Arizona republican., 1903-01-05
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, JAN. 5. 1903
Women and the Franchise.

At the recent election in Illinois the women had the privilege of voting-tor trustees of the state university. TO great extent they refused to avail them- selves of the privilege, and the fact has been seized upon and exploited throughout the country as proof that women do not care to vote. It IS not surprising that the vote was light, so far as the ladies were concerned. Men do not usually vote in large numbers when the issues involved are not inter- esting. No matter how many argu- ments may be in fairness advanced against granting the franchise to
 women. it is certainly unjust to insist that such an election as that in Illinois furnishes proof that enfranchisement is not desired. Upon this subject Miss Grace Nicholas of Chicago makes these pointed remarks:
 "One woman who interviewed six men on the subject was told by them all that there were no officers for whom the women could vote. The daily pa pers urged upon the men the import ance of registering and voting, but not one even hinted that women had a voice in the matter. In every precinct carriages were driven back and forth 10 take to the polls the male voter who has the responsibility of electing all the officers and making all the laws which govern both sexes. Not a car riage stopped for a female voter. In short. the male voter of Chicago way hardly given an opportunity to neglect his right and duty of registering and voting. The women, with few excep- tions, had no opportunity of discover ing that such rights and duties, in an extremely limited degree, were theirs. Of course woman's enthusiasm should have been great enough to have carried her without artificial means of convey ance to the polls to cast a vote for the trustees of a state university some 200 miles away. Under the same circum- stances, with a like limited franchise. would there have been 800 male voters in Chicago? In a special election held in Evanston to decide upon a new school building. only forty men voted. The average cost of allowing these forty men to vote has nowhere been made public.
 "The estimated cost to the city oI Chicago of preparing the separate bdi- lots and boxes for women is about $500. or s1 per capita. As long as it is such an expense to the city. and the infiu- ence of women so slight numerically, why not permit them to vote the whole ballot, and, in their reform administra- ttf ha a6 Ga of providing separate ballots and bal lot boxes? To be sure, it is estimated hat the women in Chicago pay about 12H per cent of the taxes to sup port a government in which they have no voice. A number of individual women alone pay more than the $500 which it cost the city to allow all the women to vote, and not one of the voters who owns property at all pays less than the $1 which the city ex- pended to provide for her vote.
 "In the town of Geneva. N. Y, it was found that over half of the taxes were paid by women. But the law passed by the state of New York two years ago has given these women a voice Tn the manner in which their money shall be expended. In the city of San Fran cisco where the women have no voice in the expenditure of money, it was found in a recent investigation that 35 per cent of the taxes which suppoI ted the government were paid by women In Joliet, where women may vote for school trustees, 2,50O women registered and voted. If our board of education were an elective body, would the 52O0 women teachers of Chicago have failed to exercise their right to vote?
 "The testimony comes from Colorado, where the women have equal suffrage with the men, that the women exercise that right as generally as the maie voters. The same is true in Wyoming, Utah and Idaho"
 The suggestion that woman does not want the ballot usually comes from men who profess the utmost solicitude for the welfare and happiness of the gentler sex, and on the subject of this anxiety for woman's happiness. Miss Nicholas might we'll have quoted the late Thomas B. Reed. Once, Tn max ing a minority report to the house of representatives in favor of woman sui frage, MT. Reed concluded with this masterly sarcasm:
 No one who listens to the reasons given by the superior class for the con tinuance of any system of subjection can fail to be impressed with the noble disinterestedness of mankind. Hence. when it is proposed to give the women an opportunity to present their case to the various state legislatures to de- mand equality of political rights, it is not surprising to find that the reasons on which the continuance of the in- feriOrity of women is urged. are drawn almost entirely from d tender consider alton of their own good. The anxiety felt lest they should thereby deteriorate would be an honor to human na;ure