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Show . ' The Woman Suffragists, who appeared ap-peared before the house and senate committees last week, did not have everything their own way. In opposition to Miss Anthony and her colleagues. a very strong delegation, delega-tion, representing those who are opposed op-posed to woman suffrage, appeared before be-fore tho committee and very succintly and forcibly gave the reasons for their opposition. Miss Emily p. Bissell of Wilmington, Del., voiced the views of those who do not favor the enfranchisement of women wo-men in a paper, both thoughtful and j forceful. Misa Bissell's opinions should be of I interest to the readers of The Intermountain Inter-mountain Catholic, who have had the opportunity of witnessing the exercise of suffrage on the part of women in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Tho following jS her paper in full: "It is' not the tyranny but the chivalry chival-ry of men that we American women have to fear. The men of America want to give us everything we really need, and the danger is that they will mistake a minority for a majority. That i:? why we are here today. We held a brief for the silent majority I who do not want the ballot. There ' are, no doubt, thousands of women who .wish tiie ballot, and wish it earnestly, but there are millions' who do not desire de-sire it. "The proof that we represent this majority may be asked for. It lies in this that the suffrage movement must be against the opinions of most of our sex s'nee it has been pushed for fifty years by as able a woman and as popular pop-ular a one as Miss Anthony, and yet still remains a minority movement. In these fifty years every othor woman's mavement really desired by women has succeeded. The educational movement (not necessarily the co-educattonal), is a magnificent success, and, by the way, I may mention here, that the presidents presi-dents of four of the prominent women's colleges are all anti-suffrajrists. The movement for property rights is so successful that even married women now have more property rights than married men. The entrance of women jn all occupations and professions ha; ;t j been so great that out of a possibli 1 369 occupations, over 360 have beer n j conquered for our sex. according to th e j census of 1S90. while now a suffragisi 5 speaker at the conference this weeli - claims that we are today represented 5 in over 400 trades and occupations. And 1 the club movement well, gentlemen, ; wherever there are two women now-' now-' adaya there is" a club; the remotest hamlet is no exception to this rule, j These movements have had no trouble in winning their way and they have I not, taken half a century to do it, j either. The woman suffrage move-j move-j mont is the only woman's movement ! in existence that after fifty years' hard work findg itself not only in the minority, minor-ity, but with strong associations of women, wo-men, banded against it. "The suffrage, movement is a minority minor-ity movement even where it has siro-cseded. siro-cseded. In Colorado', ' where I have bec-h twice since! the Equal Suffrage law was passed, and where I have friends who are old residents, I have been assured that the majority of women did not desire the vote and have been indifferent ever since as to casting their ballots. When I was going go-ing to Oregon last year I had a most interesting talk with an. Oregon suffragist, suf-fragist, who sought to dissuade me from opposing suffrage. I asked her if she did not think that I represented the majority, and, she. said: "Why of course, the majority of women here in the east areagainst us," and you will find the majority out there 'against us too, but when they have to vote they will vote!'" And when I reached Oregon I found that she was right in her first remark at least. The great majority . of all the women-1 met there did not ' care a button for the ballot, and a ' strong organization has been formed ' there against it. m this connection I 1 may add, since the success of municipal 1 suffrage in Kansas is often spoken of 1 t' the suffragists that one of 1 the membertj r.- . t : n- ui me standing I CcntKmttee of ii Oregon State . i Association Opposed to the Ex-l Ex-l j tension of the Suffrage to ; , Women, came upon that committee be-cause, be-cause, as ishe said, she had been living in Kansas under municipal suffrage and wan so disgusted with it that when she moved to Oregon she wanted n" . more suffrage at all. j "The suffrage movement is a minority minor-ity movement too, in that the four j th have accepted suffrage are not representative of our large communities. com-munities. Colorado by the census of 1890 had less inhabitants in the whole state than the City of Baltimore; by the last estimate, made by its governor, It had just about 20.000 inhabitants more than Baltimore, which is not much of a margin. Wyoming's total population ia leas than the foreign population of Maryland, and Maryland is not a land of immigrants by any nreans. The population of Idaho is far below the number of colored people in Maryland. Utah (where the admission of women to the suffrage can hardly be said, in view of recent events, to have elevated the character of the candidates) has ler:i population than there are negroes in Arkansas and altogether the four sttate: that have equal suffrage all put together have fewer people in them (T00.CC0 fewer) than Chicago, and not half as many an Now York City. Gentlemen, Gen-tlemen, results from such states even if they wero conclusive and pos-ltive would still be minority results. But even in those states the results are negative. Colorado has no advance in legislation to speak of, no purification purifica-tion of politics, no improvement of municipal conditions, no raising of working women's wasres. no tokens of the millenium dawn whatever. Ctah has sent Mr. Brigham Roberts here, but he has been returned with thanks, through the efforts of the women without with-out the ballot, so that Utah's effort to uplift the country goes for nothing Wyoming has had equal suffrage for thirty years, yet nothing important has happened any more than in Idaho, which has but just begun the experi-, experi-, ment. Negative results such as these speak powerfully against suffrage, to our mind. "I may be asked by what authority I speak for Colorado. I have here letters let-ters from Colorado men signed with their names and giving their opinion as to the negative or evil results of suffrage in Colorado. It may be said that you would prefer to hear from the women, and I also have a Ietetr from a Denver woman, who signs her name to it and who shows up the same evils, (Here the speaker read two let- s ters, one from an official of the Fin ? and Police Board of Denver and on ! from a Denver lawyer, which spoke ; emphatically of the failure of woman t suffrage to purify politics, advance the : cause of temperance, or remedy the I municipal corruption.) Both these let- ters particularly referred to the vote of the disreputable women as being the only solid and result-producing woman's wom-an's vote in Denver politics. One of these letters was written by a man who had voted for woman's suffrage and still theoretically approved it, but considered its practical working so far exceedingly disastrous. The letter from a Denver woman particularly emphasized empha-sized the extraordinary expense for carriage hire at recent Denver elections, elec-tions, amounting to $10,000 at a recent city election, and also said: "He would be a bold man, indeed, who should claim that the. municipal affairs of the city of Denver are today in the hands or cleaner or more disinterested poli- j ticians than before the days of woman suffrage." "In conclusion, if you will excuse a personal detail, I wish to sav that if any woman in the United States needs a vote I ought to be that woman. The suffragists ask for the ballot in the whT V!!e self-surting woman. ho must be a bread-winner not only for herself, but often for others; they ask it for the property-owning woman so tTt U n aCCUnt f taxatn. so that she can save those nearest and dearest to her from the saloon: they intelligence and interest in public Pf. fairs deserves it. And above all. they ask !t for the poor. downtrodden single woman, who has no one to look out for her or take care of her interests. Well by a freak of coincidence, I hapoen to 1 te myself a single woman, f clb svoman, a temperance woman (though ' iot a prohibitionist), a small property wner and self-supporting woman these , a jiveiom longing for suffrage, I have never yet been so sit uated that I could see i where 1 could heip me. lf T feIt thaJ7t buTafitT1"6 a 8uffratet perhaps but as it is I remain with the majority of my sex, and I beg you to belive that movement only.'- "E a """orlty |