Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-07-20
A Woman for the L. s. Senate From
West Virginia.
BY J. o. Knott.

| lnlS Is written without solicitation
and without recompense or thought of
it, voted for woman suffrage in
West Virginia when only about 20
votes rolled up for it from the distric,
in which ] cast my vote. am OF
record from speeches made for four
consecutive months on the Lyceunl
platform, in which I took the positio:
that woman suffrage would revolution
ize politics, and would not be found to
merely augment the male vote because
Of women voting with their husbands
or other close male kin The work OF
women in the State Of Pennsylvania
| is in itself proof enough that voting
women will think for themselves; but
when we add to Pennsylvania the
States OF Indiana, Iowa, and the large
preparations which the women Of New
York are making to undo Hearst, we
know that women have come into the
political arena to turn the world up
| side down.
| A talented, clean-cut, unusual wo7
man, in the person of Mrs. William
Gay Brown, OF the second district OF
West Virginia, has announced herself
as candidate for the Senate Of thu
! United States, subject to the will of
our State at the primary in August.
The crime OF being a woman she will
neither attempt TO palliate nor deny.
! Nor is she less capable in the estil
nation OF right-thinking people be-
cause she happens not to be homely
woman Because George Eliot was
strong minded and yet very homely
does not imply that strength of char
acter and power of will in woman must
! necessarily be accompanied by the
absence of hat quality which the Bible
often speaks of land by the way almost
always in reference to the strong wo-
men of the Old Testamen) as "fair to
look upon"
In this age, when the kaleidoscope
OF history is giving us new combina-
tions each day, we find a woman in the
| English Parliament, and women seek
ing to enter the House of Lords. Why
not? English conservatives recall
that in two epochs of their country's
development they touched the top, ir
what they now call the Golden or Ro-
mantle Age and the Victorian Age-n
both instances women of great strength
and influence reigned over Britain
Elizabeth and Victoria. In our own
land one woman had more to do with
ushering in temperance as a national
question than any ten thousand men
you can name-Frances E. willard
Who today would say that if Miss Will
lard were living and would permit her
self to be candidate for the u. S. |
Senate that any man living could de-
feat her? To say in this day that
person may have all the qualifications |
for leadership and craftsmanship, yet
because that person happens to be |
woman she must give the preference |
to man simply because he happens !
to be man, is to voice a sentiment
pltiably at variance with the best
thought of the age.
Bit Mrs. Brown was once upon the
stage. Mrs. Siddons spent her life
there. Jenny Lind did all her work
IN connection with the stage as singer,
instead of impersonator as is the case
with actors and actresses. Julia Mar
lowe (Mrs. So:hern) stands as high |
as any American woman one could |
easily recall. At least two Of our
most prominent ministers of Washing
ton City came to the pulpit from tho |
stage. with the result that these very
men have large audiences where other |
men have small ones Their educa-
ton and training for careful and popu- |
lar work on the stage has left an i'm |
preston which still serves them wei |
in the pulpit. Mrs. Browns work or |
the stage was of the cleanest sort and |
very effective. in connection with such
actors rs Otis Skinner and Hacke,t |
DIR own Congressman, the lamented |
Junior" Brown, married Izetta level ,
rom the stage, and did good for him /
self and others by it,
Those of us who have heard Mrs ,
Brown speak, know that her enuncia- ,
non Is so nearly perfect and her Ian
guage and thought so fitted to each !
other. that 1t was no wonder the poll |
tlcians sent all the way to West Viz I
ginia &c have her come to San Fran |
cisco to second the nomination Of Hon. |
j. w. Davis for the presidency. Why |
Mrs. Brown? Obviously enough
she not only was speaker such as !
they could not well find in any one
else, but she had the facts to present |
that would be effective.
Mrs. Brown was not born in the |
State Of West Virginia Neither was
William L. Wilson, nor the Faulkners. |
They were Nirgnians, as were all Of
us in the Valley who happened to ar
rive on the stage of action before the |
valley counties were torn from Vir- !
GINA and given to West Virginia, due |
largely to the B. & o. Railway. can
think of no more silly objection against
a man or woman who has made any
State in the Union his home, and who |
shows by his actions that he proposes
to dwell there, than to say He was
not native born, hence is not TO be |
honored by us in sending him to Con. |
gress or to the Senate That would |
have debarred Abraham Lincoln from
being honored by Illinois. Franklin X. |
Lane, that pricely American, was born !