commonweal; and on the
other hand thinking and patriotic women are crying against the
injustice which forbids them to prove their fitness for
self-government. What shall be the result of this double demand?

Woman Suffrage and the Home was the topic of Henry B. Blackwell
(Mass.).

One of the objections to extending suffrage to women is a fear
that its exercise will divert their attention from domestic
pursuits, and diminish their devotion to husband, children and
home. We believe, on the contrary, that it will increase domestic
happiness by giving women greater self-respect and greater
respect and consideration from men.

People who make this objection seem to regard the conjugal and
maternal instincts as artificial, as the result of education and
circumstances, losing sight of the fact that these qualities are
innate in the feminine soul. Mental cultivation and larger views
of life do not tend to make women less womanly any more than they
tend to make men less manly. No one imagines that business or
politics diminishes or destroys the conjugal and paternal
instinct in men. We do not look for dull or idle or indolent men
as husbands for our daughters. Ignorant, narrow-minded men do not
make the best husbands and fathers. Ignorant, narrow-minded women
do not make the best wives and mothers. Mental discipline and
intelligent responsibility add strength to the conjugal and
parental sentiment alike in men and women....

But fortunately this is no longer a question of theory. We appeal
to the experience of the four States which have extended equal
suffrage to women. Wyoming has had complete woman suffrage since
1869. For twenty-nine years, as a Territory and a State, women
have voted there in larger ratio than men. Supreme Judge J. W.
Kingman many years ago testified that the actual proportion of
men voting had increased to 80 per cent., but that 90 per cent.
of the women went to the polls. And now, after a generation of
continuous voting, the percentage of divorces in Wyoming is
smaller than in the surrounding States where women do not vote,
and while the percentage in the latter is rapidly increasing, in
Wyoming it is steadily diminishing. Where women have once voted
the right has never been taken away by the people. In Utah women
voted for