New-York tribune., 1909-12-17
COLBY ON SUFFRAGE
Tells WOmen It's Part of
Great World MOUement.

If women understood what woman sur
frase means. Everett Colby is sure. they
would be all suffragists. and II they
had hts opportunities for seeing behind the
political scenes he thinks they would go a
step further and become szlffragettes.
Mr. CoI;yy address the Equal Franchise
Society IN the Garden Theatre yesterday
afternoon. and said that woman suffrage
was not separate issue. but part OF a
worldwide novensnt-a movement which
amounted TO a revolution and was greater
than anything the world had seen since the
birth OF Christ.
1T is not a mere clamor or a desire 20
be like men, he said. "and IL women only
understood this none OF them would be op-
posed To IT,"
Then fe told OF conversation he had
had with a labor commissioner and said:
IF you could have heard that conversa-
tiOn you would all be surraG aGettes." and
then he repeated the last syllable. 10 indi-
cate that he knew tipc difference between a
suffragist and a sufrtagette and had not
used the word by inadvertence. The labor
commissioner told Mr. Colby he stated
how political bosses canss 10 him by night
and asked HIM not to prosecute certain en-
ployers OF child labor. because they con-
tributed TO the party funds. and expressed
the opinion that II IL were not for women
such infueTCes would make the child labor
laws a dead letter
So far from having less capacity to deal
with questions OF government than men,
Mr.. Colby thinks that women have more
because. he said:
All social and economic questions now
turn upon the child. and women know
more about childhood than men"
People have told him that while women
may be as Intelligent as men they have a
type OF mind that disquaIifes them for
politics. but he thinks that this contention
has been disprOved by his own experience.
-Four years ago. during a political cam
paJgn." he said. II made a tour through
the tenements OF Newark, and all the in
telligent questions that were put TO me
came from the women. They wanted 70
know about the street cleaning and the
schools. and the questions they asked
about the causes for the rise in the price
OF food were so keen that l didn't know
how 10 answer them. The men were not
Interested until I talked about the excise
question. In the majority Of cases wonn-
en- could be depended on 10 vote for what
ever tended to promote the interests OF
their homes. Men vote in accordance with
their business interests"
Mr. Colby cannot imagine how any man
with a think top can read about the
work OF Florence Nightingale or Jane
Adams without the conviction that a wise
government would call them TO its coun-
sells
Yet when such women ask for the hal
lott he said. they cease to be angels OF
light, and threaten. forsoOth, to blunt the
keen edge Of masculine chivalry. An IN
telligent mule. II he could talk. would
protest against that idea OF chlvalry"
The idea that the enfranchisement OF
women would double the corrupt vote Mr.
Colby also rejected. IF that 4, So" he
asked. why IS every crook against it7''
His own ldee Is that women would swell
the independent vote and that they would
hold the balance OF power. II. believes
that they wouh be conservative inru-
ence and would restore confidence IN rem
resentative government" He believes tha,
they would vote for all fair and reason-
alb measures" and thus check the ten
dency TO radical thought"
Woman suffrage he continued "sho,Is
not be considered a radical suggestion.
believe I'm woman suffrage not becaus, 4,
is radical but because II Is conservative
When the time for questions came a
man in one Of the boxes wanted to know