The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-05-17
MRS. cATT's WAY.
Of Putting the Female Suffrage Cues
ton to an Audience.

ton to an Audience.
At Helena, one night this week,
Carrie Chapman Gait was the chief
orator in the emancipation cause
and made the following remarks
which were received with attention:
There is no better way of measur-
ing the progress of our case," said
Mrs. Gait, than the change of senti-
ment in the last so years. The oppo-
sition to the principle of women suf-
frage no longer endeavor to meet
our demands with arguments and the
matter is now merely one of expedi-
ency and the fear of the people to
try something new-the doubling of
the things not yet established. All
political parties seem to be afraid to
take the initiative in the matter. The
republicans say Wait until we have
given full franchise to the inhabitants
of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philip
pines, and then we will consider the
women the democrats say, Wait
until we have disfranchised the neg
roes of the south and then we will
see what can be done for you;' the
saloon men and brewers are opposed
to our cause because they fear that
we will all vote the prohibition
ticket; the prohibitionists say that in
the four states where women have
been granted full suffrage the prohibit
ton cause has lost ground, and there
fore this party is opposed to us; the
politicians do not want to grant us
suffrage because they are afraid we
will not vote as they dictate; the con-
servatives say that women are all
in favor of socialism, while the social
lists say that to give us suffrage
would be to retard their cause at
least a hundred years; the labor
unions say that if the women were
enfranchised they would all vote the
republican ticket, while the republi-
cans say that at the first presidential
election at which they voted the
women of Colorado voted the demo.
cratic ticket.
THUS you see that all our OPP
ponents question the expediency of
the measure. What is expediency?
| It is either laZiness or selfishnes,
and in this case it appears to be the
| latter, as each party is afraid that
| it's. particular interests will suffer.
say that it is nobody's bushes how
the women vote when they are en-
franchised, and that this great ques-
ton should be lifted out of the slough
of expediency and placed on the
higher plane of right.
1T is true that our cause has gain
ed ground in the last so years, and
conditions have also greatly changed
since that time. You can imagine
your great grand mother arising to
build the fire in the morning, and
then lighting a fire with a taper
which she had made, burning wood
which she had gathered from her own
premises, and then cooking for her
breakfast some ham or bacon which
she had cured from the hogs raised
of the nice old cream biscuits and
using the cream which she had
MIXED from the family COW. Great
changes have been made since then
and the women of today are thankful
that they are released from the re-
sponsibilities of the days of old.
But in losing these responsibilities,
lear sisters, we're compelled to take
many more. Politics, which so years
ago had no place at the family fire.
side, have now entered the home,
and the women are confronted with
great political problems, and domes-
tic problems at that.
"The woman of today arises in the
morning and lights her fire with a
match manufactured by the match
trust, burns coal purchased from the
coal trust, eats eggs sold by the egg
trust, and drinks water sold by the
water trust, does her shopping over
telephone rented from the tele-
phone trust.
Give the women of Montana the
right to vote and you will find them
turn away from the gossip which now
couples their time and devote Lem
selves to a more serious considera
ton of the problems now before
them.
: You can't tell me that the women
of this state do not care to exercise
the functions of suffrage. And once
they are granted the right to v0-e you
, will see that they do not sh.th The
: duty, for it is their duty to vote as
well as their right to be permitted
, to do so.
Some years ago there were really
good men who thought that they were
= doing women a good turn by not al
| lowing them to vote-thought thai
= they were saving women from them
= selves. But that time is past ant
the reason that bad men who nov
have control of the political machines
: want to keen control as long as pOSSi