United States Congressional Serial Set

assert that women voluntarily leave their homes to become wage earners. If some of them think the ballot would help them to better their conditions and enable them to have homes, are they to be blamed and ridiculed for entertaining that hope?

Ninety-nine per cent of the women of Colorado take no more time in politics than to attend probably two or three political meetings every two years and go to the polls on election day to cast their vote. The women of Colorado, generally speaking, do not spend 1 per cent of their time in political matters that they spend in social duties. It only takes a Colorado woman 10 or 15 minutes away from her home to cast a vote. But during those few minutes she is wielding the most tremendous power any woman ever had on this earth for the protection of her home and the homes of all others.

DOES IT INCREASE OR DIMINISH CORRUPTION IN POLITICS?

There is no man worthy of the name who will deny the statement that the influence of his mother and his wife and his sister and his daughter is good. Her influence is beneficial from her childhood to her grave. Is there a man who would have the hardihood to say that he feels his mother, his wife, his sister, or daughter would be more corrupt than he is or less honest than he is in exercising the elective franchise? When you grant equal suffrage to women, it is our mothers and wives and sisters and daughters who are going to vote. And if you assume that the influence of the ignorant or disreputable women is going to outweigh that of the good and the moral women of the country, you are either assuming that a majority of the women are ignorant or disreputable or that the good women will not vote. I most emphatically deny both of those assumptions. The records conclusively show that good women do vote, and every decent citizen knows that the overwhelming majority of women are moral, are intelligent, and are thoughtful and reputable; and they are as solicitous about the moral welfare of the community and society as the men are; and, in fact, more so. I have never heard of a woman being prosecuted or even seriously charged with the commission of a crime in regard to an election. I have heard it repeatedly stated-and I believe it is true that the men are guilty of 99 per cent of all political corruption in Colorado.

There may possibly be a few very rare cases where a woman has been implicated in some political crookedness, but if there are any such cases that I have never heard of you will find that she was put up to it by some men who were trying to shield themselves behind her, and there will be 99 men more guilty than she. And when it comes to the exercising of the elective franchise, I am absolutely certain that for every woman who may have been justly chargeable with any wrongdoing there will be 99 men who are more guilty. We have sent a good many men to jail and some to the penitentiary; and, of course, some of them may sometimes attempt to hide behind the skirt of some woman of whom they have tried to make a stool pigeon. But it is not true that women in any appreciable number whatever voluntarily enter into any kind of political fraud. They are intensely in favor of clean politics and honest elections. In fact, the good moral influence of women is splendidly demonstrated in politics. Generally speaking,

throughout the entire State there has been a wonderful change in the places and manner of holding elections in Colorado. The meetings for the caucuses and the polling places are all in respectable places, and there is no rowdyism or disturbances whatever about the polls; and our political conventions, while they are intensely exciting and the interest runs high, because Coloradoans are wide-awake and ambitious people, at the same time all public meetings are conducted in an orderly manner, and no woman need hesitate to attend them either as a delegate or as a spectator.

No one claims that all women are honorable, and political power may occasionally uncover some moral weakness. But women are by far the most virtuous, most moral, and equally intelligent half of our population: A people will have a government just as good as, and no better than, they are.

One sure way of answering the question as to whether or not equal suffrage increases corruption in politics is to inquire who are the opponents of equal suffrage. Some of our opponents seem to get great satisfaction over the assertion that a majority of the socialists in Los Angeles voted for equal suffrage. They do not mention that Emma Goldman, the most notorious anarchist in this country, is going about the country lecturing on "Why I am not a woman suffragist.

Everyone who knows anything about woman suffrage or about human nature, or who has had anything to do with public affairs or politics, knows that the vicious and criminal vote is always cast solidly against equal rights for women. All those who thrive upon the violation of the law in any way or upon corruption in politics are the bitterest enemies of woman suffrage. Every gambler, every ballot-box stuffer, every political thug, every dive keeper, every depraved denizen of the red-light districts and all of their associates, everyone who is opposed to public decency, every professional debaucher of the public moral, and every conceivable variety of crook in the world is viciously and desperately opposed to women being enfranchised, and they never cease exhausting their vocabulary cursing woman suffrage.

DOES IT DOUBLE THE IGNORANT OR FOREIGN OR CRIMINAL VOTE?

As there are one-third more girls than boys attending the high schools of this country, the women are very rapidly becoming the more educated class. According to the last census, the illiterate men of this country very greatly outnumber the illiterate women. Therefore, extending the franchise to women will actually increase the proportion of intelligent voters. Moreover, extending the franchise to women will very largely increase the number of native-born voters, because there are in the United States over 12 times as many nativeborn women as foreign born. It is also a matter of record that a less proportion of the foreign born than the native born vote, and as there are much fewer women than men immigrants the enfranchisement of women will therefore doubly tend to minimize the influence of the foreign vote.

Another important feature is that the foreign women are usually much better in morals and intelligence than the foreign men, to whom the ballot is already given.

According to the census of 1910, there are in the United States 7,500,000 foreign males and 5,800,000 foreign females-that is, 129 foreign males to every 100 females of the same class. A foreign vote is objectionable only so far as it is an ignorant vote. Intelligent foreigners, both men and women, are usually very acceptable citizens. We also notice another interesting feature in this connection in Colorado, and that is that, owing to their Old World ideas which the foreigners bring with them, the foreign women vote but very little indeed until they become quite thoroughly Americanized.

While on ordinary questions the foreign-woman vote would be very much like the native-woman vote, and would to quite a large degree, duplicate the men's vote, that would not be true of special questions affecting women and children or the home or matters of morality or questions of decency. This is one of the main points of the equal-suffrage question. And if women take the moral and humane side on questions affecting the welfare of the home and the good of society, it is of comparatively little importance whether or not on other questions their votes are duplicates. The taxes paid by women will very much more than meet the cost of printing and counting the extra ballots. Moreover, in a democrary like ours it is of the greatest importance and benefit to the whole people, both men and women, that all of the population interest themselves in all public questions. It has been repeatedly stated that a republic is sound at heart only when all of its adult members take an ardent interest in its affairs. Too many votes can not possibly be cast in a right cause in a democracy which lives and breathes by the public opinion of the men and women who compose it.

There is in this country no lack in our politics of business ability, executive talent, or shrewdness of any kind. But there is much danger of lack of conscience, character, and humanity. The business interests, which appeal more specially to men, are well looked after; but the moral and humanitarian interests, which appeal more specially to women, are too apt to be neglected.

DO WOMEN READILY UNDERSTAND POLITICS?

The ludicrous assertion that women should not be allowed to vote because they do not know enough is only equaled in antiquity and absurdity by the little, old, familiar verse:

Mother, dear, may I go swim?

Yes, my darling daughter;

Go hang your clothes on a hickory limb,

But don't go near the water.

The women of Seattle knew enough to fire a crooked mayor in about 15 minutes after they were given the ballot; and they knew enough again, a few days ago, to defeat him for reelection.

Women learn how to vote mighty quickly. They do not have to serve any apprenticeship to know the difference betwen decency and corruption or between an honest man and a crook. She always knows the difference between good and bad government and everything pertaining to educational matters or matters affecting the home, and all politicians will very soon learn that she is exceedingly alert and well informed upon all moral questions and questions affecting

society and good government and clean candidates. She comprehends intuitively and instinctively. In fact, on questions of that kind she is much more interested than men, and the advice of every married woman is of great assistance to her husband. In reality, on all questions of that kind, instead of a husband voting his wife there is a great deal more likelihood of the wife voting the husband.

It is utterly absurd and idiotic to assert that women are not sufficiently intelligent to vote. And even if they had no more intelligence than the ignorant portions of the male population that vote, they have a great deal more honesty than the men have, and honesty is needed in politics of the present day even more than intelligence. They certainly have sufficient intelligence to decide whether they are properly governed and who they will be governed by.

THE DEVELOPING POWER OF RESPONSIBILITY.

Responsibility is one of the greatest instruments of education, both morally and intellectually, and woman never will become thoroughly versed in matters of politics until she is given the opportunity of studying them under the stimulus and check of responsibility. When we consider her handicaps-not merely her natural handicaps but the unnatural hardships imposed upon her by civilization and sentiment when we consider that for ages she has been discouraged from trying to do anything outside of the home, it is no wonder that she can not do all things as well as men. Lack of ambition always limits efficiency. The wonder is that she does so many things as well as she does. Politically speaking, women are somewhat like uneducated children. They need to be given the aid and stimulus of sufficient imagination to know what the lack of education or of responsible citizenship means.

The great economic questions of to-day affect the women just as much as they do the men. Their interests are mutual and equal, and her enfranchisement has conclusively proven in the six Western States that the result is a more enlightened and better balanced citizenship and a truer democracy. It has been said that the more civilization advances the more the interests of men and women coincide and the more the suppression of their proper sphere has decreased.

One-fifth of all the women of this country have been compelled to go into the field of business and take positions formerly held by men and are actively earning their own support. The ballot is just as imperatively necessary to them as it is to the men. It is not only contrary to the principles of fair dealing to deny the women the right to vote, but this country needs the influence of her ballot, as will be conclusively shown by the result of her vote wherever it has been given to her. It seems to me infamous that women should be longer classed as political nonentities, the same as lunatics, Chinamen, criminals, and children. While there is a good reason for excluding all of those political nonentities excepting women, there is no good reason under heaven for excluding an intelligent woman from trying to better the conditions which affect her by the use of the ballot.

There is no argument or objection ever made against woman suffrage that has not been conclusively disproved by the facts in the States where it has been tried. She has improved and adorned the

According to the census of 1910, there are in the United States 7,500,000 foreign males and 5,800,000 foreign females-that is, 129 foreign males to every 100 females of the same class. A foreign vote is objectionable only so far as it is an ignorant vote. Intelligent foreigners, both men and women, are usually very acceptable citizens. We also notice another interesting feature in this connection in Colorado, and that is that, owing to their Old World ideas which the foreigners bring with them, the foreign women vote but very little indeed until they become quite thoroughly Americanized.

While on ordinary questions the foreign-woman vote would be very much like the native-woman vote, and would to quite a large degree, duplicate the men's vote, that would not be true of special questions affecting women and children or the home or matters of morality or questions of decency. This is one of the main points of the equal-suffrage question. And if women take the moral and humane side on questions affecting the welfare of the home and the good of society, it is of comparatively little importance whether or not on other questions their votes are duplicates. The taxes paid by women will very much more than meet the cost of printing and counting the extra ballots. Moreover, in a democrary like ours it is of the greatest importance and benefit to the whole people, both men and women, that all of the population interest themselves in all public questions. It has been repeatedly stated that a republic is sound at heart only when all of its adult members take an ardent interest in its affairs. Too many votes can not possibly be cast in a right cause in a democracy which lives and breathes by the public opinion of the men and women who compose it.