The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-10
Mrs. Margaret Hughes Doubts
and Misgivings
WILL THE RIGHT BE USED?
Mrs. Severance Has Never Found Valid
Reason Against 1t
A Glass of Women Who Believe In II as
Religion and Talk and Work For
It ZeaIously.

Not until tomorrow night, and perhaps
not then, will it be decided by the law
makers in Sacramento whether California
is to have woman suffrage or not. Mean
while, during these last hours of breath.
less suspense, let us feel the general pulse
and see how some OF our progressive yet
thoughtful women in Los Angeles view
the subject; and what probable use will
be made by them of the freedom accorded
ii the bill passes.
Most OF those interviewed on the sub
ject admit checrfully and promptly their
belief in the the extension of the suffrage,
but they deny that they are suffragsts.
While they believe that woman suffrage is
right in the abstract, concretely and in
dividually many of them deny having
any personal wish or desire to vote. Some
of them admit that in asking for the
right, women are pledging themselves to
one of the most arduous duties that they
have ever undertaken.
All of them are serious and deeply in
earnest in the matter. They seem to real
ize that with the ballot there will come a
responsibility that cannot be entered
upon lightly, and that in discharging
that responsibility they must go through
q season of preparation in order to acquit
themselves with honor, not only to their
SEX but to their country and their own
consciences.
MRS. ALICE MOORE MCOMAS
Mrs. McComas is one of those who not
only believe in the extension of the suf-
frage, but is an ardent advocate of it.
She was an active worker in the organiza-
+;o, of tbo nc Apoa1es Woman Suffra no
Associations of which Judge Utley is now
the president, Mrs. Margaret V. Longley
the ice-president and Mrs. Neary Leon
ard the efficient chairman of the execu-
tive committee
Mrs. McComas hopes the bill will pass
the Legislature; and more, that there may
be constitutional amendment made,
giving women full suffrage which will be
permanent, and not amenable to change
BY the legislators who, elsewhere, have
twice takei back a franchise given, be-
cause the women did not vote as the leg
islators wished them to.
She felt that she was expressing the
sentiment of the suffrage association in
saving that it wants the ballot on princi-
pie and not on accounted having any ak
to grind; that they lay no claim to any
great immediate good, or that women,
because they have the ballot will reform
the world but as an act of simple Justice:
that, as citizens, women have as much
right to vote as men; not because they
expect it to purify politics, but because
from every standpoint it puts woman on
an equality with man morally on account
too, of wages.
In connection with this point Mrs. Nc
Comas quoted Secretary of the Treasury
Skinner as saying that so long as women
were not voters, their wages could not and
would not be the same as those of men,
for voters have privileges and exert an
influence that non-voters cannot have,
and a man who has vote will always
command a salary in municipal or 9th
er office that a woman who is not voter
cannot hope to receive.
The same lady is also state superin-
tendent of franchise in the w. G. I. u,
and stated that the latter organization
wanted the ballot at first, for the sake OF
prohibition, but that it now recog-
that the white ribbon CIV. G. T. W and
the yellow ribbon CIV. s. A.. had united
in their efforts toward its accomplish
ment; that Governor Budd has given his
personal promise to sign the bill once it
passed, and that the outlook for suffrage
had never been brighter in California
than it is today
MRS. CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE
4 Mrs. G. NJ. Severance. who, during q
long and unselfsh life has done active
work for the advancement OF all that is
good in woman, and whose philanthro-
Ply and broad humanitarianism have
made her beloved of all mankind with
!, whom she has come in direct or indirect
contact, says: "If you think my opinion
worth giving on the suffrage question,
would like to stand by my record of 40
years acceptance and advocacy of it for
women while l had physical vigor
enough to do the latter.
Since that time (about 1S50) when Tread,
Al.
Mercantile Library Association. paper
entitled: Humanity, Il Definition and
Plea-covering woman under both-I have
never found logical or valid reason
against it, and ever since my conviction
has deepened, that not only does woman
need this for her own best development,
as protection to children and home,
but that man, her brother, needs her help
in the larger home--the state--to meet the
evils which have seemed wel-nigh insur-
nountable to him thus far.
The state needs the moral force of all
members, and now, of all times in its
history, it needs to 'call out its reserves, -
as Mrs. Livermore eloquently describes
its women. | do not expect the immediate
millennium good time coming of all
the ages-but | believe that suffrage will
be a long step toward that even better
time.
MISS TESSA L. KELS0
Miss Kelso has proven her shrcwd
knowledge of human nature and her keen
business sense many times during her
most efficient occupancy OF the Office OF
Librarian in the Public Library and she
feels that there is no doubt that any wo-
man who earns her living as teacher or
clerk or who has professionally or nlu-
nicipally anything to do with public life,
realizes the enormous advantage and ln-'
huencc and prestige from a business point
Of view that can only come with the bal
lot; every man knows that every woman
Society women, and those who are not