Huntsville gazette., 1890-02-01
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
HOW WOMEN VOTE.

The woman suffrage experiment in
Kansas came to its crucial test in the re-
cent municipal elections in that State,
writes Laura w. Johns, in Boston Globe.
The women voters prepared for this
election with more intelligent care, and
they went to the polls In larger numbers
than ever before. Their vote made a
gain in numbers of at least thirty per
cent. The enthusiasm was of rational
sort-not manufactured by few hot
headed zealots, but the healthy out
growth of an earnest interest in affairs
and faith in the ballot. The women
were more successful than on previous
occasions in electing the candidates Of
their choice; they went more generally
into the primaries, and their effect on
the election was distinctly stronger.
They fully sustained their reputation
for voting more uncompromisingly than
men on the right side of moral ques-
tions. and they made evident their
determination to compel the elec-
tion of better class of men to
municipal office. Given men of equally
good character for opposing can
didates, and the women of each party
will earnestly support the candidate of
their own party; but let the nominee OF
their own party be man of known i'm
moral life, and the nominee of the op-
posing party man of clean record, and
the women flock to the support of the
latter, regardless of party fealty, and
nominations are made with respect to
that fact by all parties. Whether the
women vote at every opportunity or not,
the fact that they may vote has salu-
tary effect on elections. The woman
vote is held as reserve power, and is
well known to be liable to come out and
upset the best-laid plans of men, when
said plans do not accord with the pre-
conceived notions of the women voters
of the degree of morality of which a
man should be possessed who is to be
put into place in which he may lay his
hand upon the government of city in
which boys and girls are to get their
bringing up.
All this is not to say that women vot-
ers make no mistakes, nor yet that
every woman votes from the purest mo-
tiyes; but it is to say that the majority
of the women of the cities of Kansas
have voted on the right side of moral
questions. They have made mistakes
in men and measures, and repented in
time to make partial amends at the next
election, but they have not been in the
wrong as often as they have been in the
right. Some women voted from ignoble
motives, but more women voted with
high purposes. A bad man, whose
name was Wrong, was nominated for
mayor by the Republican party; Re-
publican woman was opposing his elec-
tion on moral grounds. A henchman
of Mr.. Wrong visited her, and said:
"Your support comes from your
you don't support Mr.. Wrong,
! will use my influence, which you
know to be powerful, to prevent your
daughter fom securing her school for
another year" The small, quiet woman
rose, and said with gentle dignity, and
an air which forbade further discussion:
''Your candidate is wrong by nature as
well as by name. l will not vote for
him. Good morning, sir" Every body
it is pleasant to add that the twice
wrong man was not elected, and the
daughter had better position offered
her. On the other hand, lady who
thought it scandalous thing for
woman even to register, voted for man
of questionable character because she
expected thereby to secure his assist
ance in getting a post-office position.
The compensation was just-she didn't
get the place.
When women began to vote, their
leadings in this direction betrayed them
into error. With their eyes fixed upon
the moral fitness of men for city office,
they, in many instances, forget to con-
slider other qualifications. The expert
ences of that first election taught wom-
en- that, to be an efficient officer, man
needs not only to be good, but good for
something; that along with the best in
tentions in the world there must go ex-
ecutive ability to prosecute those inten-
tions, and that business, as well as NOR
al, sense goes into the makeup of an
effectual city official.
One of the most hopeful features Of
this experiment In woman suffrage is
the evident capacity of the women vot-
ers to learn. Their mistakes are proph-
ecies of more thoughtful effort and bet
ter laid plans further on. The DISPOSE
tion to pit the woman vote against the
male vote has almost entirely disap-
peared, and certain male voters have
rapidly unlearned their inclination to
regard women voters as enemies and
usurpers, and have come to look upon
them, not as taking mems places, or
''trying to be men," but as performing
their legitimate part in the worlds
work.
Women vote with considerable indie
pendence. Few people, few suffragists
expected such independence to develop
thus early in the women voters, but the
truth is that women do more, and
men do less, of their own thinking than
is generally supposed. 1t is safe to say
that Kansas women vote no more like
their ma1e re1ati than Kansas men