Suffer the ladies Part 3
“What in tarnation has gotten into these uppity females?” others moaned their agony and frustration.
The Lake County Bee, busy precursor to the great National Reporter, The Lake County Record Bee, gave two opposing opinions of the proposed 1896 Amendment.
Jan Cook, Lakeport’s esteemed present Head Librarian and collector of good news, gave me a copy of what had been said by Reverend James L. Woods of Lake County in 1896 in the Lake County Bee. That was okay. Every question has two sides. What made the Bee’s article different was what was said in the woman’s favor.
Reverend James L. Woods was firmly against the Amendment.
Woods began his opposing statement with, “What man accepts as a privilege, the suffragette woman demands as an absolute right.”
Reverend Woods’s next words revealed his awful fears.
“No sooner will the law be changed, than women, while grasping its honors and emoluments, will evade its duties and responsibility by demanding immunities and privileges made necessary by the limitations of her sex and nature. At once the equilibrium is destroyed. Man becomes the weaker sex.”
I can hear the men of 1911 Lake County, who agreed with Woods, speaking now; “Oh, how true, how true those words. If we had trouble already keeping the little woman in her place, should such an outrageous bill become law, what will be our terrible burden in the future?”
Nancy Kastner, wife of Reverend W. F. Kastner was Pro. Nancy gave her two cents worth next.
“Why should voting be any more degrading (for a woman) than standing in line with neighbors and strangers at the Post Office, paying taxes, purchasing railroad tickets, or the many other things that women do, and to which men do not object? How can she sacrifice her dignity by putting on her bonnet and walking to a polling booth? The woman who thinks she is making herself unwomanly by voting is a silly creature.”
At that time, any person considered unqualified and ‘unworthy’ of voting, such as the insane, idiots and the Chinese, were a disenfranchised. Nevertheless, at times, a Chinese citizen managed to cast his vote. Ms. Kastner’s next words as unreal as they might seem today, only reflected the racial and cultural attitudes of 1911.
“Women, as well as men, are human beings… they will add a distinct moral element to the present vote. They are loathed to have their mothers, wives, and sweethearts rated with Chinamen, idiots and insane persons at the Ballot Box.”
Other women stated their case with crystal clarity.
The great nineteenth century suffragist, Susan B. Anthony, said of the right to vote, “It is the pivotal right, the one that underlies all other rights.”
One brave (but careful) chap signed his opinion only with an initial ‘R’. He gushed with his new opinion of woman’s rights. His apology of his old sins poured out like a drunkard that had knelt at the sinner’s bench and had risen with the light of salvation in his eyes.
“There was a time when I feared this battle would for universal franchise would carry man and woman apart in a selfish struggle for supremacy. I don’t now. Indeed, I don’t. I know it is going to bring them closer and closer together, make good and stable comrades of them together, such as nature in her highest development intended them to be. Hand in hand they will carry humanity away from a feeble mock civilization, to one that is founded on brotherly love.”
Well, the Author will not go as far as all that… but the writer was on the right track.
The great nineteenth century suffragist, Susan B. Anthony, said of the right to vote, “It is the pivotal right, the one that underlies all other rights.”