Evening journal., 1917-03-02
WHEN ALL The
WOMEN Want IT.
Written for The Evening Journal by
Margaret A. Lake, OF Pittsburgh,
Pa.

We are told from time to time that
the ballot will be given to woman
when all the women want it," Why
this should be considered a conclu-
sive argument is, in the light Of his
tory, one Of the most puzzling prob
lens presented by those opposed to
suffrage for woman.
History tells us that women remon-
strated with the first man who em-
ployed women in his store on the
ground that 1t was "a sin to place
woman in a position Of such publicity,
and that his store was boycotted in
consequence"
The great majority Of women either
opposed, or were Indifferent to the few
leaders who worked for laws giving a
married woman the right to use or
to control her own inherited property,
or her own hardly-earned wages do
you think / would give myself where
l would not give my property?' they
asked and many even slammed the
door" in the faces OF the women pro-
posing this righteous measure.
The great majority OF women were
shocked when some women wanted
the right to study and practice medi-
cine and drew aside their skirts
when passing on the street those who
first awaited themselves of this priv
ilege.
Women. as a rule, rldlculed and
condemned the efforts made by the
pioneers who advocated higher edu-
cation for women. In this connection
Alice Freeman Palmer wrote several
years ago:
THE objections to the political wo-
man and TO the educated woman pre-
sent some instructive analogies. Fifty
years ago IL was seriously believed
that knowing the classics would ruin
her morals, philosophy her religion
and mathematics her health In gen
cral a college education would take
away her desire to be a good wife and
mother. TO protect being so frail
the colleges were carefully closed
against her" many women, as has
been said, helping to keep them
closed.
Tho women OF China. generally,
have favored their foot-blndins Gus
toms, though the light is now break
ing there, and the Turkish women are
probably satisfied with the harem.
Shall reform wait until all want it?
1.-THE spectacle of a class vehement
ly striving against its own freedom"
says Beatrice Forbes-R Robertson Hale
in that interesting book. "What Wo-
men Want" is not by any means new
in history, such is the conservatism
in human nature. Whether it be the
Chouans in France. the slaves in
America, the Hindu widows in Irdia,
or the agricultural laborers I'm Eng
land, groups and individuals, have
never been wanting who through 10y
atty to old masters or old customs,
have flown in the face of their own
salvation. When, as on such sub
iect as woman suffrage. class preju.
dice and sex prejudice are added to
conservatism, the wonder is, not that
there are anti-suffrsge women, but
that there are SO few"
DO all the women ever want any one
thing, from a certain style of dress
to house furnishings, to the rearing
and the education Of their children,
in the management of their homes
and i'm the choice of church denomi-
nation? Why then ban suffrage for
woman until call the women want it?"
Hundreds of thousands OF women do
want It, women who have given years
to educational and philanthropic eff
forts. women who have studied every
phase OF It. women who have found
dire need OF it in their work for
themselves and for humanity. and
many women have worked for Il unset
1shly and untiringly during long life
times. Shall it be refused all these
because other women are indifferent,
or ignorant OF the merits of the sub
iect, and shirk the responsibilities
of the vote?
What il we waited until all the
men wanted any one thing, from ships
to search for a continent, along the
years to the Declaration of lndepen-
dence, through the Civil War, in all
our elections national. State and To-
cal, in our inventions, the majority
having been secuted by the many, the
steamboat, the steamship. the tele-
graph. the telephone and now with
the numberless grave and momentous
questions before us2
What if we waited until all the men
agreed?