sneer at ward bosses. They can't be kept in line.
They no longer sing the sweet strains of 'The land of the free and the
home of the brave.' On the contrary, they raise the battle cry, 'Let
independence be our boast,' and in spite of the passionate pleas of
their natural leaders, they go on record for the most radical
legislation. Why, I'm told that nearly every so-called progressive law
enacted in my State has been passed by their continued efforts.
"They have no conception of the ideal of government laid down by
Hamilton; they will submit to neither checks nor balances, and would
subvert the whole scheme of representative government and replace it
with an out-and-out democracy. In accord with this mistaken view they
have adopted the initiative and referendum, carried it overwhelmingly,
three to one, in every county in the State, and I need not tell an
audience of intelligence that this is the most insidious form of attack
now being made upon the fundamental principles of our government."
By this time Silvia and all the suffragists in the audience were
applauding wildly, while Carroll Renner laughed till the tears ran down
her cheeks, and once more Frank turned a patient and puzzled countenance
to the presiding officer.
"I do not understand the applause, ladies," he said mildly, with a gleam
in his eyes that none but Carroll understood. "The thing I am telling
you is frightful. The enfranchisement of women means the end of the
Republic as it now is; it means the rejection of all theories that are
found wanting, and the putting out on the vast uncharted sea of
experiment; it means interference with those great business enterprises
that have built up, I had nearly said that 'make and preserve us a
nation'! It means a reckless disregard for property rights in the
sentimental desire to protect the individual, as if a nation could
become great and strong by individual effort alone, and without the
guiding and sustaining hands of statecraft and financial genius gripping
the rudder of the ship of state. They will not listen to the voice of
experience; they cannot be intimidated; they cannot be deceived for an
indefinite number of years; if the established order seems to them
unfair, unjust or illiberal, they have little respect for tradition when
it's results they're after."
"But if the anti-suffrage movement is growing as we have been told,
can't the anti-suffragists overcome those tendencies?" asked an old lady
on t
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