re willing to submit the question it is
doubtful whether, under present conditions, it could be carried in any
large number of States, as the same elements which influence
legislators act also upon the voters through the party "machines."
Amendments to strike the word "male" from the suffrage clause of the
Constitution have been submitted by ten States, and by five of these
twice--Kansas, 1867-94; Michigan, 1874; Colorado, 1877-93; Nebraska,
1882; Oregon, 1884-1900; Rhode Island, 1886; Washington, 1889-98;
South Dakota, 1890-98; California, 1896; Idaho, 1896. Out of the
fifteen trials the amendment has been adopted but twice--in Colorado
and Idaho. In these two cases it was indorsed by all the political
parties and carried with their permission. Wyoming and Utah placed
equal suffrage in the constitution under which they entered
Statehood. In both, as Territories, women had had the full
franchise--in Wyoming twenty-one and in Utah seventeen years--and
public sentiment was strongly in favor. In the States where the
question was defeated it had practically no party support.

Aside from all political hostility, however, woman suffrage has to
face a tremendous opposition from other sources. The attitude of a
remonstrant is the natural one of the vast majority of people. Their
first cry on coming into the world, if translated, would be, "I
object." They are opposed on principle to every innovation, and the
greatest of these is the enfranchisement of women. To grant woman an
equality with man in the affairs of life is contrary to every
tradition, every precedent, every inheritance, every instinct and
every teaching. The acceptance of this idea is possible only to those
of especially progressive tendencies and a strong sense of justice,
and it is yet too soon to expect these from the majority. If it had
been necessary to have the consent of the majority of the men in every
State for women to enter the universities, to control their own
property, to engage in the various professions and occupations, to
speak from the public platform and to form great organizations, in not
one would they be enjoying these privileges to-day. It is very
probable that this would be equally true if they had depended upon the
permission of a majority of women themselves. They are more
conservative even than men, because of the narrowness and isolation of
their lives, the subjection in which they always have been held, the
severe punishment inflicted