Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1900-06-07
DO Women Want TO vote2

No. Women want to vote exactly as
men want to vote. No less; no more:
no otherwise. Women, like men, want
TO vote when they see something that
needs to be done, or something that
needs to be prevented. Women, like
men, do not want to vote in the alb
stract, for the mere sake of voting.
At the recent hearing before the
Massachusetts Committee on Election
Laws, the whole opposition may be
summed up in Observation-Disclosures do
not want the right to vote" Is this
true? We deny it. Facts show the
contrary. Indeed, so far as facts go,
they seem to indicate that women
want to vote more than men do, and will
vote more generally than men, when
enabled to do so.
Here are the facts:
In 1869, 81 years ago, for the first
time in the worlds political history
full suffrage was extended to women in
Wyoming. From that day to this, at
every general election, larger proper
ton of the women than of the men
of Wyoming, have voted. The proper
ton, as ascertained by Judge King
men, many years ago from actual in
spection of voting lists, in three sue
cessive elections, was 80 per cent. of
the resident women and so per cent. of
the men. And so far from the number
of male voters falling off in conse-
quence of the voting of women, the
male vote increased and far exceeds
the proportion of men voting in Mass
achusetts.
In 1893 full suffrage was extended to
the women of Colorado. At every gen.
eral election since larger proportion
OF the women have voted there than of
the men. In one State election, in
deed, although women only constitute
one-third OF the adult population, it
was said that one half of all the votes
cast were the votes of the women. In
Colorado also the proportion of men
who vote is larger than it was before
the women voted, and larger than it is
in Massachusetts,.
In Utah, as territory, women voted
II years from 1869 to 1882, so regularly
and so generally that Senator Ed
munds, wishing to overcome the Nor
mon majority, persuaded Congress to
disfranchise women. He did not &C
complish his object, and when Utah
came in as State, its Constitutional
Convention, composed solely of men
and elected solely by men, restored full
suffrage to women in spite of the bitter
opposition of Brigham II. Roberts.
In Idaho the same is true.
In New Zealand, where women have
had suffrage for seven years, they
vote as generally as the men do, and
the proportion of male and female vot-
ers who vote shows no sign of falling
off.
In Massachusetts, for 20 years, wom-
en- have had the right to vote only for
school committee. In some commune |
ties and under special circumstances, a |
few women have availed themselves of |
this right. 1t is to them only a special |
on a side issue. In special |
election on side issues the men of Mass
achusetts have shown similar indiffer-
ence. For instance, in a special cleo
tion of men taken in Boston to decide
the question whether or not system
ofpublic parks should be authorized,
involving an annual expenditure of mil
lions of dollars, only one in seven of the
men OF Boston voted, and the majority
by which parks were created was only
one in twelve of the registered voters.
Yet in several of the wards interested
real estate owners made special efforts
20 get out the voters. But for that, the
vote would have been still smaller.
In Massachusetts, male suffrage was
limited by property qualifi-
'ation. No public meeting was ever
held, nor any petition ever made for
suffrage by the DISTINGUISHED men.
But during the last fifty years hum
lreds of thousands of Massachusetts
women have petitioned for the right. !