The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-01-25
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Some Facts and Arguments by People
Who Believe in It-Testimony of james
S. Clarkson-Some Remarks by Mr.. Reed
on the Subject.
(From a Pamphlet on Woman suffrage.)

(from Palnpnleu on woman ouHrage.)
A few plain questions are suggested
which deserve candid, unbiased consid-
Grafton. The opinions of these distin-
guished public servants will aid in Civ
ing an intelligent answer.
/. Should women be granted the rights
of suffrage?
2. Would women vote if they had the
chance?
8. Would the fact of their voting
diminish our respect for them?
4. Would woman suffrage add another
occasion for domestic discord?
5. So far as tested do cultured or igno-
rant women predominant at the polls?
These questions are SO fully answered
by Hon. James S. Clarkson after witness
lug the bearing of women at the polls in
Colorado that we quote the following
from his letter to the Iowa State Regis
ter:
The many good women who read the
Register and believe i'll woman suffrage
will be interested in knowing something
of the details of the first election in Col
privileges Of suffrage in all respects with
the men. / was SO much interested in it
myself that / came to Denver purposely
to spend election day and to visit the
polls and see for myself the bearing of
women as voters, their presence at the
polls, the effect on the crowd, the effect
of the crowd on them, the part they
would take in the contest, and how they
would appear and act while doing it.
f,iy hof hoe WI Tod
Denver and Colorado with the object of
seeing the women in the activities of
the campaign-their feeling of interest
or Indifference, their comprehension of
public affairs and their duties as voters,
the work they would attempt, the work
they could properly do in the campaign,
the stability and courage of their devo-
ton to party and principle, and the COM
paratlve intelligence OF them, rank and
file, intelligent and ignorant, good and
bad, as compared with men.
l had never known any reason why
women, in the sense of abstract right or
duty, should not vote as well as men.
I had felt, in my judgment, passive re-
sistance to woman suffrage only from
fear that participation in public affairs
might in some degree be hurtful to the
delicacy and tenderness of refined
womanhood; that it might make woman
feminine and therefore less lovable.
Having seen them in Septembe in the
activities of very exciting political
campaign, one in which at least ninety
per cent. of all good and intelligent and
refined women of this city ana State
were taking a part, not merely passively,
but actively, and having spent the whole
day Tuesday visiting the polls in this
city, where probably thirty thousand
1ofo ond nnIv vntQd hut
bore their part in the party and public
duties of the day, am left to the frank
and manly duty of saying that even thi s
last feeling of fear as to woman suffrage
on my part is gone; and that the highest
minded man, however jealous and shell
tering he may be of his wife, mother or
daughter, as against contact with any
rude touch of the world, could not have
found cause for objection at any of
these polls
In the country district it is reported
that the women voted their maximum
strength even more nearly than the women
in the city. Instead of rough or vicious
men. or even drunken men treating
women with disrespect, the presence of
a single good woman at the polls seemed
to make the whole crowd of men as re-
spectful and quiet as at the theatre or
church. For the credit of American
men be it said that the presence of one
woman or girl at the polls, the wife or
daughter of the hum blest mechanic, has
as good an effect on the crowd as the
presence of the grandest dame or the
most fashionable belle.
The differnce in American and Euro
pean Difference to woman | have never
seen so strikingly illustrated and proved
as in these throngs of people at the polls
of this excited and most serious election
of Tuesday. The American woman is
clearly as much of queen at the polls,
in her own bearing and the Difference