Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1905 — THE MARCH OF A NEW IDEA. [ARTICLE]

THE MARCH OF A NEW IDEA.

It is announced that Victoria, the last of the Australian States to grant full suffrage to women, has at length accorded it. This is a fresh illustration of the tendency of a new idea to run through a series of neighboring communities, as the measles will run through a whole family when one child catches it. New Zealand led off by giving women the full ballot in 1893. South Australia did so in 1895, West Australia in 1900, and New South Wales in 1902. In 1903 Tasmania and Queenland followed, like sheep over a wall; and the last remaining Australian State, Victoria, has now fallen into line. A similar series has been observable with principal suffrage in Great Britain. In 1869 that right was granted to the women of England; in 1881 of Scotland; and in 1898, with practically no opposition, the women of Ireland were given a vote for all officers except members of Parliment. The course of events in our own country has been much the same. The first American State to grant full suffrage to women was Wyoming, in 1869, and the three other States that have since followed the example all lie close to Wyoming, in a solid block, and all bordering upon one another. Equal suffrage evidently does not lead to the dreadful results prophesied by its opponents, or we should not find that the communities nearest to those where it prevails are the dues which successively adopt it. Alice Stone Blackwell. The Democrat handles Farm Leases, Mortgages, and Deeds other legal blanks.