Show UTAHS X FE1ItiE SHXATOK The Philadelphia Record of Friday last has an article under the above title on the question of women in politics poli-tics and their influence upon legislative debates In part it says Among the curious results of the recent re-cent battle of the ballots one of the most interesting from many points of view is the election of Mattie Hughes Cannon to the state senate of Utah by an immense plurality over her opponent oppo-nent Angus M Cannon wno alas Jour I the future peace and quiet of the Cannon Can-non household is the husband of tne I senatoresselect The advent of Mrs Cannon into the Utah state senate may I however exercise a perturbing muuence over a wider circle than that which circumscribes the domestic realm of MrCannon The prospect of the election elec-tion of women to the higher legislative assemblies has filled some apparently unprejudiced observers with alarm because be-cause of the paralyizing effect which it is feared their presence may have upon debates It will doubtless be granted that it is a vital object of debate in a deliberative body to thoroughly thrash out the subjects under discussion but a writer in the current number of The Nineteenth Century has made the shrewd suggestion that things will not get themselves thrashed out in the presence of women in public assemblies The point of the argument Is that the possibility of a resort to rudeness is an indispensable condition of fruitful debate de-bate It is necessary that speakers whose remarks are neither Instructive nor pertinent to the issue should be left under no selfdelusions The underlying underly-ing realities of the subject discussed are often most clearly revealed by contradiction con-tradiction aye by irritating interruptions interrup-tions in the council chamber Now who dare assert that women can be subjected to hectoring in public by men who are their rightfully elected equals in the deliberative body The relations which nature and usage have established I estab-lished between man and woman make such rudeness impossible Men would be I restrained from saying what they might have to say in the manner to which they are accustomed among I themselves It would be difficult for a I male debater to say folly is folly if I the utterer of the remarks open to such criticism should happen to be a woman Debate would cease to be an engine for I the elucidation of fundamental truths I and would become a mere series of I decorous and Inconclusive declamations declama-tions As Mr and Mrs Cannon are not at all worried over the latters election to the state senate It is needless for anyone any-one else to be apprehensive over the effect of that fact upon their domestic affairs It is our own opinion that ttiings in the Utah legislature will get themselves them-selves threshed out more thoroughly than ever because there will be women I in it One great trouble with American I Ameri-can legislatures is that things are not I II thoroughly threshed out but on the contrary are smothered j If any woman who is a member of a legislature makes remarks during a debate de-bate upon any subject that are not pertinent per-tinent to the issue she will follow the I example ofa majority of male legislators j legis-lators If she is not told that folly is folly it will probably be because her I fellow legislators do not realize that I I it is folly There is no reason in the world why women should not sit in legisfative halls and participate in debates upon matters pertaining to the commonwealth I common-wealth If the Ideas they advance and I the policies they advocate are wrong I there is no reason why anyone should hesitate to declare them wrong The j IiI Ii-I presence of women in the legislature I will be not to prevent all legislators I saying what they wish to but to com j pel them to say it in better style And as the manner improves so will the 1 matter Nothing that has transpired in Utah shows greater advancement < in civilization than the election of women I I to the legislature |