Woman Suffrage.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 August 1910, Page 4

Woman Suffrage.

TWO MOVEMENT IX AMERICA. (By -Mrs Humphrey Ward, in the London Times.) In America, in spite of au upgrowth of excitement last yea/r and the year before, caused l>v the .infection ol the English militant movement, the suffragist attack lias not gained a single real advantage in twelve years, and tiho movement of ooposition among women themselves is constantly strengthening. Let iili those interested tin the question get and read a remarkable recent book published on the suffrage side, which has done not a little to .bring home the anti-suffrage facts and arguments to the general mind. The "Kqiinl Suffrage'*' report of .Miss Helen Sumner, Ph.D., on the 'results of woman suffrage in Colorado, presented to the Collegiate Equal Suffrage League of New York State (a league representing, we believe, the women graduates of the State who hold suffragist opinions), is a scholarly and open-minded contribution to an argument too often disfigured by wild ami reckless statement. Miss Sumner is a s'uff.rag'ist, and she very naturally makes out as good a case as she can for the female franchise ol Colorado. She believes that on the whole women are

LESS CORRUPT

than men in politics, though she qualifies her statement by various significant admissions; she shows that, in the few big towns at least, the women use their vote largely, and that the educated and well-to-do women do not abstain from voting, and she is clear that the women s vote has done much to exclude iron of immoral lives, or men connected with the liquor traffic, as candidates for office, though she [joints out equally clearly that it has had no effect whatever in promoting efficiency, or fius'iuess honestiy, or public honour. Hut consider tho following passages:— "A prominent Denver politician thought there was not a woman working in Colorado politics who was not paid lor it in one way or another. ' "Canvassing is paid work, and in many localities it is the custom to appoint as canvassers, and also as election officers, needy widows with children to support, setupstresses or laundresses, to whom •1.00 dollars to 0.00 dollars a day so easily earned about election time is 11 welcome addition to an uncertain income." In elections women act as judges and clerks on election day. "Many widows and other needy intelligent women are appointed." They also bring in tlie voters, which is again paid work—"and" says a woman delegate, "the more efficient those T have seen were, the less I have enjoyed seeing them do it." "It is often said by equal-suffrage advocates that, if given tho franchise prostitutes would

NOT VOTE,

as they would not be interested, and would not wish' to give their names and addresses. This is a fallacy. True, they tlio not wish to vote." lint they are made to register and vote, and their vote is cast solidly for the party in control of the police force. Moreover, much of this vote is fraudulent. "Somelimes 30 or 10 persons have been registered from auall houses in the led-light districts, where on investigation only six or eigfit legal votes could be discoverf-cf." And even outside this degraded class "repeating" is common among women. "Fraudulent registrations of woine i were distributed in the same ration as those of men over the entire city. ... fn every investigation that has been made for years in Colorado of alleged election frauds women have been implicated in one way or other."

All that can be said is that tliore arc tower corrupt women than corrupt men, which a number of persons whose answers are quoted explain by saying that woman "are less corrupt because they have less opportunity, or because they don't know the same."

EFFECT O.N WAGES."

With regard to the effect of woman suffrage on wages and salaries, Aliss Sunnier sweeps away—so far as the evidence from Colorado goes all the usual suffragist contentions 'I lie franchise has not raised salaries and it still holds good, as a labour leader in the .State bluntyl puts it, that "organised labour is the only force that has benefited the condition or wages of workers." "Taking public employment as a whole." says Miss Sumner, "women receive considerably lower remuneration titan iiion. The difference in the salaries of men and women teachers in Colorado, instead of being unusn--1 ally small, is unusually large." \VcIJ may these figures and facts have spread discomfort among the suffrage societies of tlio States. »Yor can .Miss Summer, candid in(fuirer as she is, point to any certain gain on the legislative side tirom the women's vote in Colorado—any gam, that .is, which might not have Leon equally well reached without the women's vote, though she gathers all the evidence she can. When, indeed, the whole case is stated;, with a minuteness and a care that do Aliss Sumner infinite credit, and give her book a real importance, what remains from her report on behalf of woman suffrage? A few women in politics, that it has led tho appointment of more women increased the general interest of county superintendents of schools, to the exclusion of a few immoral men from public office, and to a large amount of paid political employment for women. And at wliat cost? It is absolutely clear from a close study of the book that participation in the routine work and active

EXCfTK/MICXT OF POLITICS

lias Ijooii bad I'or women, that it as lot! in many directions to a marked roughening and coarse 11 ing of tlieir .standards, that it has introduced fresh temptations into their lives, and that the best and most instructed opinion in the State is more than doubtful about its results. Miss Sumner confesses that there has 'been much speculation of late as to whether woman suffrage will be abolished in Colorado. She herself dloes not believe that it will he abolished ; but the mere fact that the step is openly discussed shows how dubious vague statements that the vote has the whole experiment has been.