84 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



sour grapes and tlie children's teetli are set on edge. " Not only 

 tlie iniquity but even the frugality and industry of mothers 

 may appear in curse upon their offspring. You cannot cheat 

 the law of the conservation of force. You cannot break the line 

 of continuity between generations. Nature goes down through 

 all and if she cannot collect her forfeitures of the guilty she 

 will of innocent offspring. We are convinced that before suf- 

 frage is taken up by woman we need a great deal more of con- 

 sideration given to the probable influence of the assumption by 

 motherhood of greater work than she now performs upon the 

 well-being of posterity. 



It is not simply the " personal rights " of the generation on 

 the stage that is concerned in this matter. We stand in thought- 

 ful pause before a question Coleridge asks : " Can anything 

 be more dreadful than the thought that an innocent child has 

 inherited from you a disease or a weakness, the penalty in 

 yourself of sin or want of caution? " 



We question whether our social or domestic life would gain 

 anything in value from bringing forward politics as a more 

 prominent element in them, as must be the result if woman is 

 compelled to take up this new department. 



After a mother has performed the home duties which the 

 day imposes, we question whether it would be profitable for 

 her to spend her time in studying and expounding to her fam- 

 ily questions pertaining to tariffs or civil service. It probably 

 is important to determine how much a sheriff's fees should be 

 or whether the government duty on indigo should be two shil- 

 lings or two and six per pound. But we question whether it 

 would be a step upward for a mother and her children to pass 

 to these matters fr'om the music, art and literature which now 

 adorn or ought to adorn our homes. 



There is one collateral matter to which we desire to allude, 

 and that is the matter of inequality of wages. Now we do 

 not for a moment argue that there cannot be nearer approxi- 

 mations made to justice in this matter than we now make. 



