Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-04-26
Washingtpa STANDARD
SHOULD WOMEN VOTE7
A Better Statement of the Proposition Would
Be. WHY Should She Not Vote

naIy Record, Stoc ktou, cal.
II i abhorrent to all principles Of
eternal right and justice that one-half
OF the population should have no
voice in the enactment OF legislation
and laws which are made TO govern
all. There is, there can he, no justi-
iication for 1t.
The idea that the degraded sot, the
loathsome wretch OF the slums, the
vicious and ignorant of the male sex
should be allowed equal participation
in the electoral franchise, and that
this right should be arbitrarily denied
to females, no matter how educated
and refined, is an ethical monstrosit~,
repulsive and utterly untenable to
mind in which logic and justice abide.
Let us note briefly some of the Ear
guments'-GOd save the application
OF the word argument in this instance
which were used by the opponents
OF the amendment in the California
Legislature this winter. Said Senator
Gutter: "The majority of women do
not want to vote, ard it is ridiculous
to thrust down their Threats some
thing to which they are opposed"
Twas ever thus. How many thous-
ands OF times have we heard this
statement before? 1t was used so
many years ago that the memories OF
those long in the tomb runneth not to
tbs contrary.
Without wasting any time in con-
sideration of the truth or falsity of the
statement that the majority of wo-
men do not want to vote, grant that
it may be true. What then? AS
Stunning that nine women do not want
to vote, and that one woman does,
should the one woman be denied her
inherent right simply because nine
other women have no desire to exer-
else that right? This question has
been propounded innumerable times
and it has never yet been answered.
1t is unanswsrable.
Furthermore, no one wants to, nor
is it proposed to thrust ballot down
woman's throat. What is desired is
that women shall have the right to
vote, and then if there be individual
women who do not desire to avail
themselves Of the right to cast bal
lot, that is their own business.
We have never yet heard it MAIN
tanned that the ballot in the hand OF
woman is a menace. We have yet to
hear OF a single instance in which
harm has resulted from women vot-
ing. If she has the right to vote, and
doesn't vote, why certainly no harm
is done.
In the debate in the Legislature, a
Senator admitted the intellectual
and moral superiority of woman" and
then fervently, and with mock-hero.
ism remarked that he was opposed to
dragging women down to the level
of man as would inevitably be the
case if women voted" More false
hood, more insulting assumption of
the weakness of woman's morality,
more incongruity of statement, more
righteousness, could not be crowded
into single sentence. No woman
will be dragged down to mans level
by the simple act Of voting. The al
legation that such result would ensue
is insulting and in direct contradis-
tinction to the admitted intellectual
superiority of woman. The ballot in
the hand of woman does not mean her
moral deterioration. Rather does it
make for the uplifting of humankind
in general, for the participation OF
good women in any of the affairs of
life has 40 unquestioned tendency
toward betterment. Neither will .
woman by voting lose any of that del
icacy and modesty which is the charm
of her sex.
Abundant proof of this fact is to be
found in those States and localities
where the sex line in suffrage has
been blotted out.