Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-08-14
MR- LANG'S LETTER.
Philppi, W. Va.
Aug. 2, 1919.
Ed. Progressive:-

Ed. Progressive:-
our much esteemed friend, Cam Hart
of Huttonsyille, desired US to give
our views on the League of Ma
tions" and Woman Suffrage" We
feel that our opinion would have but
little weight upon these questions,
and that they will differ widely with
many of our personal friends.
While the League of Nations is
not what we would have been pleased
to have seen, but good as could nave
been agreed upon with SO many con-
fiicting interests at issue it is possibly
the best that could have been done to
satisfy all the powers concerned. We
have just passed through one OF the
bloodiest and most cruel wars of the
worlds history, with loss in killed
of more than 100000 men and more
than 25,000,000 have been manned
for life and 100000, 900, 900 in prop
erty destroyed, and nations have been
wrecked. 1t is for this purpose that
the League of Nations have been
drafted and we hope may be ratified,
that this great loss of life and de-
struction of property may be repeated
again in the annals of history. 1t Is
for the purpose that the rights OF
! the maker nations shall not be an en-
croached upon by the stronger, and
more powerful, insolent and selfish
nations of the world. 1t is the Mag
ma Carta, (as the editor of the New
York World says) of the weaker ma
tions of the world. We are gratified
! to know that ex-President Taft is en-
dorsing the covenant with all of his
great big heart, soul and mind. We
trust that the League of Nations may
be ratified, and prevent wars for all
time to come, and that disputes of
nations may be settled by arbitration
and not by the sword. ~,
On the subject of Woman Suffrage
our minds have changed since our
younger days. We once thought that
woman's sphere was to make the
home, bare and rear the future men
and women of the world and to keep
her nose, as we'll as her tongue"
out of politics We thought that she
might lower her standing as a wo-
man to take part in political issues
1 of our country. She should not be
deprived of her right as citizen on
the account of sex. If she has prop
erty rights she has the same rights
F, to control her interest as her hus-
band, if married, or her brother or
father if single, that they have, if she
should qualify herself by making her
self fully intelligent upon the char
at stake This is the most important
qualification of any citizen. Whether
/ it will better the condition of affairs
in our country by her voting, remains
to be seen. We are fully persuaded
that the women as a whole are now
more competent to exercise the right
of suffrage than the thousands of
foreigners, men and women, who come
to America yearly and become cit
liens.
We remember years ago in con-
versation with the Hon. Lemuel Da-
wilson, of Pennington, Taylor Coun-
ty, w. Va. who represented that coun-
ty in the W. Va. Legislature and was
An ardent Union man and Republican,
who said that it was a great crime
upon the South when the right of
suffrage was extended to the many
thousands of negroes by the 14th
Amendment Of the Constitution of
the U. S.
That constitution period inflicted
more hardships upon the southern
people than the war.
w. S LANG.