A FEW REASONS WHY IT IS NOT WISE TO GIVE THE BALLOT TO WOMEN. By Mary W1ck Saxe. THE thought that suggests itself to most men and women is, Will the enfranchise ment of women be of benefit to the entire community? not Will it be of benefit to women as a class, but Will it be expedient for all, that women should vote? Many articles and essays have been published in favor of suffrage, but one looks in vain for any single well defined exposition of a benefit which is to result to either women or the state. " Glittering generalities, fan tastic speculations, socialistic theories," one finds in plenty, but nowhere the statement of a wrong to woman that man has refused to redress, of a provision for her benefit that he has refused to make. One of the most prominent suffrage speakers acknowledges that, in the last fifty years, through the legislation of men, women have obtained in the eye of the law a more favorable position than men themselves hold. Many arguments are advanced forwoman's suffrage, one being that the ballot is an inherent right. But there is no such thing as an inherent natural right of an individual to vote. The right to say who may or may not vote has and must always remain with the state, and must be exercised with ref erence to the interest, not of an individual, but of the state. In no proper or exact sense is the suffrage a right at all, or even a privilege. It is a duty imposed upon the male citizen, because it is believed that its exercise by him will be for the best interest of the whole community. Suffrage, if a right, is a political and not a natural one. As our Constitution has it, it is the right of every person to elect or be elected accord ing as the same is established " by the frame of government." Consider the probable effect of admitting
to the ballot all women; not alone the brilliant and intellectual women, but the densely ignorant, who have neither the edu cation, the mental capacity nor the desire for political knowledge; not alone the " semicivilized foreigner," but his wife and daugh ters. In the lowest class of laboring women we find the really dangerous element, too ignorant to understand political questions, too weak to resist the voice which would influence their votes by persuasion or bribery, they would, like the same class of men, form a mass of unreasoning voters, the ready prey of unscrupulous politicians. To say that the women are no worse than the men does not help the matter, for it is this class of men from whom we have little to hope and much to fear; it is their vote that now threatens the honor of our country. Shall we double this threatening element? Educated women already influence men in a great measure by public opinion. They voice public opinion, which is much more influential and power ful than the ballot itself. It is claimed that women will purify and elevate politics because they are purer and more conscientious than men; but this is exceedingly doubtful when applied to poli tics. It seems reasonable to expect, were women admitted to vote and hold off1ce, that all the corruption and intrigue displayed by men would be found in women. The fact that women have no political prizes to gain, no offices in view, no constituency to please, has made them of great value in works of philanthropy and reform. The influence of woman when standing apart from the ballot is immeasurable; she can be broad, liberal and wise, free from the prejudices of partisanship, with all men ready and willing to help her, whereas; if she were
