Keuka College - Kiondaga Yearbook (Keuka Park, NY)

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20 THE COLLEGE RECORD. Ruskin said, Whatever our station in life may be, at this crisis, those of us who mean to fulfill our duty ought first to live on as little as we can, and secondly, to do all the whole- some work for it we can, and to spend all we can spare in doing all the sure good we can. This he did ; this is the summary of his life. Class Exercise. — C. B. L. 'op WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE. A 7 OMEN -should have the right to vote, first, because V they are men's equals. They are morally better. In the reports of prisons, reformatories, etc., men's and boys' names appear more often than girls' and women's. Women, time and time again, have been admitted to have firm reason, endurance, foresight, skill, patience, temperate will and strength. Are not these the qualifications so greatly needed in the councils of the republic ? Where then, does the legiti- macy of soverignty lie ? With the thousands who have the power without these qualifications, or with the other thou- sands who have the qualifications but are forcibly excluded from the power ? In education women are men's equals. Con- sult the statistics of the Common and High Schools. You find that there are more among the girls who graduate than there are among the boys. Then there are women who have a higher education. Are not teachers, business women, lawyers, college graduates, nurses and doctors as intelligent, yes, more intelligent, than most voters? Surely women with such edu- cation are more capable of voting than many men who do vote. But the political system of to-day renders all women, no matter how well born, how rich, how intelligent, how servicable to the state, the political inferiors of all men, no matter how basely born, how poverty stricken, how ignorant, how vicious, how brutal. The pauper in the almshouse may vote ; the lady who devotes herself to getting the almshouse made habitable can not. Communities are agitated and legislatures convulsed to devise means to secure the right of suffrage to any illiterate voter, while well-educated women in the state are left in silence, obliterated behind this cloud of often besotted ignor- ance.

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 19 almost the whole amount of which was spent in some charit- able way. He set an example in making parks. He re- modeled or tore down or re-built many tenement houses, so that a few might have more comfortable homes ; he brought to the doors of the poor his treasuries of art, science, litera- ture, and poetry ; he founded and endowed museums ; he offered these costly and precious collections to the people ; he wore out his life in teaching them the elements of art ; he gave his money and his life for the sake of humanity ; he showed the working man how to use his tools, and how to be happy by doing his best in the place God had put him. He showed girls why they should read and how this read- ing should be done ; he tried to make them realize how much importance was placed upon them in this life ; he taught them how they should be educated in order to know great teachers and men of the past ; he laid great emphasis on the place that girls and women hold in the world ; they can make or spoil it. He taught them the duties of the home and the home life. He put forth an idea almost entirely new in his time, that women might enter any profession with benefit to the profession and the world. He showed them what a broad field lay open be- fore them. At the time Ruskin put forth all these ideas the world called him somewhat impractical, but let us see what the world is do- ing to-day along these same lines. Perhaps the world is not directly influenced by him, but its reforms follow very closely the ideals which he set forth. To-day we have public parks ; now there are many more public museums than- in Ruskin' s time. Slowly the ugly, tumbled down tenement houses are baing re-built, with a view to beauty and comfort. Many busi- ness men are making the men under them more comfortable by providing for them a place where they may rest during the noon hour. The smoke of the cities is being done away with, and even in New York City unnecessary noise is being quieted. Women are being educated, with great benefit to the home and the business world. They are beginning to realize their duties and are rising to the opportunities. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kind- ness.

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 2 1 All people are familiar with the great axiom of our govern- ment, Taxation without representation is tyranny. We have been taught that in union there is strength. Have we a true union, have we a representative government when one-half of the people have no voice in it ? Are not women taxed without representation ? When a woman has stock in a business deal she can vote in its direction, why not for her taxes ? There is in this Union State to-day over a billion dol- lars' worth of property owned by women. Ought they to have no vote in the government when they pay taxes ? Women ask that the government mold a constitution for our State consis- tent with its profession ; that our government be no more false to its trust, and that justice be henceforth enthroned as law. Woman should be allowed to vote because of her great in- fluence on politics. Observe what great good woman has done in school betterment in the last twenty-eight years. She has made the schools more sanitary, the teachers more efficient, the methods of instruction better. Even the lowest people de- sire to have their children's condition bettered, therefore if women had a voice in the government they would endeavor to pass law's for their children's betterment. If mothers knew politics better they could instruct their children in politics, thus making the citizens of the next generation better politicians. For years campaign speeches, of different political parties, have been remarkably free from vulgarity. Why ? Because the stump speakers have suddenly become chaste ? No, not at all. But because fully one-half of the listeners have been women. Can you not see in this a prophecy ? When you give women the ballot for a lever they will help you to level up, rather than down, the political status. Ruskin advises us when in doubt to seek great men's opin- ions. One of Plato's wisest sayings is that, in the administra- tion of a State, neither a woman as a woman, or a man as a man, has any special functions, but the gitts are equally dif- fused in both sexes. Woman should be allowed to vote because she would be the w7orking- woman's protection. Ought she not to be protected ? Consider her economic value. The suffrage as a right and a privilege for woman is urged for the protection and advance-