are women unfitted to
have a voice in choosing rulers?

The true advancement of common interest waits for the active and
responsible participation of women in political matters. Indirect
and irresponsible influence they have now, but indirection and
irresponsibility are dangerous elements in governments which
assume to be representative, and are a constant menace. If this
whole question of equal political rights of women is considered
in the light of common sense and common justice, the sooner will
the present intolerable wrong be wiped out and self-government be
put upon a broader and safer basis.

Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.) discussed the Fitness of Women to Become
Citizens from the Standpoint of Education and Mental Development.

From the close of the Revolution, we find all the distinguished
American patriots expressing the conviction that a self-governing
people must be an educated people. Hancock, Jay, Franklin,
Morris, Paine, Quincy Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, all
urge the same argument in support of education. It is no longer
to produce an educated ministry, but to insure educated citizens,
that schools are maintained and colleges multiplied....

In this year of 1897-98 not less than 20,000,000 pupils and
students of all ages, from the toddlers in the kindergartens to
the full-grown candidates for post-graduate honors, are
registered in the schools, academies, colleges and universities
of the United States. The average length of time which girls
spend in school exceeds by nearly three years the average length
of time which boys stay there; while the number of girls
graduating from high-school courses, those which include United
States history and civil government, is almost double the number
of boys. Thus, at the present time, largely more than one-half of
the moneys spent by the governments, local and national, in
support of free schools, is used in the education of girls. By
what authority does the Government tax its citizens to support
schools for the education of millions of women to whom, after
they have received the education declared necessary to
citizenship, this is denied?

Is it urged that the Government gets its return upon its
investment in the education of women through the increased
intelligence with w