Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1906-06-01
WOMEN OF OREGON
SHOULD BE VOTERS
Reasons Why Our Wives. Mothers
and Sweethearts Ought to
Have the Franchise.

which control the whole environm ent
of your life, are the direct or the indi-
rect results Of the averaged opinions
which are put into the ballot box, you
would incline to study the questions
which pertain to the right Of voting.
Perhaps, if you realized that law
guarantees, or restricts your own per.
sonsl liberty, protects or jeopardizes
your health. your home, your happi'
ness; regulates the food you eat, the
clothes you wear, the books you read.
the amusements you enjoy; in fact
permits, or prohibits, your every
act, you would feel q serious obligs-
tion to inquire into the nature of such
authority over you.
Perhaps, if you paused to think
that law will never represent the
highest intelligence or morality since
intelligence and morality must al
ways be averaged at the ballot box
with ignorance and immortality, you
would perceive that whenever intelli-
gence and morality predominant over
ignorance and immortality, the trend
of civilization must be upward, and
you would search for such factors.
Perhaps, then if you would turn to
the U. S Census for 1900 and would
learn that Is, $50 more girls than boys
were graduated from our high school
the year previous, and that there are
more young men of voting age unable
to read their ballots than young
women, aud also that only an insight
ficant per cent of crime is committed
by women, and then by consulting
your own observations and taking note
that only slight minority of the I'M
moralities known to you have been
perpetrated by women, you would
recognize in woman suffrage added
intelligence and morality to the vot-
ing forces.
Perhaps, if you knew that women
are already voting upon all questions
in Wyoming, Colorado. Utah and
Idaho, and that women vote as gener-
ally as men in those States, that al
though there are fewer women than
men in all these States, they lave cast
fully half the total vote upon several
occasions, you would realize that
women do not fail to perform their
political duties, when once they are
conferred upon them.
Perhaps, if you knew that the book
sellers of Denver reported that they
had sold more books on Civil Govern
ment and Political Economy in six
months after women were enfrau-
chised, than in 10 years before, you
would be convinced that women ap-
preciate the responsibility of voting,
and prepare themselves to "adminis-
ter the sacrament of citizenship" in.
telligently.
Perhaps, if you paused to consider
that when the government extends
the privilege of voting to citizen, it
only says to him, I'VE do not compel
you to appear at the polls, we simply
give you the liberty to vote or not to
vote, as you may desire;" but when
the government refuses the privilege,
it says I'VE compel you to remain
away from the ballot box whether
you wish to vote or not to vote, you
shall not, you would see that woman
suffrage is only one phase of the
eternal warfare for human liberty.
Perhaps, if you knew that every ex.
cuse offered for the disfranchisement of
women had done service in turn for
every proposed reform in woman S
conditions, viz, the higher education.
property control, public speaking, the
right of organization, etc., you would
the more readily perceive that each
excuse is but the shadowy creation of
unreasoning prejudice set up to
alright the morbid imaginations of
ths timid. and you would not be
frightened.
Perhaps, if you observed that the
opposition to woman suffrage comes
from States where women do not vote
and is therefore based upon theory,
while in no States, where the people
have extended the suffrage to women
and therefore have had opportunities
to observe the effects of its aetual
operation, has there been any effort tc
repeal such laws, you might feel n ore
confidence in the Righteousness of the
cause, and be willing TO work anC
vote to extend that right to the
women of Oregon, June 4th.
Perhaps, if you knew that the over
whelming testimony from the mos
prominent, responsible and respected
citizens of the suffrage States. agre,
that woman suffrage has resulted il
better candidates for Office, cleane
polling places, quieter elections, anC
improved legislation, and that womei