VOTES FOR WOMEN
To The Knoxville Sentinel.
The achievements of our splendid
manhood, the progress of our country
through the past 150 years rather justify the belief that even mere man
can be trusted to safely steer the ship
of state. Can not woman be content in
believing she has had a silent but none
the less potent influence in this?
I think I have always naturally and
instinctively opposed suffrage for
women, and my feelings on this issue
become stronger. My conviction is that
woman has her own special responsibilities—not necessarily confined within four walls—just as man has his, and
neither is fitted by nature to assume
that of the other. It is usually the
abnormal in either that seeks the field
of the other. It is not a question of
intelligence but of fitness.
A prominent suffrage leader of the
city thinks one of the best things about
Knoxville is that no "anti" organization has ever been able to survive.
Might this not be attributed to natural indifference rather than active
opposition?
I spent a year and a half in a western state, Idaho, a number of years
ago, I shall not say how many for I
was at that time old enough to vote
and in fact did vote rather for the
novelty of the thing, not believing then
that the south, particularly the women
of the south, would ever have or desire to have suffrage. The state had
then enjoyed (or endured) suffrage for
some years. I was not able through
those months to observe any particular uplift that the franchise gave
either to women or to the affairs of
state. I think I studied rather closely.
There are many, many women who
feel as I do that this obligation must
be assumed when placed upon them
else they are failing in their duty. We
must keep ourselves well informed that
we may vote intelligently. The lack of
discretion or political intuition on the
part of some of the imported, suffragists in Nashville in attempting to deal
with men who represent us would lead
us to believe that women still need the
developing effect of another century of
political evolution. Many of the prominent and influential men of affairs do
honor to themselves and to their innate southern chivalry in so strongly
advocating the cause of suffrage. We
would not intimate that it might be
this, with some, rather than strong
conviction in the matter. The cry was,
"Let us in, that we may purify politics." But watch us soon make a fifty-
fifty demand. Miss Paul, chairman of
the national woman's party, in speaking of last Wednesday's victory (?) has
this to say: "Our victory will not how-
ever be a signal for rest. Women have
still before them the task of supplementing political equality with equality in all fields." This will lead
women into work for which they are
entirely unfitted physically and otherwise, and they will at the same time
sacrifice forever that indescribable
fineness which has always set them
apart.
An incident while in Idaho on one
early gray morning I shot and instantly killed a large yelping coyote
with a .22 rifle, in the sage brush a
standing behind a woman will not
dodge when she throws a rock." "We
must admit some advantages.
As far(sic.) me, I must still be glad for
a heart full, and for hands full of work
that is far more satisfying to me than
any phase of the life political could (missing)
The lure has indeed pass(missing)"
A CITY SCHOOL (missing)
