Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-01-03
coLoRAoo,s WOMAN VOTERS.
How Their Franchise Came About and
How They Will Ec Likely to Use 1t.

How They Will tic Lhkety 70 use Ats
Stump speakers can now say Fellow
citizens" in Colorado instead OF La
dies and gentlemen" for, as Colorado
woman writes to tho Chicago Tribune:
I'VE women OF Colorado have equal
suffrage, or equal suffrage has us. /
haven't quite figured ont which. The
women who came ont OF the dust and
smoke OF battle with the light of vic
tory OF their faces say we have suffrage
and they ought to know, for they
studied il all mp beforehand and knew
what il meant and talk about Erima.
riea and polls with an easy familiarity
that is awe inspiring. Bat as for the
rest of us-wcll. We have lots to learn.
OF course we expected TO get the right
to vote, hut we End that carries Il
great many Other rights that We Thought
the lncn would lie good enough 10 1T
tend to Just as we wanted them TO with
oct leaving us any bother.
Its all the other way. First OF all.
| in the cities we have to register under
| the Australian ballot law, get under
measuring machine. have the color of
orr eyes determined and our weight
noted. and otherwise contribute to the
answering OF 20 odd questions, among
which is the plump. point blank conun-
| drum. How Old are you:' Distinguish
ing physical characteristics also go
| down IL the book. One woman naively
| told the clerk she w,.s Il twin and has
| not recovered her good temper yet. 1
don't know what awful result viii fol-
low il a couple OF thousand women IRE
challenged u wecl. or SO before election
by the political machines.
The next thing Is that ii women Go
not take an interest in conventions and
primaries and all that. you know, they
will find thei: choice restricted to two
or three men Wit. whose selection they
had nothing 10 do. and that docs rot
seem right. We must join il the push.
my husband SAYS. while he chuckles
away. Unless some Of the dear sisters
arc belicd. just tine same. the men will
find oat Il thing or two. The very day
after election, when it was certain we
had won. the discovery was made that
the wives of several politicians, one
OF them actually under an assumed
name were members Of tho suffrage as
! anu ii.t'. w sN IA, IL i'i
their parties and incidentally. no doubt,
their husbands. Several ofreTs CT clerk
ships under the new county officers
were made, bat to the honor of the
women who did the campaign work not
an cifer was accepted. and The attempt
ut influencing was exposed ut the next
meeting. The association adopted a de-
cisivc O political plank and took meas
ures for the blackbsllins of political
wcmcn. We're travelling on n high
plane, tell you. l don't know how it
will work ri the primaries, but it's
lofty.
Right aiger election the newspapers
took wicked delight i'll pointing ont
that since we had become voting Citi-
zcns we were amenahie TO al tire duties
OF citizens ard voters and would have
10 do jury duty and militia duty and
, don't know how many other kinds vi
: duty. Then arose Attorney General
l Engley--a very solomon dug int,
t his books and found that. while tho
I state constitution made no distinction o.
sex. various laws regarding jurors ant
1 the militia contain the word male. which
: lets us cut of the work and leaves lis ri
I. the fun. Anyway, I'm sure We'll ge
e along very nicely. even ut the rrima
= ries, though II certain the men won
C think conventions are conventions n
2 all If they cant smoke and fight ;nt
5 raise Old Ned. They have always had ;
C good deal more row III Denver ut tn
: convention ttan on election day. and ;
: squad Of dCputy sheTiifs usually sit o.
). the bench of the elect.
How did we carry TIE election
n Well. am blessed if / know tina
: oither-whether we carried it at all G
d not. I'm honestly inclined to bailey
y that the men gave us suffrage becaus
:, they Thought there was no good argtI
u ment against it and that we ought t
have il. Tho men Of this part Of tn
: world are big. broad minded fellows
It and hold. toe. much Of that old tim
western chivalry which made fhe Ion
woman the safest OF all the creatures i
Il rough Frontier towr-thc spirit whic
to this day makes the toughest Ci
:. miner ready 10 fight 1T moments nc
"A tice for Il woman il distress. The grea
q hull. of the vote against suffrage WI
IN cast by men who We're not opposed I
t. having women vote. hut who do nt
TO feel that women shouid mingle in pol
IL. tics as politics has bcon. We say, and
IL is On Cur knowledge OF the nan that "
base our saying. that politics i'll Col,
RADIO will hereafter be other than it h;
been. and we viii be safe in politics /:
Z" il will he. No Colorado assembling
will tolerate ruffians who will insi
- women directly or indirectly. 70
~ Will find TIE future showing that
~ know whereof l speak. The suffras
n, ~ machinery during the campaign w;
.' not very powerful. and if the agitatio
really accomplished anything the va
:. liable engine OF its work was the pres
i, There was only one newspaper man
80 the state who openly opposed sufErag
nc Some were little lukewarm and mar
nd said nothing, hut the large dailie
NJ without exception, favored suffrage e.
zee itorially.'