Anti - Woman Suffrage
L. P. Reynolds
Hillsdale, MichiganAfter more than four score and six years of strenuous life, I wish that I might do something to help roll back the on-coming tide of human woes. From a true viewpoint the cause of Woman Suffrage is one of these woes, and is the most unreasonable, and portends the greatest danger, of anything now demanding public consideration. The cry of Votes for Women is world-wide and the hour has struck when this question ought to be intelligently settled. No man who understands the divine purpose of the world's creation, that it was for the abode of moral beings, can consistently advocate Woman Suffrage. It required infinite cost to get the world ready for the dwelling place of the human race, and when God created man he created him male and female. This dual nature was necessary in order to provide for the world's highest good. Together the twain make the divine unit, only that the sex determines the duties of the respective parts of the unit. The diverse natures of the man and the woman define the kinds of service for each to perform for their mutual welfare. Rightly understood it will be seen that all this was a Master Stroke of Infinite Wisdom.
Labor always was and always will be a necessity, and the same infinite wisdom saw fit to make a division of that labor. To this end man has his sphere and woman has her sphere, and though they are interwoven and intermingled they work together in perfect harmony. Anything that distorts this arrangement brings discord and loss. At the outset, through the ordinance of marriage, provision was made for the performance of every duty needful to fulfill the divine command to "Multiply and replenish the Earth." Indeed this arrangement lays the foundation for the home, the central force for the perpetuation of the human family. From the time man was given dominion over the world, its business, in all its varied forms, has been carried on by man, and prosperity has always depended upon well directed labor, man doing his part and woman doing her part.
In man's realm naturally came all the great outside activities. The world was given to man in the rough, in its wild uncultivated condition needful for support through continuous seed-time and harvest. All the great industries have always fallen to man's lot. He had to build, equip, and manage all the railroads, and all the ships that plough the mighty deep. He is the architect and builder of all the edifices of the world from the mere but to the half a hundred story, skyscraper. From the bowels of the earth he has to mine the precious metals, and the coal and oil to provide for the business world's great needs. He tunnels the mountains and bridges the chasms. He built the pyramids and all the towers of the ages. To man alone has come the responsibility of solving all the great engineering problems. Just now he has completed the most gigantic work in the world's history. For the improvement of commerce he has constructed the Panama Canal--a thing which required the separation of the two great American Continents, and uniting the two greatest oceans on the globe. He has cabled the seas from shore to shore, and by scientific knowledge and invention has so annihilated space as to communicate, one locality with another, until the human family is just one great neighborhood. One neighbor speaks with another and knows the voice a thousand miles away. And just before us is the great question of deep waterways. By irrigation man converts the barren lands into fertile fields, and into gardens, orchards and vineyards. Man navigates the air with a skill and speed that language has no power to describe. And just now man has achieved such wonderful accomplishments through undersea craft that the world stands in awe and inquires--"Has the impossible come to pass?" All these and thousands of other things needful to carry on the world's business are accomplished by man and regulated by law.
The point I make is that the giving of votes to women means the passing of the control of the world's business to woman. It means the giving to her the balance of power in the management of the great affairs of which she can have no intelligent knowledge nor take any active part. Manifestly all the world's great business ought to be under control of those who perform the service. Inasmuch as woman is not man's superior, physically, mentally, or morally, no gain could come from giving her an equal voice in all these matters. Careful study discovers that the result would be harmful instead of helpful. Believe that if suffrage were given to women more than one half of them could not be at the polls on election day. Half the world is rural and this better half would be at their homes caring for their families. The voice of the other half, made up of the baser sort, would bring a result that would send the world downward instead of upward. In the large cities questions of doubtful character would be carried.
The object of this paper is to sift this question to the bottom. This leads to the inquiry as to where the cry of "Votes for Women" comes from. Right soon it will be seen that it comes from the discontented, mannish women, the crowing hens of the human family. They are not satisfied with their lot. They aspire to man's work and man's wages. They want his offices and his honors. They seek the limelight to attract attention by resorting to most ridiculous performances. The hiking of certain women from one city to another is a revelation of what they really are. We call to mind the boldest and most senseless exhibition of American women that the world has ever seen. They saw fit to gather themselves together for a national rally in connection with the last presidential inaugural. On the day before the inauguration they marched through the streets of the nation's capital making display of themselves in a most ridiculous fashion. With the city of Washington crowded to its capacity to care for the inaugural occasion what business had the fanatical suffragettes of the continent to demand consideration at such a time? In such congested condition was it any wonder that the populace showed their disgust, and that the official forces did not approve it? The truth is that Woman Suffragists nor any other organization had any business there. Like the whole of the suffragette conduct, it was out of place.
The woman suffragist spirit can never be trusted. The leading suffragettes of the world have been guilty of unjustifiable behavior, even to the wanton destruction of property. They openly declare that, at all hazards, they will have the franchise. They say that they will win their cause, by fair means if they can; if not, they will resort to force and violence. These women run riot by destroying mail, by daubing with paint, by desecrating the parks, by throwing acids, by breaking plate glass windows, by burning railroad depots, and by throwing bombs to destroy property and endanger human life. To grant votes to women means to take these outlaws into partnership. In a word, we enquire-- will the people make it possible for these law-breakers to become law- makers? Along this line realize that, if woman suffrage comes at all, the body-politic must deal with the meaner sort of women, those who propose to rule or ruin, and that the voice of the better part could never be heard to save such disaster. Also realize that there is no remedy because of the fact that more than half the women are mothers, more or less of them in such condition that they could not participate in an election. True modesty would forbid it and every woman has a right to the privacy of motherhood. By the side of all this is the fact that the good sense of all the better women is such that the meddling with politics is distasteful. Indeed it is believed that more than one half the women do not want the franchise. By divine decree women bear the children and the true woman very well knows that she is best fulfilling her mission when she is honoring motherhood. Yes, God made the good mothers, but he never made a suffragette!
A salient fact is that children are the hope of the world and their character will determine what the world shall be. And here is the field for woman's greatest usefulness. She will be worth untold more to rear her children well than she can be in politics. Already the great danger of the future is shadowed in the laxity of child-training. The general lack of guidance and restraint is the mistake of the age. The chief thought of the children of now-a-days is for a good time. Their whole bent is for fun and frolic. They have no ambition to be industrious and useful. They run wild and grow more and more daring. What wonder is it that such living early ripens into crime to such extent that the juvenile courts of the large cities are overtaxed with business. The result of ungoverned childhood is weak manhood and weak womanhood and often leads to an early marriage of lust instead of love. Then the divorce mill is put to grinding. Another particularly sad fact is that the children are not taught to properly observe the Sabbath. They neither get the rest nor the moral training that they need. Their minds are filled with things entirely unsuited to the sacredness of the day. They go fishing, hunting, swimming and skating on the Sabbath, and think more of going to a Sunday ballgame than they do of going to Sunday School. They enjoy all the blessings of a christian civilization, brought down through the ages by the church, and yet fail to support the church by their presence or by their means. Spoiled children are the greatest loss that can come to the world. This is why I plead for intelligent and consecrated motherhood.
I am not writing these things because I love woman less, but more. I speak from observation and experience, and have a case at hand which helps to tell the story. My own mother was one of the world's best women. Bereft of her mother at four years of age she was the little housekeeper for her father's family at the age of ten years. She had education sufficient to teach school during her young womanhood. She was married at the age of twenty years and bore eleven children, nine of whom reached manhood and womanhood. She reared six sons to their majority and was thus represented in politics by her husband and six sons--seven votes in the family. What reason had she for Woman Suffrage? And I know that she would never have gone to the polls on election day. She had quite enough to do without the addition of political responsibility. She lived to the good old age of 86 years. Such women are satisfied to be represented in politics by the man who by divine decree is the head of the family, and while the world stands there will never be any better plan. Of course there will be difficulties and the Ship of State will be rocked and tossed about on the political sea, needing the skillful pilot to keep her on her way. But think of the assumption of the unskilled women in their proposition to be taken on board and given equal responsibility at the helm!
The great trouble in handling this question is the difficulty of discussing its delicate features. There are many things that can neither be spoken nor written. Physicians tell us that "The avoiding of motherhood, particularly in large cities, is awful--beyond words to tell." an eminent divine says--"The crime of race- suicide is one of the most terrible with which present civilization has to deal, that it is cruelty greater than that of Herod." He asks--"What must we think of the parents who profane the sacrament of matrimony by continuing to frustrate the designs of God by banishing and destroying infants even before they come into the world?"
Closely related to the avoidance of motherhood is the shirking of its obligations. On this point a foreign lady whose education and observation give value to her opinion, speaks freely. She criticizes our country by saying--"The American women should pay more attention to their homes, make the home first and society and suffrage second," also she says--"I find that the average middle class and well-to-do American women pay too little attention to the personal supervision of their children. They either entrust their raising to a nurse girl or go at it in a slipshod fashion using what spare time they can take from their society and suffrage affairs." The duties of the wife and mother cannot be neglected short of great loss. The home must be kept tidy and clean. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." and good cooking and good housekeeping will do more to make good laws than all woman could do with the ballot. A few good and well-meaning women have stood for equal suffrage. Their chief motive has been to help the cause of temperance. They hoped to do away with the poverty and suffering of the drunkard's wife and children. They had hope in other directions to make the world better. Tis well that their names should be honored.
I have referred to the suffrage performance in connection with the presidential inaugural. But this is only a single instance of their public interference. It has come to pass that a political convention cannot be held anywhere but this disturbing suffrage element is present making some demand. They disgust the sensible and capture the senseless.
If woman was in any way oppressed, or deprived of any natural right, we ought to hasten, at any cost, to correct the evil. But we cannot find that she is. Take her claim of being taxed without representation. This has a deceptive ring to it because of the claim that it is the nature of the oppression of our forefathers who were taxed without return. The cases have no similarity and therefore there is nothing to it. If in the matter of taxation there was discrimination against woman her complaint would be valid. But see, dollar for dollar of valuation as compared with property related to hers, she only pays the same and enjoys the same benefits. And yet comes the fool cry--"No Vote, No Tax." But this shows the spirit of the she-devil kind of suffragists.
Again, woman's claim for equal compensation for service has no meaning. By nature she cannot do equal work with man. As a rule she cannot do his work at all. She was not made to perform the heavy service and endure the great exposures which fall to man's lot. Her sex doomed her to wear skirts, and while this is well for her, the world's great business could never be performed in such a garb. At clerical work, at teaching, and in numerous other ways woman performs valuable service and ought to be equitably compensated for it. But hers is subordinate work and cannot command wages beyond its rank. It must also be taken into account that there is an uncertainty of tenure in woman's case, a fact which must be reckoned with in fixing the price. At all events there is no occasion for the ballot to be given to regulate the price of labor. There is not only no discrimination against woman but she is favored by law. This is forcibly put when it is said--"What's a woman's is a woman's," and she can hold and sell real estate without the approval or consent of any body. But a man cannot sell a rod of land without his wife's participation in the deal. Her right of dower is sure under the law, but man has no such right. Indeed, in all the civilized world the gallantry of man constitutes a defense and protection for woman. With his strong arm backed by his valiant nature man is always on the alert to guard and shield woman from danger. This is truly one of the most beautiful and charming relations in life. Woman knows it and graciously accepts it. See that the triumph of equal suffrage would mean the loss of it. Will woman barter away this birthright?
I am not writing this article because of any ordinary motive. It is because that from a conscientious study of this subject I see impending danger. I am aware that I may offend many good people and very likely make enemies. But no good cause can be advocated short of opposition. I feel that at my advanced age, so soon to end my earthly career, I must put myself on record against the equal suffrage movement. I am sure that there is no good reason for it. All the claims for it are without foundation. History shows that no country, even where it has been tried the longest, has ever been made better by it. Women who, under excitement, espoused this cause have seen the error of their way and repented. They have seen their mistake and confessed it. Hear the testimony of one good woman who says--"I worked hard for the franchise in Colorado because I believed it would tend to uplift politics, and because I believed women had a right to vote. We have had the franchise in Colorado for 19 years, a long enough period to have tested out its worth, and today I am free to say that should the question be put to vote whether to continue the franchise for women or recall it. I would vote for its recall, and I firmly believe over one-half the women of Colorado would also vote that way." This is the admission of a woman of ability and experience who has been right on the ground to observe the working of woman suffrage. And there is plenty more testimony of this same sort.
Some people point to the fact that there are many bright women who know more than their husbands and therefore that they ought to have the right to vote. This is no argument. Such people do not seem to know that just one-half of the men marry their superiors, and the other half marry their inferiors, and that precisely the same is true of the women-- one-half marry up and the other half marry down. Men and women never marry their exact equals. No--can't pick out the bright women to do the voting. If suffrage is granted at all it must be granted to all and as women as a whole are not brighter than the men there is nothing to it.
Hear one writer in his opposition to suffrage. He says--"I aver that the good mother of a family is the most perfect creation of God, that you cannot circumscribe her influence when that influence is used for the rearing of christian and patriotic sons, and daughters to be gentle and virtuous women. When she recognizes that in molding their lives she models the state, and that what the home is the nation will be--then I say her influence for good is limitless, exceeds the bounds of earth and reaches to heaven. Therefore, I believe anything that would destroy or lessen this salutary influence will have a calamitous result, and that nothing will more surely destroy it than to take woman from her eminent position and lower her into the world of politics."
Another says--"Woman is not only the mother of the family, she is the mother of civilization. As mother in the family she is the carver of character, the molder of morals, the inspirer of ideals, and the shaper of the world's destiny. So soon as children outgrow, or lose respect for their mother, society is endangered. No people can be great that has ignoble mothers, and no people can be ignoble that has high-minded mothers. The home is the keystone in the arch of society, and since the mother makes the home, all perfection of strength and beauty in the social order depends on the character of our women." How true and beautiful are these utterances.
But I want to give the opinion of another man of the highest natural ability and attainments. I quote as follows: "Senator Elihu Root of New York has entered the fight which is waging between the women suffrage advocates and the antis by declaring himself unequivocally in opposition to votes for women." He says, "I am opposed to the granting of suffrage to women, because I believe it would be a loss to women, to all women, and to every woman, and because I believe it would be an injury to the state, and to every man and woman in the state. It would be useless to argue this if the right of suffrage were a natural right. If it were a natural right then women should have it though the heavens fall. But if there be any one thing settled in the long discussion of this subject, it is that suffrage is not a natural right but simply a means of government, and the sole question to be discussed is whether government by the suffrage of men and women will be better government than by the suffrage of men alone. The question is therefore a question of expediency and the question of expediency upon this subject is not a question of tyranny, but a question of liberty, a question of the preservation of free constitutional government, of law, order, peace and prosperity. Into my judgment there enters no element of the inferiority of woman. It is not that woman is inferior to man, but it is that woman is different from man; that the distribution of powers, of capacities, of qualities, our Maker has created Man adapted to the performance of certain functions in the economy of nature and society, and woman adapted to the performance of other functions. I have said that I thought suffrage would be a loss for women; I think so because suffrage implies not merely the casting of the ballot, the gentle and peaceful fall of the snowflake; but suffrage, if it means anything, means entering upon the field of political life, and politics is modified war. In politics there is struggle, strife, contention, bitterness, agitation, heart- burning excitement--everything which is adverse to the true character of woman. Woman rules today by the sweet and noble influence of her character. Put woman into the arena of conflict and she abandons these great weapons which control the world, and she takes into her hands weapons with which she is unfamiliar and which she is unable to wield." As clear and comprehensive as is the foregoing remember that this strong indictment of the suffrage plague is by a man of world-wide reputation who knows more of our national and international laws than any other man.
See how Mr. Root strikes at the effect upon woman of the contention, strife, struggle, and bitterness of politics, then follow out this fact a little further. The effect is not upon woman alone but upon the children she brings into the world. She is not only spoiled herself, but she spoils her offspring. Think of the accuracy of the natural law of gravitation and then think of that other natural law of heredity, and know that one is as accurate as the other, and by the same Author. In heredity it is fundamental that "like begets like." By parental impress the mother gives character to the unborn. She shapes the child from conception to birth by what she is. If the mother is cross, contentious, irritable and excitable,, it follows that the offspring will be like her. The child simply reflects what its mother was during pregnancy. Hence, it is all-important that the mothers shall continuously be in a right frame of mind. There is no responsibility like it. And this is not all, wait a generation until these spoiled children themselves become parents, and know that continuously things will go from bad to worse. The true christian mother realizes all this and governs herself accordingly. She not only aims to keep herself in a calm and serene state of mind, but she goes farther and prays for her unborn babe. Barring accidents she is mistress of her condition continually. Her life is giving bent to the life for which she is responsible. Then she follows the little one up through its early years shaping its character as no other mortal can. Next to the Divine love is mother-love and this is constantly exercised to give moral uplift to her offspring. I know something of this from my own experience. Let a single instance illustrate. I well remember how, on one Sabbath evening when I was a little more than two years of age, my mother led me out through a pasture field and sat down upon a rock, and that she knelt beside that rock with me at her side and with her hand on my head offered a mother's prayer. In stead of clamoring for votes for women she was heading her boy for a life of usefulness here and for the blessed eternity beyond. This is infinitely better than for women to enter the whirlpool of politics. When woman is worth more in politics than she is in motherhood I will be a free suffragist and not until then.
Not withstanding all the reasons that show Woman Suffrage to be a folly and a crime we have men who aspire to high places in governmental affairs who favor it. Such men are unfit for any positions. They are too weak to be entrusted with the great interests of the people. High up in this list is the name of Theodore Roosevelt who has flaunted his views on this subject everywhere by every means of communication. His conduct has simply been disgusting. Same with Hon. William Jennings Bryan.
Closely related to the case of Mr. Roosevelt is that of President Woodrow Wilson. Whatever his views may have been earlier he too has championed this unholy cause. His views were especially importuned during the lovesick period of courting his new wife and he fell down and pointed out his own way of getting it.
Now, the probing Committee which has been sounding Hon. Charles E. Hughes on this question finds that he had heretofore been opposed to it but has changed his mind. The committee reported him as having said "He felt that continued refusal by men to admit women to such participation might result in the organization of women on sex lines. Therefore he would favor granting the vote to women by the most expeditious method possible." He goes farther by pointing out a hurry-up plan to get it. Mr. Hughes' attitude caps the climax.
Though I voted in 1852 for James G. Birney, the Liberty candidate; in 1856 for John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder; in 1860 for Abraham Lincoln, on the platform, "No More Slave Territory," and won out, and for every republican candidate since, making 16 times, and, to make it 17 times, intended to vote for Mr. Hughes on the 7th day of November, 1916, I cannot now do so.
If Woman Suffrage should be adopted in the United States, see what would come the very first thing. The number of votes would be increased and the cost of every election would be correspondingly increased. Thus millions of dollars would be worse than thrown away. The very first election would show up the danger of Woman Suffrage. First--a majority of the women, which includes the mothers, and that large element of the women who represent the truest and most beautiful type of womanhood, would not be there. Second--The bold, discontented, clamoring, half-crazy for publicity and power, and the home-neglecting women together with the on-coming host of girls just reaching their majority, not informed in regard to governmental affairs who rush to the polls just for the novelty of it, would be there. The logical deduction is plain that nothing but loss comes from trying to use women to do men's business. And yet we are told that "women through suffrage are just coming to be recognized as human beings."
Finally--See the Woman Suffrage question just as it is--no reason for it and every reason against it. As this is probably the last paper I shall ever write, really the closing article of my life, and upon a question vital to the well-being of the world, I ask careful consideration of all I say. Believe that I do not write for any personal gain but only for the public good. Since I have been asking attention in various ways for more than half a century it is only just to myself to state that it has always been for some public interest. For 15 years I officially sought something that would give growth and character to Hillsdale College and it is still in the memory of some people that I won out to such extent that it will forever be stronger than it would otherwise have been.
Coming down later I became interested in the City itself to centralize it and give it symmetrical growth. In this I have been so successful in laying plans, in raising money, and in obtaining outside gifts, that the City is on its way to be a more beautiful and prosperous city than it would have been but for my voluntary and uncompensated service. I do not speak of these things to in any way boast of myself, but to remind the people of the fact that it has always been my chief aim to make myself useful. This being understood I can confidently ask every body to give heed to what I say concerning the subject of this little book.
Just to pay the printer's bill and postage, I want to sell this booklet as follows: 1 copy, 10 cents; 3 copies, 25 cents; 10 copies, 50 cents; 25 copies, $1.00; 100 copies, $3.00; 250 copies, $5.00; 500 copies, $7.50; 1,000 copies, $10.00.
You are invited to help. Address
L. P. Reynolds
Hillsdale, MichiganEtheridge, Grand Rapids
