The Washington times., 1906-03-11

the very fact that the women have such
a power is and always has been won
derfuI reserve force In the cause of
righteousness in Colorado, and has been
a powerful deterrent In anticipating and
opposing the forces of evil.
For instance. in the last elections only
two officials on the ticket of the lead
ing political party of Denver were de-
feated. One of these men had openly
and notoriously protected grafters and
ballot box suffers He was defeated for
a high and important office absolutely
by the vote Of the women. as was also
another man. whose moral, as well as
political record was very bad, and
known TO be bad.
I personally went from polling place
TO polling place in a number of districts.
and examined the ballots, with the con-
sent Of the judges, and found that the
ballots. in which the name of the po-
litical party has to be written, contain
ing scratches against these neE, show
ed that the political name had been
written by the women voters: so that the
only corruptiOnists defeated in this cleo
ton by decisive majority were defeat
ed by the woman vote. As a matter OF
fact, the only blow for decency that
elections in Denver, was delivered by
women voters. and the very important
good that came out of an otherwise
questionable election. was the result of
woman suffrage.
Evil IN Spite of Women.
The evil results of that election were
in spite OF woman suffrage; not because
OF il. but because Of male suifrage for
had there been no men who voted at
that election. and IL the matter had been
left entirely to women, not a corruption
ist would have been elected AS II was.
the difference in the vote, namely. the
large vote for a candidate OF good char
acte-, and the correspondingly small
vote or running behind the ticket in
| case of a candidate of questionable
character, was due almost entirely 10
the influence OF women In the election.
1 know whereof I speak. because, as
I said before spent almost the entire
night visiting polling places and examin-
ing the ballots for myself; and l was
surprised to find that lhe great ma
1ority OF scratches againzt bad candi-
dates and in favor of good candidates
were made by the women voters; and
| had they not been handicapped by a bad
ballot law, devised by the machines for
the purpose of encouraging straight
tickets and preventing independence in
voting by the confusion in the method
and consequent intimidation OF the vot-
er into voting the straight ticket, with
yellow dogs" and all. I am sure that
| the scratched vote by the woman cleo
tors would have been much larger than
1t was. So. the difficulty here was not
with the women. but with the scheming
designing men in politics. who work the
election laws for partisan and selfish
purposes instead Of for patriotic and un-
selfish purposes.
Mothers Lose No Time.
It does not take any mother from her
home duties or cares, to spend ten
minutes in going to the polling places
and casting her vote, and returning TO
the bosom of her home: but in that ten
minutes she Wfelds a power that is do
ing more TO protect that home now, and
will continue to do more to protect It in
the future. and to protect all other
homes, than any power or influence IL
the State of Colorado.
l know that the great majority OF peo-
pie in Colorado favor woman suffrage
after practical experience for more than
a decade. first. because It is just. fair
and decent-to which there is no possi-
| BILE answer-and second. because in the
| end its influence has been good rather
| than evil in our political affairs; and
| even II the second reason did not exist
| the first reason would still be sufficient
| to all right-minded men who are faiI
and Just