A Woman On Woman Suffrage

We make the following extracts from an artlcle by Mrs. Church, editor of the Owosso Press - a lady qualified by education, exporience and charactjr to treat the subject intelligcntly and candidly. She givos utterance to the sentiment of a great niajority of the botter class of women in this State aad elsewhere : Circuinstances havo thrown us for years where the study of women, their c ipabilities, needs, dutios, and best interests have formed a prominent feature of observation, and tho conclusión arrived at is that both nature and the permanent welfare of society are both better subserved with the present división of duties - women controlling the social and domestic, and men the affairs of civil government - than they would be by adding to tho present duties of women a sliare in eovernment affairs. # :: All occupations are open to women in Michigan, and whon from a necessity or choico a woman ongages in any business or vocation, no moral obligation is thereby laid upon any other woman to do the sanie. But the depositing of a vote by one woman which will have influence in shaping our government policy, imposes upon another woman of different polilical views a duty she has no right to shirk - that of casting a counteracting vote. And as for not being compelled to assume any civil duty, although the cases are rare where any one refuses to hold an office when elected, still there is a law on our statute books compelling people elected to certain offices to serve under penalty of a fine. Our opinión is also the generally expressed feeling of the mass of women in Michigan, that they have enough to do without any additional burdens. The welfare of the country is just as niuch dependent upon its social and domestic management as upon the political machinery, and we hope the day is not far distant when the barriers between the two spheros shall be removed, and the influences of political corruption and chicanery be brought any more more intimately to our homes than now. As for woman's purifying politics, that is rather chimerical. The Éev. Dr. Cuyler, of Brooklyn, says , " Who is going to purify woman after she has purified politics?" Far be it from us to stand in the way of any real advancement of our sex. We challenge the female suffragists to produce one of their number who has done more for the past fifteen years, proportionate to her sphere, to ad vanee women and make them self-supporting than we have. And this not becauso of any legal advantages they were ( boring under, but as a means of olevating their character and rendering them independent in case of necessity. All this time wo recognize the sphere in which the God that made woman has placed her physically and morally - the home sphere. It requires a vast amount of executive ability to carry on faithfully and smoothly the household machinery to the comfort and well-being of all its inmates, and a conscientious training of children ; and a woman who does this well does a good work for the world, and as much as ought to be required of her. Experience is better than theory, During the few brief years of life devoted to the holy dutiea of wife and mother, we should very much have pitied any putside duties, either business or politcal, that had been dependent upon ns ; and since by the hand of death home duties have been removed, and the sorption of a business life has taken place, we certainly should pity any houseliold dependent on us for daily comforts. Every year of business employment but adds to our conviction that the houses of the land need women devoted to them, and that those who perform well their part therein perform well their duties in life. For those who by circumstances or choice have no home obligations resting upon them, or those whose home necessities render outside labor necessary, any business occupation or profession they may choose to follow is open to them in this State, without, as before stated, rendering it incumbent upon any other woman, from a sense of duty to do the same. All women who undertake to maintain themselves in any respectable line of business in which they show themselves competent, will meet good encouragement from the men of Michigan. Women are not slaves in Michiigan, and they know it ; in fact, they carry things pretty nearly their own way, and we believe if there was an earnest, conscientious desire on the part of the home women of the State for the ballot, the men would cheerfully grant it to them. As it is, the suffrage amendment is looked upon as already voted down, because the women of the State, except a few restless spirits, spurred on by outsiders, have not asked for it.