The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-11-02
|WATTERsoN ON WOMAN SUI.

that we fail to see anything so very
sane, logical or Illuminating in Uncle
Henry Watterson's reasons for his OPP
position to comforting the right Of
suffrage upon women.
1t is plain to see that his opposition
rests upon prejudice formed because
certain women who first inaugurated
the movement were not just what he
thought they ought to have been.
For example he tells US that Susan
B. Anthony was a rabid abolitionist,
and wanted to put the black women
above the white women Of the south;
that because the Bible made the man
the head of the family Elizabeth Cady
Stanton wanted it abolished; and that
carrie Chapman Gait is not as relig-
ious as she should be-
If the right for women to vote is a
just and righteous one we submit that
the religious or political faith of the
women mentioned by Editor Waiter
son is not sufficient to deprive them
of this right.
We do not think that the political
or religious views held by them should
control in the matter at all.
We knew some of the women advo-
eating the measure who were very
pious.
For instance, there was Mrs. Mary
A. Livermore. She was one of it's
ablest and most eloquent advocates.
She was so religious that she very
frequently occupied her susband's pull
pit.
But if the principle itself were
wrong her advocating it would not
make it right any more than those
other women favoring it would make
it wrong.
Mr.. Wilson is a strong advocate of
comforting this right upon women. Mr..
Bryan is also an advocate. So are
many of the leading public men of
the nation.
In recent issue of the New York
World that great newspaper says:
"The case for woman suffrage rests
upon fundamental principle of de-
the right of the governed to
have voice in their government
Women have the same kind of stake
in government that men have. In
modern civilization there is practical
Iy no sheltered woman who lives apart
from her times. She may exist in the
fiction of novelists and in the fiction
Of the common law, and there may be
an instance now and then of complete
feminine isolation from the current
of events. just as there are men and
women who live in monasteries and
converts; but government affects
most of us in the same way regard
less of sex, and civilization that
compels women to be wage earners
has destroyed the last argument
against their voting.
"The World hopes that the suffrage
will be adopted in New
York. There is no argument against
1t except the argument of an extreme
that resists all changes
in government. The war is making
the world over. 1t is already quite
a different kind of a world, and it is
going to be still more different. To
keep democracy stable it is essen
tial that free government rest upon
the broadcast possible foundation of
suffrage"
We are taking part in a great
world-war in order to spread the bless
ings of democracy throughout the
world and yet are depriving nearly
half of our population at home of this
fundamental principle.
We trust the management of our
households to our wives. We trust
the education of our children to them
and most of our great men confess
that they owe their greatness large
ly to their mothers. yet we withhold
from them share in the government
which means as much to them as it
does to us.
1t is wrong long withheld. but is
being rapidly righted.
Wherever the influence of women
has been felt in government very sal
utary reforms have been accomplish
ed, and the person is blind who can
not see that politics are much cleaner
in every way than they were some
years age.