Woman Suffrage

Southland Times, Issue 10202, 8 July 1889, Page 3

Woman Suffrage

(Omaha Heiald) The Chicago Herald says : • That woman could not mingle in politics nnd habitually vote without an immense loss to her womanhood seems too clear for dispute, and wbatever might be the fancied gain from the franchiß> woaid be more than offset by loss of character. 1 The answer to this is that five cities of Kansas have elected their moat reipected women to the highest offices tfeat their municipal privileges can offer; More than half of the men of these communities would not be willing to see a number of beloved and honest women suffer in reputation, and ther« is not a naan in those towns wbo would rather undergo muck personal trial than place tkoße rejpected women where they would be injured. The reason tbat the Chicago paper tainks they would be injured is because 'the »ex question would enter into the political question.' Doubtless it would do ho occasionally, Itia not an unfamiliar qaest.cn in every matter of life. One of the reasona however, that it has been so prominent is be.c*u«e women have been bo utterly dependent upon men, They have been obliged to make a choice for ages between legal wifehood and remunerative debauchery. Every field of employment tbat is opened to women lessens the need of the latter'a mean? of support by just so much, It is only rarely that a woman is evil from choice, The self-sup-porting woman has the greatest temptation— the need for money — removed. Yet, no doubt in course of time, it might come that woman would use tbeir influence to secure plase. It J»se been hinted that men have done the name thing, and in manners no less corrupting to the soul than those suggested by the Herald, But there would be no daDger from this elemeDt, It would be one of the easiest things to crash, and the women themselves would crush it, if the men did not. The argument tbat tbe legal franchise should be witaheld from tax-paying women citizens because some of them might be injured, is on a par with the ides that a righteous war should not be begun lest some men should fall, It is upon tbe eternal principles of justice that the National eye should be fixed. The consequences cannot be very bad if this be done. The New York legieJature has refused to BUbmit the suSrxge amendment to the people, It is afraid to do so? Their refusal should not discourage women, for it implies that there is a likelihood cf its adoption. If the legislature were certtio of defeat the most eifective way o? quieting the womea would be to consent to the iubunesion,