Social Science and Woman Suffrage. 83 



Scientists we shall look to tlie well-being of tlie coming gener- 

 ations. If we do this we shall see why it is that the -mother 

 comes to the fore front in the consideration of the question of 

 suffrage for women. The next generation is the gift of the 

 motherhood of this. We need to scrutinize this movement 

 for suffrage to see if it does not have more particular reference 

 to those who are not mothers, than to those who are — to wo- 

 man out of the ordinary family relation rather than to those in 

 it. If it does, the probabilities are decidedly against it as a 

 movement in the interest of posterity. The very first claim 

 that one generation has upon that which precedes it, is the 

 transmission to it of sound physical constitutions. Unless this 

 is done, the gift of being under ever so favorable a condition 

 of "rights," will hardly be worth thanks. 



The question is one of direction of vital force. Where shall 

 a mother's energies, go — to politics or to her children ? Is our 

 j^olitics m such need of the efforts of mothers in it, that to rec- 

 tify it we must rob our children of the flush of vitality? 

 Of course this argument is good for nothing if no power is to 

 be put forth in politics. But if power is not to be put forth, 

 again we ask what significance there is in woman's entry upon 

 it ? This argument too has no validity, unless the mother in 

 an average home is already an over-burdened factor in society. 



We desire here to give credit to Gail Hamilton as the only 

 writer whose works we have read who seems to have a proper 

 conception of this matter we are now considering. To the 

 often asked question why the women of this generation cannot 

 do the work of their mothers, Gail Hamilton replies " We can- 

 not do the day's works our mothers did because \X\e,j did them." 

 We regard that reply as containing philosophy enough to cov- 

 er this whole suffrage question. The spinning wheel and loom 

 of our mothers consumed vitality that should have come to 

 us. There is an everlasting weariness on us all who came out 

 of the average well-to-do homes of the past generation — the 

 legacy of the over- work of our mothers. The mothers "ate 



