Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-15
WOMEN AS VOTERS.
Mrs. Laura N. Johns Defends Their
Right to Cast the Ballot.
POLITICS ELEVATED AND PURER.
Some Facts About the ladies as Office
Holders in the West.
THEY MAKE GOOD JUDGES AND MAYORS

When Mrs. Laura N. Johns, of Kansas,
stepped upon the rostrum of the lecture
room connected with the Sandusky Street
(Allegheny) Baptist Church. she faced an
audience almost wholly composed of her
sex. There were some men there. They
were utilized to furnish the hats and rush
the collection.
Mrs. Johns is bright little woman in
whose raven black hair there are some sill
very threads. She is rapid and pleasing
talker, and filled her subject with so much
enthusiasm that at the close of her address
she had enlisted everyone OF the ladies
under the banner of woman suffrage.
Mrs. Johns in her lecture traced the
woman suffrage movement from the time
when Plato announced to the world his be-
lief in the equality of the sexes down to the
present day. Speaking of the movement
in the West she said that it was owing to
the fact that the women of Washington
Territory voted so strongly in favor of
moral men that the right of suffrage was
taken from them.
BAD PEOPLE CAME IN.
This right had been granted to them by
statute. When the territory began to fill
up with foreigners, native blacklegs,
gamblers and others Of that elk, this statute
became unpopular to the vicious element
In Congressional election the Republican
party placed before the people candidate
whose moral character was not of the high
est. VOORHEES,, son of the Tall Sycamore
of the Wabash, was placed in nomination
by the Democrats. The women unanimously
supported him and he was elected. A local
option law came up shortly thereafter,
fathered by the Republicans and opposed by
the Democrats. The women supported this
law. When Statehood was broached the
women were without party, and the statute
giving them theright of suffrage was stricken
from the Constitution.
In Wyoming the women have gone to the
polls with their little ballots for 20 years.
The statute is so fixed in the Constitution of
the Territory that women are assured that
when Wyoming is admitted to the sister,
hood of States their rights will not be taken
from them. In Kansas the result of female
suffrage has been most successful. In five
cities women have been elected to the office
of Mayoress. Over 200 women are members
of various School Boards, and in several
cities the Councils are wholly composed of
women.
A WOMAN AS JUDGE.
In one town woman oficiates as police
judge. The women of Kansas are not in
favor of city government composed
wholly of women. They prefer that it
should be equal. The men of Kansas are
now much more in favor of the movement
than they were before the right of franchise
was given to the other sex.
One result of the movement in Kansas
and other States where women have the
glorious privilege of marching to the polls
is that it has elevated their minds.
Women, instead of discussing Mrs. Thing
umbob's last dress, which was so loud that
it kept her husband awake o. nights now
talk of silver coinage, the probabilities of
Grover Cleveland's candidacy in '92. the
of President Harrison's shoot
ing hogs on duck hunting expedition. and
other topics calculated to place them on
level with their husbands.
The women at the polling places are treat
ed with the greatest respect by the male
voters, and they are well satisfied with the
result of the experiment.
In conclusion Mrs. Johns stated her firm
belief that the cause she represented would
go on until every womAnly woman under
the flag would be armed with the ballot.