agism is gaining in strength every day and is becoming a general
movement in the countries where it has found acceptance. Exactly like
the aeroplane. Would it not be perfectly ridiculous to declaim against
the aeroplane on account of the accidents that are liable to occur,
and would we not be stupid to refuse to follow the lead of other
governments who utilize its advantages for defence or aggression in
war and for rapid communication in time of peace? And is it not just
as stupid and even senseless to oppose suffragism on speculative or
rather hypothetical grounds, instead of being guided by the experience
of other countries in this respect and accepting suffragism as part
and parcel of our modern customs and institutions?

In conclusion, permit me to quote a few passages on this subject from
an address which I made at an entertainment given at the Opera House
in honor of Rizal by various schools for young ladies in 1913:

According to the old idea, woman's sphere of action should
not extend beyond the home, beyond her domestic occupations,
and she should be nothing but the glory and delight of
her husband and her children. This is not right. Like man,
woman is born and lives in society, and she can not and must
not remain indifferent to social distress and suffering. To
think otherwise would be selfishness and aberration and would
leave society a prey to much suffering which only the blessed
hand of woman can cure or relieve. Let woman be the glory and
happiness of the home; but do not forget that she must extend
her beneficent action beyond the confines of the household,
that she must make the world outside the participant of the
wealth of kindness and charity that bountiful Providence has
lavished upon her. Just as she shares the duties of life with
man within the home, so should she without it, in public life,
share with man the responsibility of remedying and alleviating
public distress and misfortune.

It is very significant that beneficence, charity, and morality
are feminine virtues, it being woman's mission to exercise all
these virtues in society. She must take a part, and should,
in my opinion, always take the initiative, in all work for
the protection of the orphans, the relief of distress, and
the elevation of the standard of public morality. She must
strive and suffer, in the society in which she is living