Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-28

unknown and mysterious to color I'M
agination. Familiarity breeds con-
tempt, and the natural reaction from
an overexalted, superhuman ideal 10
an acquaintance with actual flesh and
blood sisters and fellow citizens Is one
cause of disappointment in the results
of the admission of women to the
franchise.
1t may help us to arrive at just
estimate of the results of the extension
of the franchise to consider some posi-
tive conditions in connection with the
affairs of our state as existing at the
present time.
A practical example of women's in
fluence for good is the well known fact
that before equal suffrage was estab-
lished primaries and caucuses were
often held in a saloon or q place con-
venient to one, while at the present
time such a thing is unknown. And,
as has been conceded even by writer's
against woman's suffrage, including
Lawrence Lewis, whose outlook article
has been used by the anti-suffrage So
ciety as a missionary tract, political
parties have found it most unwise TO
nominate for office men Of bad char
acter.
AS stated by Congressman Taylor,
whose official life in various capacities
extends over some sixteen years:
w Illlo OOlOIduO Is a lCW anu - OAASASA
state to which all kinds of people have
come, candidly believe that with the
rarest exceptions, 1 might almost say
without an exception, the nominees to
public Office in the state of Colorado,
from the highest to the lowest office,
both men and women, have universally
been. personally clean"
Governor Shafroth states that 'wom-
ems presence in politics has introduced
n irdnnnnHpnf IN element which -
pels better nominations. And the
published testimony of a long list of
the most highly respected men and
women of our commonwealth is to the
same effect. 1t would perhaps be well
for the ardent anti-equal suffragist who
is neglecting her home to preach
against granting the ballot to women
to omit contrary statements from her
list of arguments.
The eliminating horror in the minds
of anti-equal suffrage writer's entirely
unfamiliar with the scene of action
seems to be the casting of the ballot
by woman's hand. To those who have
seen the Colorado woman voter accom-
panying her husband, father or son, or
her woman friend or relative to the
polls (Which are always situated in her
immediate residence neighborhood and
often in a private house,, exchanging
greetings with the people who are her
daily associates in home, church, street
car and life in general, the bugbear of
a lone woman marching to the polls as
to a gibbet, through lines of jeering
spectators Gall masculine and includ-
ing specimens of every known form of
human depravity) has ceased to exist.
1t is noticeable that the better the
locality the greater is the per cent of
the womans vote cast, as will be OBJ
served by any visitor to the various
polls on election day, and this indis-
putable fact should set at rest the
veXed question as to whether more bad
than good women vote. That the pre-
ponderance of the influence of the
woman'S vote is from a good source is
also proved by the fact that statistics
show that in the large cities of Colo
rado the professionally immoral women
number less than one-third of l per
cent of all the women inhabiting the
cities.
And since the testimony of election
officials and also actual statistics prove
that in the proportion to the number
Of men and women in Colorado from
AZ to 4S per cent of the ballots are
cast by women, it would seem that the
individual woman voter does not lack
the company of her own sex.
The writer has often seen. whole
families going to the polls in COM
pany. and frequently that emblem of
peace, the baby carriage, much in evil
dence, and in fifteen years exercise of
the franchise has yet to see an intoxi-
Gated man, to hear an oath or to see a
discourteous action toward any woman
at the polling places, although in
formed that in rare instances such
things have occurred in a few of the
less desirable localities.
That the dreaded race suicide has not
been a result of Woman's suffrage is