Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-15
WOMEN IN POLITICS
Apathetic on Rights Because
They Have No Wrongs.
ENGLISH SISTERS LEAD
influence of Wives and Daughters
in This Campaign.
OBSTACLES TO BE OVERCOME
Public Affairs in the United States
Still a Good Deal of a Mystery
to the Ladies.
ENGLISH SISTERS LEAF
OBSTACLES TO BE OVERCOME
Sydney Brooks. in London Chronicle.

Sydney Brooks in London Chronicle.
This years presidential election In
America is going to be marked by two
features, both OF them due to the reflex
action Of British influence and example.
One is the emergence, if not OF dennhe
labor party. at least of new spirit OF
class-consciousness among the working
men of the country and new realization
of all they stand to gain by casting their
votes as a unit. The other feature Is the
growing invasion OF the field OF politics
by American women.
Both of these phenomena owe their inn
pulse and Initiative very largely to the de-
velopments that have taken place in
Great Britain within the last few years.
1t goes very much against the grain OF
American pride to have to admit that
women play a larger part in the public
life of England than of the United States.
Yet the fact is incontestable. There are.
indeed. four somewhat rudimentary states
in the west where women are allowed to
vote. where they take the stump" and
where they even run for Office. One Of
the most exciting and passionate cam
America was that in which Mrs. Mary
Elizabeth Lease-the author Of the Jim
mortal admonition. kansas had better
stop raising corn and begin raising hell:'
opposed and defeated the reelection OF
Senator ingalls, in 1890.
1t is also true that in more than half
the states women are entitled to vote at
the elections for school officers. and to
be themselves elected to those posts.
Women, again. have appeared as duly ac-
credited delegates at the national con-
ventions. 1t was a woman delegate from
Utah who seconded Mr.. Bryan's nomina-
ton at the democratic convention of 1860.
Whenever a clean-cut moral issue has
been at stake they have often and effect
lively rushed into the arena.
The anti-slavery agitation. for instance.
owed much to women. They are still the
ba ckbOne of the temperance crusade. the
prohibitiOnists not merely countenancing
but seeking and welcoming their co-opera-
ton. In the municipal uprisings that
from time to time disturb the even tenor
Of American bossdom they frequently in
ties and on behalf Of the Independent
candidate.
l. Their Disabilities.
But on the normal, everyday course of
politics they exercise as a sex scarcely
any influence whatever. They cannot vote
The negro can vote (unless. of course. a
white man happens to catch him in the
acD. the immigrant from southern Italy
can vote, the criminals and loafers Of the
slums Of New York and Chicago can vote,
but the highly developed. alert and intelli-
gent American woman cannot vote. UNI
less she happens to live I'm Wyoming,
Utah. Colorado or Idaho. The constitu-
tons OF these four states permit women
to exercise the franchise; in all the others
they are excluded by the presence of the
word male in the clauses dealing with
the suffrage qualifications. the Federal
Constitution itself being not less ungal-
liant.
This. of course. does not satisfy those
American women who wish to see their
sex as influential in politics as in the
social. philanthropic, religious and educa-
tional spheres. For nearly forty years
Congress has, accordingly, been bonn
barded with petitions praying for such
an amendment to the Constitution as shall
place women on an electoral equality with
men. Some few of these petitions, per-
haps a dozen in all. have been favorably
reported on either by the Senate or House
committees. but of the vast majority no
notice whatever is taken. In the indi-
vidual states the movement has met with
better success. Besides the four states
that have already given way. there are
four others-Oregon. South Dakota. Kan
sas and Washington-on the point of
capitulation. But 1 question whether the
woman suffra gists will ever make much
Roadway in the east, and l am very conf
dent that they will never be able to alter
the Federal Constitution.
They have many obstacles to overcome
Most American men think politics a pure
ly masculine affair." in which women have
no concern. The big corporations and
their allies. the bosses. would find all their
calculations upset by the intrusion of this
unaccountable element The liquor in
terests. especially. would exert all their
power to keep women away from the polls
and they would be seconded by the same
influences that have hitherto thwarted all
attempts to diminish or prohibit child
labor. or to write anything approa ching
our factory acts on the American statute
book.
But the greatest obstacle ahead of the
movement Is unquestiOnably the apathy
of the women themselves. Not only are
most of them Indifferent to ii, but a
large number go to the trouble of forming
associations for the single purpose of OPP
posing it. Nor. after all. is that so very
surprising. AS a sex women in America
have few legal or social grievances. AS
women they enjoy a full share in the
benefits Of that free expansion Of the in
dividual which is the handspring of
American life. The traditional inequali-
ties and dsa bilities of the sex have been
nearly all departments of industrial and
professional life. is thrown as freely open
TO feminine as to masculine talent
Apathetic and Why.
The American woman does not trouble
about her rights" because she has few.
If any. wrongs" She has lost. in short.
SO far as politics are concerned. the COL
ective sense Of sex in the enjoyment of
her personal privileges: and the supporters
of woman suffrage in America argue their
case. in the main. from the abstract and
theoretical standpoint. and not from the
practical and economic.
Moreover, American politics are a good
deal of a mystery, even TO American men
To American women they are for the
most part incOmpre hensible. could as
easily imagine woman to be an author
ity on military tactics and strategy as on
the operations that Americans eXalt by
the name of politics. Those operations as
a rule, are carried on by men who are
not conspicuous for their refinement. and
in an atmosphere which is anything bu,
that Of the drawing room. Politics and
society in America do not go hand in
hand. The bosses and the mac hine'
have killed the possibility of political
salon, and when women go in for politics
it is either for social distinction or be-
canSa Soma great moral ullaSriop iS On