WOMAN AND THE BALLOT. 



245 



He provides, however, " a contingent disability," that of getting 

 married, which may overtake these. As our prophet waxes elo- 

 quent over matrimony he forgets what manner of woman he has 

 pictured as a politician, and tells us " only intelligent and agree- 

 able women will be popular, and only popular women would be 

 candidates and elected." The forlorn and dedassee woman is meta- 

 morphosed into " the brilliant, educated, and accomplished lady 

 stump speaker," and when she marries, what can be left for the 

 suffragists ? 



Having thus disposed of the phantasmagoria of his creation, 

 he asks two momentous questions : 



1. What wrongs are there affecting society which the women's 

 vote will set right ? 



2. What oppression does woman suffer at the hands of man 

 which she must rise in her might to redress ? 



• I am not aware that woman suffrage is proposed as a panacea 

 for social evils, or that it will usher in a millennial condition. 

 Man would be disfranchised if such requirement was made of his 

 vote. Legislation does not beget character, and man is not made 

 temperate and pure by law. Stringent laws, however, are needed 

 to prevent various evils and to make certain offenses punishable. 

 Women are quick to recognize vicious tendencies that men with a 

 greed for money-getting often overlook. The work of Mrs. Faw- 

 cett in England, and of many earnest women in the United States, 

 shows what good would accrue to society if women helped to 

 frame the laws. 



Our opponent does not pause to consider whether woman's 

 vote would be beneficial or not to the community, but spends his 

 full strength in fortifying the second query. " The woman's 

 grievance against man, what is it ? " he asks. " The moment you 

 attempt to inflate its emptiness . . . you are dealing with hysteric 

 fancies rather than hard facts. . . . Woman has no grievance 

 against man. . . . Cruel Nature has committed an offense against 

 woman." 



English law is more nearly defined as "a hard fact" than as 

 " a hysteric fancy," and English law contains a long " bill of 

 grievances " which woman may publish against man.* True, in 

 this land of boasted freedom most of these laws have been re- 

 pealed, many others are a dead letter, and still others have been 

 enacted that favor woman. These changes have been brought 

 about by the growth of the sense of justice, but also directly 

 through the efforts of women agitators who have pleaded and 

 written against decrees of oppression. These writings and argu- 

 ments are a matter of record, and they antedate all betterment of 



* John Stuart Mill. Subjection of Woman, pp. 56-58. 



