The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-05-15
WOMEN IN POLITICS.



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
30 per cent. OF the whole vote polled
for municipal officers. In 1888 the ra-
ito was about the same, but this year it
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 vet
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 10 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 If 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 peculiar
solicitude concerning the education OF
children The only time they exer-
cised it in Boston to any large extent,
was when 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 a 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 oil
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, fol-
it looks now as IL 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 feal
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 womer
seem to be doing in the municipal cleo
tions, there might be some reason fol
his alarm, if such a transfer of power
affords occasion for misgiving. TURF
over to them the authority which lie,
in their majority, and they might ex
ercise it with an independence of mas
culine restraint which would surpris,
the people who oppose woman suffrage
on the ground thai womea would vo;,
sim ,ly as they were instructed by men
Perhaps they would and perhaps the,
would not. As it is, they usually hav,
their own way, and if they becam,
voters they might carry the same dis
position into politics.
The extent to which women interes
themselves in public affairs is nov
great as compared with what it wa
when the agitation against SLAYER,
started the demand for women's right
forty years ago. Then. and long after
the appearance of woman as a speak
err on public platform excited genera
ridicule, and most among women. Blu
now, both here and in England. womel
are welcomed as efficient allies in poll
tics and philanthropy. They are ad
mitted to colleges and school boards