Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Colorado does not go into mourning when a girl is born. Equal
suffrage has not taken Colorado out of the Union. She stands an
example of what a sovereign State should be--a model to those
self-righteous States that preach equal rights in press, pulpit
and forum and deny it in the law. The statue of Justice that
crowns her city hall, court house and Capitol is not a lie. For
the Capitol in Washington and in 41 States of the Union the
figure of St. Paul would be more fitting than that of the Goddess
of Liberty. Unfettered by tradition and prejudice Colorado has
dared to do right. She has given to woman what Solomon gave to
Sheba--"whatsoever she asked"--and has no regrets and no desire
to recall the gift. After ten years of experience, equal suffrage
needs neither apology nor defense. No harm has come to either
woman, man or the State. Justice never harmed any one. If
Colorado women were not angels before, the ballot has brought no
wings. Suffrage has not elevated them, it has simply placed them
where they belonged but it has raised the men who have dared to
be just. Woman has not yet conquered iniquity nor has it
conquered her. Suffrage is not a revolution, it is but a step and
not the end of the journey....
If women have not overthrown the entrenched political machines
the failure is due to the so-called respectable Christian men.
The women are ready but the men are chained to partisanship....
No single disaster, no backward step in politics or family morals
can be charged to woman suffrage. It has added nothing to the
business of the divorce court, no family has been disrupted, no
children neglected; but the prayers of hundreds of homeless
children and orphans have invoked a benediction upon the voting
women for the home and education that their influence has induced
the State to provide. Suffrage has sent no girl astray but it has
gathered many wanderers and turned their feet into paths of
safety and built for them a model State home. Through the age of
consent law many a seducer has ended his career in jail. The most
efficient members of the State Board of Charities and Correction
are women and this is true of other boards. Their influence has
sent rays of light and hope into darkened cells and established
reforms in asylums and prisons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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