The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-05-10
WOMEN IN POLITICS.


Themselves In the Late state Elections.
The reports of the recent municipal
elections in Kansas show that women
of the State exercised more generally
their privilege of voting than at either
Of the other elections which have Ia
ken place since it was granted to them
in 1887. In that year they cast about
80 per cent Of the whole vote pOlled
for municipal officers. In 1888 the ra-
ito was about the same, but this year 1t
seems to have been much increased.
At all the town elections women came
out in large numbers and took the deep
est interest in the contests. In some OF
the larger places they were more zeal
GUS politicians than the men, and yet
we hear nothing Of scandals like those
that marked the first elections in which
they took part. As the novelty of vot-
ing for municipal officers wears of they
seem to preserve their self-contrOl bet
ter, at the same time that they are more
earnest in performing the duty.
So far from following the political
direction of their husbands. wives in
many cases took the leadership into
their own hands and the husbands were
the followers, while in others husband
and wife voted in opposition to each
other without producing serious family
discord. The women voters, too. ex-
hibited both political independence and
political conservatism. not hesitating
to vote for candidates not of their own
party if they deemed them better fitted
for municipal offices. They also did a
great amount of electioneering among
men and women both, and displayed
much aptitude for it. There is no doubt
that il women generally were allowed
to vote. and they were walked up to a
lively interest in politics. very many of
them would make politicians with
whom men would find it hard to COM
pete; and the wife might have more to
do in determining the political faith Of
the family than the husband. At any
rate. the experience in this instance
proves that the Kansas women do their
political thinking for themselves
Feminine interests is aroused in
municipal elections more particularly,
of course, because they involve moral
issues with regard TO which women are
sure to have an opinion. Where wO-
men are allowed to vote on school
questions. as is the case now in four
teen States. they seem to be Indifferent
to the privilege, though such partial
suffrage was granted them on the
theory that they would have a peculiar
solicitude concerning the education OF
children. The only time they exer-
cised it in Boston to any large extent.
was when a mischievous religious issue
was imported into the canvass. But as
municipal officers have committed to
them some sort of moral supervision in
the enforcement of the laws against
liquor selling and the punishment of
vice. the Kansas women. high and low,
turn themselves into active politicians
on election day. However it might be
in community like New York. in the
Kansas towns the feminine vote is al
most wholly cast on the side of Puritan
restriction. The women are the re-
lentless enemies of the drinking sa-
looms. and the small minority Of their
number who violate the strict code OF
morals, receive little consideration at
their hands. They are uncompromis-
ing in these respects. and probably the
same would be the case elsewhere. for
the vast majority of women will toler-
ate no departure from moral purity in
their own sex, and they would gladly
break down the competition of the rum
shop with the home.
Prof. Goodwin Smith therefore is
alarmed at the prospect of admitting
women to the suffrage in England, for
it looks now as if at least widows and
spinsters would gain the privilege there
before long, and with that entering
wedge women generally would prob
ably get the vote in due time. His fear
is that men would come under the
power of women, and petty social tyr
amy would be the result. The fem
mime voters would be in the majority,
and, therefore, could determine the
policy of the State. making it fem
mime policy in place OF the existing
masculine policy. If they took the bits
in their teeth as the Kansas women
seem to be doing in the municipal cleo
tions, there might be some reason for
his alarm, if such a transfer of power
affords occasion for misgiving Turn
over to them the authority which lies
in their majority, and they might ex-
ercise it with an independence of mas
culine restraint which would surprise
the people who oppose woman suffrage
on the ground that women would vote
simoly as they were instructed by men.
Perhaps they would and perhaps they
would not. As it is, they usually have
their own way, and if they became
voters they might carry the same dis
position into politics
The extent to which women interest
themselves in public affairs is now
great as compared with what it was
when the agitation against slavery
started the demand for women's rights
forty years ago. Then, and long after.
the appearance of a woman as a speak
err on public platform excited general
ridicule. and most among women. But
now. both here and in England. women
are welcomed as efficient allies in poll
tics and philanthropy. They are adj
mitted to colleges and school boards.