own future, yet he is
incomparably superior to the average citizen of any other land
where the subject does not fully participate in the government.
Discussions on the stump, and above all the discussions he
himself has with his fellows, breed a desire for knowledge which
will take no refusal and which leads to great general
intelligence. In political discussion, acrimony and hate are not
essential, and have of late years quite perceptibly diminished
and will more and more diminish when discussions by women, and in
the presence of women, become more common. If, then, discussion
of public affairs among men has elevated them in knowledge and
intelligence, why will it not lead to the same results among
women? It is not merely education that makes civilization, but
diffusion of education. The standing of a nation and its future
depend not upon the education of the few, but of the whole. Every
improvement in the status of woman in the matter of education has
been an improvement to the whole race. Women have by education
thus far become more womanly, not less. The same prophecies of
ruin to womanliness were made against her education on general
subjects that are now made against her participation in politics.

It is sometimes asserted that women now have a great influence in
politics through their husbands and brothers. This is undoubtedly
true. But that is just the kind of influence which is not
wholesome for the community, for it is influence unaccompanied by
responsibility. People are always ready to recommend to others
what they would not do themselves. If it be true that women can
not be prevented from exercising political influence, is not that
only another reason why they should be steadied in their
political action by that proper sense of responsibility which
comes from acting themselves?

We conclude then, that every reason which in this country bestows
the ballot upon man is equally applicable to the proposition to
bestow the ballot upon woman, and that in our judgment there is
no foundation for the fear that woman will thereby become
unfitted for all the duties she has hitherto performed.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] For an interesting account of the struggle to secure these
committees see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 198.

[21] But it was