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The Commoner
Women in Politics
n seems very probable that the Suffrage
,.:Indment will be ratified by the necessary 36
iStf boforo the conventions meet, but eyen if
iiMMtion is not completed before the conven-
law held, it is quite certain that It will be
rtmoleted before the election. But even if na
tional suffrage should fail to be accomplished in
!e to admit all the women of the country to
Sittclpate in the election, a considerable ma
Erity of them will vote this fall by virtue of
itate constitutions or state statutos, and the
fly enfranchisement of women is as certain as
any future event can be. Tennessee is quite sure
toToto for the national amendment next winter,
although the state, because a special session is
not authorized by the constitution, will be un
able to write its name upon the roll .of honor
now. Florida too, is quite certain to ratify al
though immediate attention is prevented by ' a
constitutional provision which denies to the leg
Jjlature the right to ratify a measure that was
mbmltted before the legislature was elected. Be
tides these there are several states which are
certain to ratify if special sessions are called.
Assuming, therefore, that universal woman
suffrage is a matter of less than a year if not
a matter of a few months, it is worth while to
consider the effect of "women's entrance in the
arena of politics.
Many well-meaning men have stoutly resisted
the proposed enfranchisement of woman out of
fear that the exercise of suffrage might in some
way work to the injury of the home. This ar
gument lacks force, first, because it is a prophecy
with nothing in history to support it, and, sec
ond, because it is in line with similar objections
that have been made to every advance step
taken by civilization. There was a time when
the education of the masses was believed by
sincere people to threaten the destruction of so
ciety. That was the aristocratic notion that
tome had. They thought the Lord intended only
a few to be educated just enough to do the
thinking for the people while the uneducated
would devote their time to the drudgery of life.
Now, universal education is the ideal of civilized
countries and we wonder how any person could
have brought himself to the point of condemn
ing a large majority of his fellow men to the
Hignt of ignorance.
Even after the value of education for men was
wmitted, some good people were afraid to, X.
tend education to women for fear that it would
Jake them mannish unsex. them, as it were.
M now tho young women of America, on the
average, carry their school education to a higher
Tomt than the young men, as any one will real
J9 who visits the high schools. And who now
jowts tho value of education for women? When
L i4 Mexico some twenty years ago, and
joucea the girls in school with the boys, I men
ded the matter to President Diaz, and he
promptly replied, "It is more Important that the
T:men SQall be educated than that the men shall
J oecause the mother is the child's first ti
er.'
teach-
AuJi J mann?r there are many good people in
i!h really believe thast it would demoralize
thS ir.Womn did not veil their faces, al
snE l1Bltors to oriental cities soon begin to
SI bat tho thickness of the veil varies in
to, ?roportIon t0 tho woman's beauty the
Asia n face tne thinner the veil. Even in
ttoSJL w,omon a$e breaking away from this
douhMwd who' in tnis country at least, will
Qnaim . Woman is better because of her ac
PrXi l ?ith 80ciety and tnat society is lin
ger i, r Presence? in no country can
in tJ "eT f;und better mothers and wives than
lounhr i states and here we come nearer
conceal eaucatlon and woman's face is not
iithat8HinBeBt areument in favor of suffrage
four of Uas bea successful wherever tried.
to morn stat08-bave had woman's suffrage
there w 25 years and in none ot these haS
a movement Tnnkint tt a. return to
rnPnnn8xffrag0 alone. Why? If suffrage was
di$coverPri Uo homo would not the fact bo
BMem? a111,25 yeara experience under that
home Bffa ? if tho test hafl shown that th0
tivity wm J"? bocase of woman's political ac
H to ? , not woman herself have boon tho
on the 11 or Its abolition? It is a reflection
thatthfiIm?n in tne suffrage states to suggest
oir interest in politics so outweighs their
ized husbands to protest against an InsUtuUon
destructive of domestic obligations?
"Intelligence and morality are tho dualities
fhTZVf0 ft citIzenP- The men arc ?n
the majority in the penitentiary, while tho wom
en are in tho majority in the church. If woman
has sense enough to keep out of tho penitentiary
and morality enough to go to church, she is fit
to go to tho polls.
Woman enters politics at a time when tho
world has under consideration a number of prob
lems which come very near to her, and for tho
understanding of which she has special fitness.
Take, for instance, the subject of profiteering.
Woman, being the financial manager of tho
household, has personal knowledge of the in
justice done by the profiteer. No amount of
fine-spun theory can combat the actual experi
ence which she has had in trying to make tho
family income cover increasing expenditures.
Having intimate knowledge of the labor neces
sary to create wealth, whether it is created on
the farm or in tho factory, she knows the in
justice of allowing middlemen to imposo upon
both the producer and the consumer. When, for
instance, a grocer buys cabbage from tho farm
er at 3 cents per pound and then turns the samo
cabbage over to the housewife at 6 cents per
pound, making a profit of 100 per cent for
handling it, the woman can not bo deceived by
any argument advanced in support of the ethics
of the transaction. She knows that the man
who raised the cabbage had first to invest money
in the farm, then to raise the crop, taking all
the chances that fall to the farmer, then he has
to carry it miles and deliver it to the grocer.
There is no equity in allowing the merchant to
charge as much for handling it as tho farmer
receives for producing it. And likewise, in the
matter of shoes. The production of tho shoe
requires industry on the part of the farmer who
raises the animal that furnishes the hide, in
dustry on the part of those who transport the
hide to the tannery, industry on the part of
those engaged in tanning, industry on the part
of those who transport the tanned leather to the
factory, industry on the part of those who con
vert the leather into a shoe, and industry on
the part of those who transport the shoe to the
itore The merchant who charges as much for
Passing the shoe from his shelf to the customer
as is received by all the others engaged in pro
ducing the shoe, can not be acquitted before a
jury of women. The illustrations might be con-
Z 5SSS iV a.nfiS
h0w he succeeded i t klllmg 30 Mon
introduced in ."SX moans for the reduc
of business (which re ally moans
tlon of the fSX of pub
bills would have authorized nJ . fc, thos0 who
lie markets as frep " good deal of
reside in the cities There was ization
on their arms? Htion of profits Is
The women know thaegulauono v
not a new idea. e inon community
quite an b7S need toBn.Clal
much sought afte i by J Jong fii
accommodation but too man ag tu
learned that o. een,B profits restricted,
money lender needs to have amount f
and so we have usury laws. per'cent
terest collectable range from u freqnentljr
with 6 and 7 per c6nt bnnl And remember
The limit than 8 or J Pp Jt is for the use
that the banker's 6 or r Most of the
"f the money for ft Vatics and they can
women are good In nbetweGn a banker 7
easi,y eato the rat.0 e m per cent
per cent for aeai
6
iay' in? !t tac?8 longor to mac out
noto than it doos to sell a head of cabbago.
rue war question is ono upou which the
jvomen havo a fixed opinion that is not llkoly to
bo changed by party platforms or speeches of
candidates. Nono fight moro strongly for thoir
rights than womon, but thoy shrink from the
tragodios of tho battloflold. Thoy, rather than
luo mon, havo boen'.tho victims of war. Tho
man who dies upon th"o battloflold, dlos glorlous
y; ho suffered but for a momont, and his name
is written upon monumonts, whilo tho mother
moves on to tho gravo with slow and unsteady
steps instead ot bolng supported by a stalwart
son, and tho wife, because of tho husband's
death, assumes a double duty to tho child whom
tho soldier leaves dopendont. Wo are hoping
that tho lessons of tho awful war out of which
tho world has just emorgod will bo sufficient to
shako oven mon out of warliko inclination. Dut
it is tho finger of woman, now being enfran
chised thruout tho world, that tracos tho bow
of promiso on tho clouds of war. Tho women
may bo expected to throw tho weight of thoir in
fluence, now potent at tho ballot box, against
appropriations intended to continue tho worn
out theory that tho world can bo terrorized into
peace. Thoy know history well enough to un
derstand that rivalry in armies and navloa can
havo no other ond but war; and Instinct, If not
logic, will warn them that compulsory univorsai
military training is as antagonistic to tho
spirit of peace as it is burdonsomo to tho
producors ot tho country. Because of
woman's implacable hatred of war, I am
hopeful that she will bo able to com
pel the League of Nations to provido for a ref
erendum on war, except in tho caso of actual in
vasion. What preventive could be more ef
fective than a referendum with womon voting?
Woman is needed to stand at tho ballot box
and hurl to tho revengeful champions of llquov
tho challenge, "Thoy shall not pass." Mothcra
whose sons havo been saved from tho snaro of
thoso who would deliberately destroy them,
and wives, whose husbands havo boon rescued
from the net that tho liquor traffic would throw
over them th6se aro tho imprognablo wall that
shall protect our. fair land from tho return of 0
tho brewer, the 'distiller and the liquor dealer.
These aro only a fow of tho questions now bo
foro the country but others scarcely loss im
portant will como into viow when thoso aro
settled. Civilization moves on; each goneratloa
rises to higher ground. Each now summit brings
into viow possibilities that had not boon visible
before, and these possibilities will Involvo ques
tions which will appeal with IrrcsJstiblo forco
to tho women's moral standards. Benjamin
Kidd, in a beautiful book entitled "Science of
Power," credits woman with a larger vision than
man because she thinks of tho futuro moro than
of the present and plans for the things that shall -be
whilo she deals with the limitations of to
day. Every righteous cause can hope for her
aid; and those who profit by abuses that should
bo remedied may well be alarmed at her en
trance into politics-.
While many women will vote as thoir hus
bands do or as thoir fathers did, an Increasing
number will regard suffrage as a duty rather
than as a privilege or oven as a right, and will
vote as thoy think as witness tho action of the
women in the election of 191C. Woman, as a
full fledged citizen, is here and, being here will
make her impression on tho Institutions of the
land and tho policies of the government.
W. J. BRYAN.
2.75 PER CENT BEER INTOXICATING
Dr Wiley, food expert, gives a scientific opin
ion a's to the intoxicating effect of 2.75 per cent
beer Read it (on another page). Tho War de
partment ruled that .1.04 per cent would intoxi
cate a soldier. But while these opinions fortify
the drys in thoir contention, no expert opinion
or scientific authority will weigh with tho vet
tley -want liquor that intoxicates the more
it intoxicates, the better they like it.
' SWITZERLAND STOPS GAMBLING
On another page will be fouqd a report of the
Swiss vote on gambling. Tho brave little re"
nublic puts the ban on one of the worst of vlcefr
1-and the PEOPLE did it with their little bal
lots While wo take off our bats to this moun
tain leader in reforms let us also make our bow
to tho initiative and referendum, the peoples
law.
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