Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-03-17
RESULTS OF SUFFRAGE.
Opinions Differ Widely as to Whether
Women Have Elevated Poll
tics or Not.

made any gain along this line. Law
renee Lewis. in recent article written
Tor Ihe Outlook, takes the view that
woman's vote has had no special inHu-
ence for good, inasmuch as bad women
as well as good women are at the polls,
and that the former can be bribed, with
out limit. Mr.. Lewis has been studying
the workings of woman suffrage in Colo
rado for several years, and draws his
conclusions therefrom. For, while wom-
en- have voted on equal terms with man
IN three states, and in New Zealand
since 1893, most people look upon Colo
RADIO as the" type. From his view
point, the assertions made by Mr.. Lewis
are striking, and are worthy of consid-
Grafton
Let it be clear at the outset" says
this writer. that the presence of the
ladies has had no especial effect upon
the kind of order and decorum main
tanned at polling places ever since the
introduction of the secret or Australian
ballot. Men possibly swear q little less
but they wear their hats and use tobac-
CO as freely in all forms about the polls
as ever before. In the best residence
precincts in cities, and in most country
precincts, the order is perfect In some
country precincts controlled by corpora
| tons especially mining corporations, as
well as in the lower wards and in pre-
cincts 'on the border i'll cities, thugs
and election officials frequently clash:
special constables, deputy sheriffs and
even sheriffs. as well as policemen, often
indulge in profanity, blackguardism, aud
| intimidation. Ballot boxes are stuffed
and stolen. At the general election in
November, 1904, for example, the pres
| ence of women as voters and as mem
| berS of election boards did not prevent a
| Republican woman worker from being
thrown out of a polling place in Den
| yer and showed up against u fence; it
! did not deter county commissioner in
! Pueblo-who has since been convicted of
! padding a precinct registration list with
| fictitious names-frOm introducing wills
Ky at the polls in one of the corporation
| precincts, and getting the election Off
GERS, watchers, and workers drunk so
| that repeaters could be run in and re
| turns tempered with; it did not prevent
| fights, acts of intimidation, and the ar
rest of workers and voters of both sexes,
of the opposite political faith, by parti
san police and sheriffs' officers in yari-
Gus parts of the state. Challengers and
watchers are as keen in seeking and as
eager in taking advantage of technical
ties to bring into question the right to
vote of a woman of the opposite political
| faith as of any man.
1T is significant to see how large
| proportion of the registered SlaV and
| Italian women vote-they whose hus-
| bands and brothers are the unskilled la
borers at the great steel works, precious
metal Smelters. and other large manufac-
turing plants, and who generally CORE
! Spond to the inferior or foreign class Of
| ColoradoS miners. 1t should not be
overlooked also that the percentages,
| both for registration and voting, of these
! = -. IL. ~
| the wives and sisters of the skilled
American mechanics and small trades
men. Too much credit cannot be given
| n majority of our very best women for
| the manner in which they have assumed
| their responsibilities of the ballot. In
| deed, one of the strongest arguments of
| the suffragiSt is based upon the fact that
in the very best residential parts OF our
cities the number of women voters more
nearly approXimates the number of men
| than anywhere else. But the next high
est percentage of female voters polled is
to be found in the precincts of brothels
and female 'rooming houses Many
good women, thank heaven!-vote be
cause they know it is their duty-and to
many of them an unpleasant and IN
sought duty-because they feel that they
must help TO overcome the votes of the
vicious and depraved of their sex. But
we have many bad women as well as
good women, and experience and our fig
ures show that, next TO the best resi-
dence precincts, those containing the
| brothels and female 'rooming houses
poll the greatest proportion of women
voters.
| Our Ioreign-born women electors
| equally ignorant and illiterate with our
! foreign-b0rn men, who as voters are so
often held up for execration, should not
| be overlooked in our examination Of
| 'I1'h 1f how O,,s1
| of the anomalies of this woman's suf-
| trage state is that an adult foreign-born
woman is naturallzed and becomes a
duly qualified elector simply by the
naturalization of her husband. An adult
| female alien applying for original natur-
alization is of but rare occurrence Ill
Colorado. 1t can be readily seen that
with this arrangement the naturalization
of a single male alien often creates i'm
mediately two foreign-born voters.
| Foreign-born women-the Slavs and
| Italians, Greeks and Russians-like
the foreign-born men, vote for the
most part in the manner the superin-
| tendent of the railroad, mining. or manu-
! featuring corporation or his foreman or
their agents, or the padronc, tell them
| they must vote. Vicious women vote as
! the dominant boss aided by the police,
or as the police acting on their own ac-
| count compel them to vote. The new
| women vote for those who favor their
pet theories. Other women vote in various
ways. Indeed. ridiculous but true stories
could be told of how some really con
scientious ladies vote.
Now, what are the general results
We have seen that the presence of WON
en- as voters has not improved the order
and decorum at polling-placcs in Colo
RADIO. We have seen that extension OF
the suffrage 10 women has, in the long
run, merely tended to double the number
of possible, not of actual. voters. Among
the very highest classes, judged by
standards of property, intelligence, and
morality, and among the very lowest.
we have added ~ to s. per cent TO the
number who formerly exercised the fran
chiSe But among the great middle
classes, in these respects very much
larger proportion of the women than
of the men do not vote. 1t would, in
deed. appear that the average character
of the actual voting body has either. re-