WOMEN IN CONGRESS

It does not seem to be decided yet whether women are to take the Senate or the House at Washington in the new development of what is called the dual government.  There are disadvantages in both.  The members of the Senate are so few that the women of the country would not be adequately represented in it; and the Chamber in which the House meets is too large for women to make speeches in with any pleasure to themselves or their hearers.  This last objection is, however, frivolous, for the speeches will be printed in the Record; and it is as easy to count women on a vote as men.  There is nothing in the objection, either, that the Chamber would need to be remodeled, and the smoking-rooms be turned into Day Nurseries.  The coming woman will not smoke, to be sure; neither will she, in coming forward to take charge of the government, plead the Baby Act.  Only those women, we are told, would be elected to Congress whose age and position enable them to devote themselves exclusively to politics.  The question, therefore, of taking to themselves the Senate or the House will be decided by the women themselves upon other grounds—­as to whether they wish to take the initiative in legislation and hold the power of the purse, or whether they prefer to act as a check, to exercise the high treaty-making power, and to have a voice in selecting the women who shall be sent to represent us abroad.  Other things being equal, women will naturally select the Upper House, and especially as that will give them an opportunity to reject any but the most competent women for the Supreme Bench.  The irreverent scoffers at our Supreme Court have in the past complained (though none do now) that there were “old women” in gowns on the bench.  There would be no complaint of the kind in the future.  The judges would be as pretty as those who assisted in the judgment of Paris, with changed functions; there would be no monotony in the dress, and the Supreme Bench would be one of the most attractive spectacles in Washington.  When the judges as well as the advocates are Portias, the law will be an agreeable occupation.

This is, however, mere speculation.  We do not understand that it is the immediate purpose of women to take the whole government, though some extravagant expectations are raised by the admission of new States that are ruled by women.  They may wish to divide—­and conquer.  One plan is, instead of dual Chambers of opposite sexes, to mingle in both the Senate and the House.  And this is more likely to be the plan adopted, because the revolution is not to be violent, and, indeed, cannot take place without some readjustment of the home life.  We have at present what Charles Reade would have called only a right-handed civilization.  To speak metaphorically, men cannot use their left hands, or, to drop the metaphor, before the government can be fully reorganized men must learn to do women’s