Busy Men Pay But Little Attention to Woman Suffrage


by C. E. Tibbles
Chapter XXV from Book of Letters: How to Make Best of Life vs. Woman Suffrage
1912


The busy men of this country have never taken time to study the proposition of Woman Suffrage. They believe the theories advanced by the agitators, when if examined into thoroughly, the doctrine and also the arguments advanced to sustain it are deceptive in the extreme. They have let the subject pass without thorough consideration because of the long established habit of allowing the women to have their own way.

Men have, by their labor, produced from natural resources all the wealth of the world and laws have been made to protect the rights of labor and the wealth after it has been produced by labor. Woman suffrage agitators teach that wealth can be obtained through the making of laws which will give it to those who have the suffrage, when in fact laws are only made to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which involves the defense of our government and the enforcement of the laws.

The only way to "Make the Best of Life" is for men to love, adore, support and care for their wives, the mothers of their children, and to always stand loyal to our government which is the safeguard and the protection of our families.

We should grant the mothers all the privileges possible and let them have their own way in everything so long as they do not depart from their natural sphere and their actions are not injurious to the family and society.

When a man's wife or daughter wishes to leave her sphere and occupy man's sphere, he should repeat to her the old saying, "A whistling girl and a crowing hen always come to some bad end."

The claim that women must have the franchise because men will, for the sake of a few dollars, allow their children to drink impure water and so be carried off by disease; that men will not look out for the education of their children; that they will allow them to work in "sweat shops" before they are of proper age; that they will not do their duty as men in opposing excessive taxation, is not supported by facts. Many of our greatest reforms of recent years aimed to protect the child and the female, have been launched in anti-suffrage states and carried through by MEN. However, we find the suffragettes making this very claim and saying that they must have the right of suffrage in order to subdue these wrongs, and control the greedy men.

The facts are that the father loves his children and will do anything to protect them from harm or evil that the mother would be willing to do. Really I think he would be a little more careful about attending to his children's interests than the suffragette agitators who are not married, and have had no experience in the care of children, or in anything else outside of lobbying and agitating.

Any man will become aroused when told that his children have been abused, just as much as would the mother of them, regardless of what the suffragettes may say to the contrary.

Men look to the mothers of their children to see that they are rightly cared for and properly trained. Nevertheless they are always ready, just the same as any legislature in the United States is ready to give a demand of its female population a hearing, and attention to the wishes of these mothers. It is not necessary for women to have suffrage or to become lobbyists, in order to notify the fathers of any wrong doing toward their own children, regardless of suffragettes' reports to the contrary. 9

It matters not whether men be rich or poor, educated or uneducated, they are human and they love and protect their own flesh and blood. This thought is beautifully illustrated in the following verses by John Hay.

"LITTLE BREECHES."

I don't go much on religion,
I never ain't had no show;
But I've got a middlin' tight grip, sir,
On the handful o' things I know.
I don't pan out on the prophets
And free-will, and that sort o' thing, -
But I believe in God and the angels,
Ever sense one night last spring.

I come into town with some turnips,
And my little Gabe came along,
No four year old in the country.
Could beat him for pretty and strong;
Peart, and chipper, and sassy,
Always ready to swear and fight,
And I'd learnt him to chaw terbacker,
just to keep his milk-teeth white.

The snow came down like a blanket,
As I passed by Taggart's store;
I went in for a jug of molasses,
And left the team at the door.
They scared at something and started, -
I heard one little squall,
And hell-to-split over the prairie
Went team, Little Breeches and all.

Hell-to-split over the prairie
I was almost froze with skeer,
But we rousted up some torches,
And sarched for 'em far and near.
At last we struck hosses and wagon,
Snowed under a soft, white mound,
Upsot, dead beat, - but of little Gabe,
No hide nor hair was found.

And here all hope soured on me,
Of my fellow-critters aid, -
I just flopped down on my marrow bones
Crotch-deep in the snow, and prayed.

* * *

By this, the torches was played out,
And me and Israel Parr,
Went off for some wood to a sheepfold,
That lie said was somewhar thar.

We found it at last, and a little shed
Where they shut up the lambs at night,
We looked in and seen them huddled thar
So warm and sleepy and white;
And thar sot Little Breeches and chirped
As peart as ever you see,
"I want a chaw of terbacker,
And that's what the matter of me."

How did he git thar? Angels!
He could never have walked in that storm
They just scooped down and toted him
To whar it was safe and warm!
And I think that saving a little child,
And bringing him to his own,
Is a derned sight better business
Than loafing around a throne!

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