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The Commoner
VOL. 15, No. 4
22
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Woman's Right to Vote
Whether tho equal suffrage amend-subject. This is a negation of dem-
ment to the constitution of New York
is ratified by the voters of the stato
next fall will depond upon the atti
tude of women themselves.
If tho majority of womon earnestly
desire tho suffrage for themselves
and their sex, tho amendment will
probably bo adopted. On this ques
tion men voters are sure to bo might
ily swayed by tho opinions of tho
Womon members of tho family. If
tho majority of women are antagon
istic or indifforent, the amendment
will bo defeated.
Tho World has made an effort to
arrive at tho sentiment, in a general
way, of women themselves toward
tho suffrage. The results may be
summarized in this fashion:
1. Among womon who express an
opinion either way, a very largo ma
jority desiro to vote.
2. Most of tho womon to whom
opportunity t was given to express
their sentiments had no opinion
either for or against suffrage, and
are presumably not yet interested in
tho issue.
The noutral attitude of the women
who aro without opinion does not af
fect tho merits of tho question, but if
they maintain this attitude it will se
riously affect tho results at the polls.
As to tho issue itself, The World
is frank to admit that it knows of no
valid arguments against woman suf
frage which do not apply with equal
force against manhood suffrage. Gov
ernment is merely the expression of
tho political purposes of the commun
ity. The community is made up of
men and womon, all of whom have
an equal right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. No adult wo
man of sound mind is subjected to a
guardianship in any of the affairs of
lifo except politics. She may buy and
sell, she may sue and be sued, she
may own property and convoy prop
erty she may do anything that a
man may do except vote. In other
words, she may do everything except
exercise a direct power upon the po
litical institutions to which she is
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ocracy.
From the day of the Magna Charta
down to tho day of tho New Freedom
the genius of republican institutions
has steadily sought to broaden the
base of tho electoral power to make
these institutions more democratic.
Originally dnly tho king had a vote.
Then tho barons seized the franchise
and tho veto. What the barons won
all landholders oventually acquired.
The states of the United States Anal
ly swept away property qualifications
and established manhood suffrage.
The negro was enfranchised, and now
comes woman, the last remaining
element in the bodypolitic, to demand
that a right which can not be denied
to citizens of the United States on
account of race, color or previous"
condition of servitude shall not be
denied on account of sex.
Tho argument that government is
based upon force and that women
should not be allowed to vote because
they are deficient in physical prowess
hardly deserves to be taken seriously.
Governments hire their force as they
hire all their other service. Even
when they resort to conscription they
pick and choose and pay. No coun
try in modern times ever did or ever
could muster its entire male popula
tion into its military establishment.
Probably half of the entire German
army today is engaged in duties that
are practically civilian. All of war
is not fighting in the trenches or
goose-stepping to the front. The
French women who gather tho har
vests and the German women who
plough the fields perform a military
service no less important than that of
the men on the firing line. Without
their efforts in providing food the
men could not continue tho war.
Most of tho conventional argu
ments against woman suffrage are
fantastic, but not less so than most
of the popular arguments in favor of
woman suffrage. All pretense that
votes for women will "purify politics"
may be dismissed as "clotted non
sense," to use Carlyle's favorite ob
jurgation. Women will not purify
politics. They never have done so in
states in which they have the vote,
and they never will. As a sex, women
average no better than men. They
are no more honest. They are no
more disinterested. They are no more
patriotic. Their public ideals are no
higher, but rather lower, if anything.
As a class they are no less wise in
general affairs than men because
their experience is less wide. The
classes that already vote necessarily
have a clearer understanding of the
functions and limitations of govern
ment that the classes that are seek
ing the vote.
Woman suffrage will not reform
government in the conventional mor
al sense, although in the long run it
wm produce a more representative
and responsible government. If we
may judge the future by tho past, the
immediate effect of woman suffrage
win do to Disorganize government
and add to its confusion. That is
what has always happened when the
franchise was extended. Each new
influx of voters submerged the old
order, and the former standards of
public service deteriorated for the
time being, much to the anguish of
the Brahmin cesses, but not to the
permanent injury of society. En
larging the suffrage does not purify
government, but enlarging tho suf
frage stabilizes and strengthens dem
ocracy, and hence the ultimate influ
ence is invariably for the general
good. In a democracy the people do
not exist for the government, but the
government exists for the people, and
every adult person subject to govern
ment may reasonably ask. for a voice
in ordering the policies of that gov
ernment. For women to demand the suffrage
on the ground that they are purer
and nobler and holier than men is to
argue against their own cause. An
oligarchy of virtue would only be one
degree less oppressive than an olig
archy of vice. Nobody has ever ob
tained the franchise on the mere
pretext that ho was pure in heart,
and nobody ever will. The franchise
is not granted in order that politics
may be purified, but in order that the
holder of the franchise, may the better
protect his life, liberty, property and
welfare under the government to
which he is responsible as a citizen.
Votes for women will not improve
the quality of government, but it will
make women more intelligent- and
more responsible, and hence society
as a whole must inevitably benefit.
The ballot box is a mighty university.
It has proved so in the case of men
and it must prove so in the case of
women, or all the experience of his
tory is false.
Moreover, the political influence
already exerted by a few women
makes it highly desirable that all wo
men be enfranchised in order to re
establish the balance. Under repub
lican institutions power without re
sponsibility is a grave evil. Women
today have great power in govern
ment, but no responsibility. Various
organizations of women, which prob
ably do not represent 10 per cent of
the sex, maintain at times a veritable
reign of terror in legislative bodies
by pretending to speak in the name
of all women. In consequence half
the country is now bedevilled by
some form or another of harem gov
ernment which in no respect is a true
expression of public opinion. Legis
lators who are no better than they
ought to be are forever making ridic
ulous concessions to women agitators
on the theory that official sympathy
with such moral yearnings is a
shrewd method of diverting public
suspicion. The statute books are load
ed down with foolish laws dictated by
a few crusading women and enacted
in a spirit of "The ladies God bless
them!" An overwhelming majority
of women have had no voice in this
legislation, and they disclaim all re
sponsibility for its results. But the
statutes remain, the situation grows
worse from year to year, and all laws
fall more or less into contempt
through this legislation bred of fan
aticism and hypocrisy.
We know what would probably
happen if government were in the
hands of women and Anthony Corn
stock, Charles Edward Russell and
the Anti-Saloon league were accepted
as the spokesmen for all the dis
franchised males. Yet something of
that sort is going on all the time in
state capitols in the name of women.
The only antidote to the influence of
some women upon government is the
influence of all women upon govern
ment. When ail sex limitations upon
suffrage have been removed the po
litical power of those women who are
oosessett with the idea that govern
ment must assume the spiritual char
acteristics of a communistic prayer
meeting will be restricted to their
own votes and the votes of those who
are actually in sympathy with them.
But if the claim that votes for wo
men will purify politics is sentiment
al nonsense, the counter-claim that
votes for women will wreck the home
is equally absurd. Protecting the
home is one of the favorite recrea
tions of American Bourbonism. The
home is the oldest of human institu
tions. It is older than government.
It is older than religion. It is older
than creeds. It protects itself. It is
not government that maintains the
home, but it is the home that main-
hanmng?yn,ll0,lt U WftS beCaUS Of
homes that governments were estab
lished. Ah institution that has witi,
stood the vicissitudes of centuries E
not likely to collapse because the wi
men of a community spend half
hour in a voting booth on the fC
Tuesday after the first Monday in
November. If the home could sur
vive St. Paul, it can survive the bii
lot.
Eliminating from the suffrage con
troversy all of its cant and twaddle
the question is a straight issue of
whether all the adult citizens of the
state shall be be entitled to a voice in
making the laws to which all of them
aro subject, or whether this privilege
shall be the exclusive property of
half of these citizens wno gain their
political power by the accident of sex.
Lincoln once said that this republic
was founded on the rule of "root,
hog, or die," and women are no less
amenable to that principle than are
men. The amiable theory that it is
man's function to provide and wo
man's function to be sheltered is a
living lie, as millions of women wage
earners can testify. Sometimes man
provides and sometimes he doesn't.
The woman who is sheltered today
may be working in a factory tomor
row to support, herself and her child
ren. Hunger knows no sex. Want
knows no sex. Necessity knows no
sex. Law knows no sex. Property
knows no sex. Only the ballot box
knows sex.
But the ballot box once-knew rank. t
It once knew land and primogeniture.
It once knew income and money and
family. All those paraphernalia of
privilege have been swept away, and
the disability of sex will follow. In
the steady sweep of democracy the
time will come wlien the nresent on-
position to woman suffrage will seem
as shortsighted and senseless as tho
former opposition to manhood suf
frage now seems.
Democracies always move forward.
That Is their law of self-preservation.
If they stand still or retrograde they
are lost. New York World.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE CERTAIN
Within ten years or less women
will.be voting on the same terms as
men in most of our states, and the
backward remnant will be hustling
to catch up. Tho movement has pass
ed the stage of doubt and ridicule,
and has almost passed the stage of
argument. The change from the in
difference of twenty years ago is
amazing. Women vote in eleven
states now, against four then, and tho
issue will be up to voters next fall in
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Iowa, Massachusetts, West Virginia,
Tennessee and perhaps other states.
The affirmative Side is active, aggres
sive, and confident, and includes
many men who have gained their
faith by fighting for better politics.
In comparison, the" mental bankrupt
cy of the antls is fairly pitiful. The
suffragists can rest their case on the
plain fact that women do participate
in the life of our modern communi
ties, and should, therefore, partici
pate in the business of government.
The antis can reply only with sol
emn and pathetic foolishness about
"disorganizing society," "advanced
theories," "new evils," and tho UKe
the stale harpings of prejudice ana
timidity. In a contest between sucu
forces the outcome is certain, for tna
United States is neither timid nor
silly. Collier's.
SHE ENJOYED IT
"How did the minister get on, the
day?" an auld wife was asked on uw
way home by one who had not ueeu
able to bo at church that morning.
"How did he get on? He just stooa
and threw stanes at us, an nevw
missed wi' ane o' them. My cert e,
but yon was good preachin I luo
Continent.
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