l evil--in a form so
degrading to all womanhood that no man, though he were the prince
of profligates, would submit to its regulations for a day; then
we cried out so that the world heard us. We know the plague is
only stayed for a brief while. The hydra-headed monster every now
and then lifts a new front, and must be smitten again. Four times
in four successive years a little company of women of the
District have appeared before committees and compelled the
discussion and defeat of bills designed to fasten these measures
upon the community under the guise of security for public health
and morality. The last annual report of the board of health
speaks tenderly of the need of protecting vicious men by these
regulations, and says:

The legalization of houses of ill-fame for so humane a
purpose, startling as it may be to the moral sense, has many
powerful advocates among the thoughtful, wise, and
philanthropic of communities.

The report quotes approvingly Dr. Gross, of Philadelphia, who
says in behalf of laws to license the social evil:

The prejudices which surround the subject must be swept
away, and men must march to the front and discharge their
duty, however much they may be reproached and abused by the
ignorant and foolish.

Aside from the higher ground of our inherent right to
self-government, we declare here and now that the women of this
District are not safe without the ballot. Our firesides, our
liberties are in constant peril, while men who have no concern
for our welfare may legislate against our dearest interests. If
we would inaugurate any measure of protection for our own sex, we
are bound hand and foot by man. The law is his, the treasury is
his, the power is his, and he need not even hear our cry, except
at his good will and pleasure.

If man had legislated justly and wisely for the interests of this
District, if its financial condition was sound, its social and
moral atmosphere pure, and all was well, there would be some show
of reason in your refusing to hazard a new experiment, even
though we could demonstrate it to be founded upon eternal
justice. But the history of the successive forms of government in
the District of Columbia is a history of failures. So will it