine
way, for women's reasons, not mems.
The voter must help to decide the gravest
public questions relating to labor, inter-
national disputes, measures of national