ELIHU ROOT PUTS DAMPER ON - HOPES I OF SUFFRAGETTESI enator-Elect Appears During Hearing in the Assembly Chamber at- Albany and Lets - It Be Known that He Is Un - alterably Opposed to-- Giving Ballot to Women. COMMITTEEMEN OFFER LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT. Well Known Legis!ators~Absen~ Themselves from MeetingÄi "Big Tim" Sullivan Too Busy to Get Mixed Up, He Says, in a "Petticoat Ftiss"ÄGrady and McCarren Not o~ Hand. (Special from-a Staff Correspondent ot World.) ALBANY, Feb. 24. Elihu Root strolled casually into the Assembly Chamber at the Capitol during the hearing on the Suffrage question this afternoon. He had come ostensibly to call upon Speaker wadworth During his short stay he contrived to make himself visible to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator George A. davis and also to mention casually that he was unalterably opposed t~ woman suffrage. Within a few moments Mrs. julian Heath, one of the foremost antIs, a representative of the National League for the Civic Education of Wome'm. apÄ peared struggling through the throng or feminine standers at the entrance. Mrs. Florence Kelley, the factory Inspector and suffragist, who relt tIme strength to hurl her defiance in the teeth of the legislators, was close behind her. The two Inimical speakers were pinioned by the crowd close to the side of Senator Davis, who was acting as chairman. Turning, Senator Davis saw Mrs. Heath and, with a gesture, tendered her the only seat in view. She accepted with a smile, her petite figure perched aloft, her hand on the back of the chair to preserve her balance before she was called on at the close of Mrs. rossiter Johnson's argument against the vote for women. It was a combination of seemingly accidental circumstances, but Mr. Root's call and Mrs. Heath's elevation determined the enUre attitude of the corn m~Ittee. - `VtIHY ROOT OPPOSES1 =- ~OMAN SUFFRAGE TEXT OF THE ADDRESS HE DELIVERED AGAINST IT BE- FORE THE CONVENTION IN 1894. Albany, ~Feb. 27ÄWhen Senatorelect Elihu Root tOl(l State Senator Wadsworth at Albany on Wednesday that he was "opposed to Woman Suffrage,'' he added that he had imiade a speech opposing votes for wocimen at the Constitutonal `Convention -of 1894 Mr. Root `s views on the subject represent the strongest arguments which advocates of the equal suffrage mmcovement will have to confute -before they can obtain legislation on time subject. Mr. Root, who was a member of the judiciary Committee at the 1894 -Const tutionai Convention delivered his speech against woman suffrage just before the conveimt ion was about to vote on the queston as to whether or not it should accept the adverse report of I the convention's Suffrage (o,-niittee on mr Tucker's constitutional amendment favoring woman suffrage. To his speech was largely due the adverse final vote of the convention on the question, worn1an suffrage, that vote being 98 to 58. in his speech Mr. Root said: - ``I am opposed to granting suffrage to women ;beeaus~ I believe that it, would he a loss to women, to all women, and to every woman; and because I -believe it would be an injury to the state, and to every man and every woman in the state. it would be useless to argue this if the right of suffrage were a natural right. If it were a natural right, then woman ~hould have it, though the heavens -fall. ]~ut -if there be any one thing settled in the long discussion of this subject it is that suffrage is not a natural right, but is simply a means of government, and the sole question to -be discussed is whether government by the suffrage of inca and women will `be better government than by the suffrage of n-men alone. ``The question is therefore a question of expedIency, and the question of expediency upon this subject is not - a question of tyranny, as the gentleman from Cattaragus has sal,!, but a question of liberty, -a question of the preservation of free constitutional guy ernment, of law, order, peace and prosperity. Into my judgment, :Sir, there enters no element of the inferiority of woman. There could not, Sr, for I rejoice in the tradition and the possession of a home wflere woman reigns with acknowledged superiority, in all - the nobler and the higher attributes that by :commoa, by universal consent, determine rank among the Fighest of the children of God. No, Sir. It is not tim-at wo:ran is inferior to mnan, but it is that woman is different to man, t"tn~ in the distribution of powers, of capacities, of qualities our Maker has I created man adapted to the performances of certaIn functions in the economy of nature and society, and~ WOman adapted to the perf-ormmance of other functions. - One question to -be determined in the discussion of this subject is whether the naiure of woman is such I that her -taking upon l -cit the perfornmance of the funtmns him-plied in s¤ffrage will leave her in the possesS -on and the exercise of her highest powers or will be an abaiidonmnent of t'hosc powers and on entering upon a field in which, bee-at-c' of her difference frocti man, she is distinctly inferior. Mr. President, I ha ye sa ml that I thought suffm-age would be a loss for WOflien 1 think so. hec.c'i,v s i irrtplies not merely the casting of the ballot, the gentle and peaceful fall of the sicowflahe, hut suffrage. if it means anything means entering ll}on the field of loll I meal life, and politics is modified war. ` ` in politics there is struggle. strife. - -contention, bitt erm,eI~, heart-burning, cxi- te - eat . agitation evem~ thing which, is :,lver~e to the true character I of -s;cm!'. \`~`,,niimn u1es ti)!UV by the sweet and noble inuinenie of her char ci-ter. Put woman into the arena ,~ conflict and she abandons these great weapons wh~cli control . the world, and P ~-he takes into her hands, feeble ide mnml nerveless for strife, weapons wrh which chic' is unfamiliar anti whmuli she t Is ii n c 1 Ic' to ivield. \\-c, em ci mm i-i s~ strife I n hc'-,i hitS h hard h harsh `:sh, . unlovable, reptilsive; as far i'ecoveml 1~roni that gentle creat ii N' to w `i,,iii we all owe allegiance anti to whoiii we confess submission I csi in as the hi -cm vem' iS i-emoved from the en rth. ` ` i~,-Ir. president in tIme divine ills- tributiOn of powers the duty and tIme might of protectIOn rests with the male. It is so t:hrougilOimt nature. It is so with n en. and I for one will never -nm,seiit to port wit-li the divine right of protecting my wife. my daughter, the woman whom I love and time womiman whom 11 respect, exercising the birthright of mm an, and ph:m cc' t hut ugh duty in the weak and nerveless hands of those designed by God to lie pro- - - te,'ted rcmtIier than to engage in the P stem-n warfume of government. ``In my judgment, Sir, this whole movement arises from a false -ommcoption of the duty and of time righit of ii en and women both. We all of us, Sir, see time pettines of our lives. We all see how peor a thing is time best that we can do. \Ve all at times long to share time fortunes of others, to leave -our t iresofile mc: mcd of duty and to engage in tic.r affairs. What I others amy do seenms to us nob'er, more mm nortant, - more -conspicuous than the little things of our own lives. - it is a great mistake, Si'-; it is a fatal mis- - take that these excellent wonien make when they conceIve that the functions of muon are superior to theirs anti seek to usurp their - The true government is in the famly. the true I throne is in chic household. The high- I est- exercise of power is that - whichm forms the conscience, influences the wil. eont-rols the impulseS of mcmi, and there today woman is supreme and wohUifl rules the world.'' -~