The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-13

since Utah women have been granted
the privilege of voting there has
sprung up a wave of enthusiasm that
bids fair to carry all before it in the
coming campaign. And they are going
to exercise their rights judiciously.
i, The old saying that women vote as
their fathers and husbands dictate
will be shown to be an erroneous idea.
Suffrage has rot had the striking effect
in Utah that it has in other states, as
the women at one time in Utah enicyed
the privilege of voting for seventeen
years but it will be used differently
and in much more enlightened man
ner- 1t will be a question of principle
more than parties Formerly they gen
orally voted the Peoples party ticket
and the religious element entered large
ly into the matter; now 1t is no longer
a question Of religion but of politics.
OF which they are making deep study
a month or +wo ago the majority of
the women, it must be confessed,
understood very little except the prin-
ciples of their respective parties but
they have formed clubs for the pur-
pose OF studying the great silver ques-
ton that will be the issue in the COM
who for years has stood with few
other women at the head of the politi-
cal women in Utah, if she has not
really been their leader, is taking a
most active interest in the coming
campaign. To her belongs the credit of
organizing the Ladies Bryan Silver
clubs. With the assistance of Mrs. J.
Fewson Smith the first meeting was
held in the Twenty first ward and from
that they organized a club in each pre-
cinct The club is open to women of
all political faiths, the only stipulation
being that they work for Bryan and
the success of the silver party. The
club met with immediate success.
There is a meeting every week in each
precinct and the attendance of each
club averages from thirty to fifty men,
bers. Mrs. Ferguson is an indefatiga-
bic worker. Within the last three
weeks she has made fifteen free silver
/ speeches before the different clubs OF
this city. The Ladies' Bryan Free Sill
Yer clubs have already enrolled on
their books the names of nearly a
| thousand women, while the Mckinley
Republican club has less than one hun
dred and forty and it is believed that
this number will not support the ticket
at the coming election unless they do
so under the mistaken idea that Nc
| Kinley stands for free silver, which
| doctrine has been expounded at some
of the Mckinley meetings.
The women OF Utah will not come to
! the front as office seekers, although
there are many women qualified TO hold
Office and no doubt would enter the po-
ltical field if requested. There are
positions that women could advantage
| ouSly fill and as long as they are tax
payers why should they not have some
! of the responsibilities and some of the
work that is enjoyed by the men, and
also some Of the money that these Of
| fees pay?
Our women will never hunt for office
as some men do who are known to be
ready to accept any position now in
the hope of lettering themselves in the
future. Their sense of ~delicacy would
not permit it. There seems to be a
feeling prevalent among the women
that they will stand by each other and
undoubtedly should a woman be upon
the ticket she will get the votes of all
other women.
This interest in politics is prevalent
throughout the state. There may not
be the same amount of work done in
other counties that there will be in
this but the women are alive to the
situation They realize it is a ques-
ton Of bread and butter to them.
DR.. Ellen Ferguson thinks that every
thing points to a Democratic success
in local politics, although she hopes for
the election of Bryan she thinks the
outlook very serious. The business men
in the east are bringing every influence
TO bear upon our business men to make !
them, if possible, vote for the gold
standard which causes affairs to as
sumo a threatening aspect. On the
other side we have the working classes
who have been suffering under the ter
have reached the uttermost point of
endurance, and it is either for silver
or revolution. This state of things is |
breeding anarchy and socialism. In |
stead of charging the Chicago platform /
and Bryan with anarchy and repudia-
ton it is the gold platform itself that
would lead to that.
Mrs Emily Richards has always |
been one of our most serious workers. |
She was one of the few women who |
worked long and earnestly for suff-
rage in Utah. 1t is regretted by all |
that she will be unable to work with |
the other women in Utah during the
fall, but although she is as interested |
as ever in politics and is watching
with interest the political field in Utah,
she has other work to perform which
will no doubt ultimately result in
more lasting good to the sex than as
though she remained at home. Her one
aim for years has been to see women
all over this country obtain the rights
of equal suffrage, and while in Wash
ington last winter pledged herself to
work for that end in whatever field
she was called She is working with
Mrs. Laura NJ. Johns and last spring
was sent to Idaho, where she has been
most actively engaged and will con- :
tinue her labors there during the COM
ing campaign 1t was with regret that
she gave up her home work. Judge
Powers rendered her position on the '
executive state committee, and had
she not been pledged to Idaho she
would have accepted it. ;
Mrs. Richards does not think there {
is d. possibility of failure for Bryan
and the silver cause. She thinks
Bryan is himself an inspiration.
Mrs. c.. E. Allen is working hard for
Bryan and thinks the outlook very
encouraging. During the last cam
paign it was impossible to get the wo-
men interested, but they now sense the
danger ahead and are displaying much
enthusiasm Women who formerly OPP
posed equal rights and anything per-
tanning to public work, have recently
come forward, not only as public
speakers, but as organizers of women's
clubs 1t is not only the older women
who show the interest, but also the
very young, which looks encourag cling
for the future. Mrs. Allen said: mo
cause has ever stirred me as this has J