The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-10-08
EQUAL SUFFRAGE.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE
(After presenting before the late
! County Convention of the w. c. Il. L.
equal suffrage department Mrs. Jennie
Fulton read the following paper:)
After hearing the above report, you
will probably conclude that very little
has been done in the franchise depart
ment of this Union during the past
year. And great deal has not been
done. Yet, when we multiply the
work done here, by the number of
Unions in these United States and
Canada and England and every
country where the w. c. L. L. is
established, which is, by the way,
nearly every country under the sun
reaching into Japan even, we shall
see that if every Union has done as
much as we have done here in lola,
thousands of meetings have been
held, thousands of lectures have been
given and millions of words spoken
for the cause of universal suffrage.
And all this work is not without re-
suits. Good women everywhere are
beginning to understand and appre-
ciate the power that would be theirs,
for the protection of home and children
if they possessed the ballot. Nearly
three fourths of the members of our
Protestant churches are women. Did
it ever occur to you that three fJurths
of the Christian citizens of this nation
are debarred from voting, while the
ballot is placed in the hand of every
brewer, every saloon.keeper, every
jointist and every bootlegger in the
country.
AS one of our women has said, chow
can we expect a Christian govern
ment-by this, I mean that power,
that spirit, that influence, that
courage, that moral life which makes
up the character of a Christian church
and which ought to be wrought into
the life of state-hOw can we expect
such a government with Christian
laws and regulations, until the
Christian people of the government
have power by which they may enact
these laws and through which they
may be enforced"
Public opinion on social questions is
comparatively lax among men. Our
State ami National officers are elected
by men and are responsible for their
official acts to "a constituency composed
of men alone. And SO we have too
many men in our legislative halls who
are either too Indifferent or too
cowardly to touch great questions of
social reform. Let the great mass of
good women have a voice in choosing
our legislature and you will see that
a better class of men Will be chosen,
who will enact and enforce better
laws. How long would saloons run
open and iOintists flourish if the good
women of Kansas possessed this
power? If it be true that the prohibit
tory law as il is now cannot be enforced
which we do not believe, then il would
not be many months until it would be
so revised AMI strengthened that it
could be enforced. Do you believe
that? Listen. The brewers conven-
ton at Chicago passed this resolution
by unanimous vote.
Resolved, That we are opposed to
wUmans suffrage everywhere and al
ways, for when woman has the ballot
she will vote solid for prohibition,
aud wOman's vote is the last hope of
the prohibitionist.
Now those brewers in convention
assembled knew what they were
talking about when they passed
that resolution. Nobody will ever
get them to believe that the ma
jority of mothers will vote for
dramshops or that the majority of
mothers believe that saloons are
better than no saloons.
One of our great preachers once said,
"When God our loving Father, wishes
to give to one of his children the very
best gift that it is possible for him to
bestow, He looks through all the
universe and gives-a child" All
good mothers believe that to be true,
and by the help of him who gave
those precious gifts they intend to
stand by and protect their babies
One bright day in the life of each, the
husband of those mothers promised
before God, and in the presence of
witnesses, to love and protect the
woman at his side. Is he protecting
her when he supports by his vote or
sanctions by his silence a law that
yearly steals from the motherhood of
this nation a hundred thousand of her
IL. \ Il.