Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-12-19
Women Voting in the Massachusetts, School
Elections,

Thirteen of the nineteen cities in Massachu-
sets held their annual municipal elections,
last week. In these, for the first time, un,
der law passed by the last Legislature, wo-
men were entitled to vote for school commit
tee men. Perhaps the most noticeable cir
cumstance connected with this new feature
of the elections was .he comparatively small
number of women who saw fit to exercise
the privilege This was not for want of ex-
hortation to their duties In Boston, pre-
ceding the annual registration of voters, a
careful canvass was instituted by the Woman
Suffrage Association, to induce the women
to register and TO each of those who regis
tered, ballots prepared for them by the As
ISOLATION were sent by mail. But less than
900 women registered and voted. As there
must be some forty thousand women in Bos-
ton of voting age, and as the proportion of
women who availed themselves of the op-
portunity to vote was even less in other
cities, it would seem to be clear that not one
in forty of the Massachusetts women care to
vote, even for school committees As
intelligent women commonly take quite as
much interest in school matters as men, and
as their participation in the school elections
was welcomed by many of the men-even by
many who were decidedly opposed to wom-
ems voting forpolitical offices-there must be
some distinct cause for this reluctance to ex-
ercise the franchise on the part of the wom-
en-. That reason probably was that they
considered this partial extension of the fran
chise to be-as the woman suffrage advocates
have loudly claimed that it was-an enter
ing wedge to be followed in time by the OK
tension of all the rights and imposition of all
the duties exercised ty the stronger sex. If
voting for school committees now, meant
voting for all sorts of offices hereafter, the
women las mass would have nothing 10
do with it. Is there any other adequate ex-
PLANTATION of their refusal to be argued or
coaxed to the polls ?
In Boston three ladies were candidates for
election on the school committee, but all were
defeated. In Fall River, where rs women
voted, two women were elected on the
school committee In Lawrence only %
voted. In Cambridge and Chelsea women
were elected. As regards experience at the
polls, ii is recorded that the women general
ly voted early were courteously treated at
the boxes stood well the smoke and tobac-
co juice surrounding the polls: and retired
fairly satisfied with their experiment. One
case is related where male tyrant appeared,
accompanied by his wife and two daughters,
for whom he provided ballots such as suited
him, and saw that they deposited them,
when the procession departed, the fair
members of it exhibiting none of the exulta-
ton which some of the spectators fancied
they detected in most of the feminine voters.
As general thing, however, no such init
midation or oppression was attempted; and
most of the women were very well able to
resent it, if it had been. That the results of
the elections anywhere turned on the votes
Of the women, or were materially afflicted
by them, is not stated. And the experiment
will clearly need further trial before it can
be determined positively how it is going to
work.