WHY WOMEN WANT AND NEED THE VOTE.
Few questions have been so universally and intensely discussed as the right and expediency of Woman Suffrage. Its opponents assert that the true woman needs no governing authority conferred upon her by law. While discussing this question one "gentleman" said "that the highest evidence of respect that man could exhibit toward woman, and the noblest service he could perform for her, were to vote Nay to the proposition that would take from her the diadem of pearls, the talisman of faith, hope and love, by which all other requests are won from men, and substitute for it the iron crown of authority."
The chief arguments brought forward against woman suffrage are: that the majority of the women never desired it, because they were already represented by their husbands, fathers and brothers; that there were already too many voters, and that by admitting women to suffrage the whole machinery and cost of voting would be doubled without changing the result; that women would not have time to perform their political duties without neglecting their higher duties at home; that women were too emotional and sentimental to be enstrusted with the ballot; that women would cease to vote after the novelty had worn off; that the introduction of women into political life would increase its bitterness, and would abolish chivalry with its refining influence on men; that the franchise, in a large majority of instances, would be exercised under the influence of priests, parsons, and ministers, under the power of religious prejudice, and that religious feuds would affect political life much more than under present circumstances. And finally it has been asserted that woman suffrage would place a new and terrible strain upon family relations as the introduction of political disputes into domestic life would lead to quarrels and divorce.
These arguments were answered in an editorial of the "New York American" of October 6, 1912, as follows:
The ballot is the weapon that men use in defending their rights. It is the voice with which men express their opinions, their wishes, as to law, in the more settled civilization where the ballot is the recognized power. Little by little the mass of the people—that is to say, of the men—have got the ballot. Originally there was no ballot. Savage tribes held disorganized meetings, and shouted their opinions. The loudest shouters won, and the man who could hit the hardest led the others. Little by little the big man formed his own opinions, alone reached his own decisions, and the others had
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