Show WORK THE ladies of washington territory who have been cheated out of the elective franchise which they had exercised at previous elections are determined to contest their right to vote at the approaching election under the state constitution the instrument contains a provision that the question of granting the suffrage to women shall be voted upon and the ladies in justice and reason ought to be permitted to express heir wishes on this matter atthe polls but as their right to do so is disputed they are organizing throughout the territory and the prominent workers for woman suffrage intend to offer their ballots this movement is ridiculed and denounced by opponents of woman suffrage with their usual lack of logic and fairness the ladies are told to be patient and to trust in the honor chivalry etc of their husbands and brothers and warned that strong minded women and those who are arc too eager to clamor f for 0 r their rights are likely to disgust men rather than win them over to their cause but how is this question to be decided if the ladies stay at home and sew and cook and wait on and depend upon their voting lius husbands bands fathers and brothers and make no effort to assert their position on a question specially affecting women why should not women be allowed a voice and vote woman suffrage has been very widely discussed of late and has been taken up by prominent writers in popular magazines the objections to it have been fairly mete met and not a reason has been advanced against women voting that cannot be urged against certain classes of men who notwithstanding this are still permitted to hold the elective franchise so the last refuge of the objectors is r the of the women themselves no strong reason remains after the debate is averon the opposing side but the fact that the majority of women do not want the suffrage this is of course no real and substantial cause for denying it to those who do want it and who have a just claim upon it in a government of the people in which it is admitted that taxation without representation is tyranny and which is fou founded nd on the principle that all just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed but it obtains some plausibility from the undeniable fact that the masses of women either care nothing or very little about it or that are opposed to it because they think it will impose duties upon them which the they y do not desire to assume but here is a movement among the ladies to demonstrate their wishes upon the subject it meets the only strong objection urged against giving to women the elective franchise and now that the women of washington territory propose to step forward and remove this objection they are jeered at and cautioned and told that they are too eager and that they will disgust the men if they persist of such is the logic of the anti woman suffragists what are the ladies to do if they do not agitate this question they are told they ought not to have the suffrage because they show that they do not want it if they step forward and organize and exhibit interest and diligence to obtain what they believe to be their right they are denounced as unwomanly and advised to be quiet and let the men decide the matter for them we believe the ladies of washington territory are in the right apart from the abstract question of woman suffrage they should by all means endeavor to manifest their views on a question which relates to them directly and affects affect is their status particularly they ought to be permitted to vote on it if they are denied that simple justice they ought to take tabe such stops steps as will expose the injustice and then test in the courts their right under the laws of the territory and the provisions of the state constitution to have a voice in the disposition of a question that is to decide their political future and either relegate them to political serfdom or i lit elevate them to a political plane with the sterner sex aex and make them at least equal with the commonest unlettered colored corn hoer or cotton puller in the south |