Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-11-17
Woman school Bunfaeo.

In 1873, writes q Boston correspond.
.ent to the Milwaukee Wisconsin. the
Massachusetts, legislature was besieged
by the woman suffragists Of the State.to.
enact . law comforting upon the female
population the right Of voting for
school committees. twas urged that
there was q crying demand for the
privilege among the women Of the
Commonwealth, particularly the moth
sers and the schOolmistresses. and that
votes were needed to take the school
affairs olt of politics in the cities. Many
legislators and some women who had
decided opinions against full female
suffrage were induced to favor, or at
least not to oppose, the scheme. Ac-
cordingly, a law waspassed which with,
all amendment in 1881, gives all wom-
en- who have applied for and paid q
poll tax of SO cents Omen have to pay
at least 81 before voting) or any other
tax, the right to be registered as legal
voters for SCI DOL committees, and to
tave their names continued on the list
indefinitely without new applications,
so long as their taxes are paid.
81 Women had been serving in School
Committees all over the State for many
years previous to the passage of this
law. = g - ~-
Out of 100000 women who were
thus endowed with the franchise. 1871
voted in 1881, 1,346 in 1882, 1 1869 in
1883, and l, 1896 III 1884-less than l in
200. And this vote was nearly all in
the cities. -; - 49, y
In 1885, the woman suffragists,
smarting under thes revelation of the
insigrificance of their numbers and the
holloWness of their claims, and ready
to move heaven and earth to increase
their vote, made a desperate attempt to
brighten their sisters into assuming the
burden which had been thrust upon
them by the Legislature. They passed
around the word that in Boston. con-
tanning one-fifth of the whole popula-
ton of Massachusetts, the Roman
Catholic women were registering in
large numbers for the purpose of get
ting control OF the public schools. in
the interests of church openly
opposed to free unsectarlan education,
and that the votes of Protestant women
were necessary to defeat this scheme.
Under this pressure the vote was
doubled in Boston, bringing the total
fem a'e vote in the whole State in 1885
up 1927.
The Secretary of States communi-
cation to the Senate of Jan. 25. 1886,
reports Az, 616 legal voters of the Com
monwealth in 1885, or 70 per cent of
the 567 ,665 adult males. The census
of 1885 shows 623, 475 women above the
age of FL. Allowing the same percent
age of possible voters to the whole
number of adult fe males as in the case
of the males and we find chat 70 per
cent of the total of 623, 475 adult females
would give 486,310 women entitled to
| school suffrage after registering. Yet
all the scare and all the frantic appeals
brought out only 1927 votes, or less
than two-thirds of per cent.
AS to the truth of the stories about
Roman Catholic registration, there is
no way of getting at the figures But
IL is significant fact that at the election
the names favored by the Roman Catho-
lie portion of the community were sue
cessful, and the ticket favored by the
woman suffra gists was overwhelmingly
defeated, the only names they saved
being those which were also on the op-
position ticket.
But the School Suffrage law still re-
mains on the statute book, a constant
menace to those thinking women who
see that, sooner or later, the objection
able elements in our political system
will rally their women to help them to
seize upon the public schools. Can the
better class of women be dragged out to
counterfeit this vote? Our experience
gives no ground for supposing so.