The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-01-17

| was accused by Sufrag1St wage earn
/ erS of having deserted them in order
/ to ally herself with the wealthy Mrs
/ Mackay, while the members of the
more exclusive organization Whis-
| pered among themselves that they
really couldn't afford to associate
with one who was suspected of being
a socialist. In the sQuabble which
ensUed the suffragette organization
was characterized by its members as
having a ''superabundance of jelly
fish" So far the movement in New
York has not produced any practical
results, although it has brought forth
wealth of invectiYe and class diff
ference, calculated TO convince the
average woman that she would best
keep out of politics.
There still remain, strange as L.
may seem, a great many persons who
retain old-fashioned views as to the
marital relation and the duties of the
sexes, and feel that WOman's sphere
is the home An attempt TO collect
unbiased information for inquiries
from this class has brought to light
some figures and facts not generally
known. The most striking of these
shows that when the question as to
whether women should have a vote
was put 10 a referendum In Massa-
CuuSSJtS III 1882 Only OuG-uILu OF I0e
women entitled TO vote on the que5-
ton came to the polls. For the state
In which women are supposed to be
most highly educated, this is rather
a surprising result. Moreover the
figures collected show that there are as
many fallacies in suffragette argu-
ments as in any others of a political
nature One of the chief movements
in which women have been interested
in this country is that looking toward
the establishment of juvenile courts.
Yet the first of these was established
in Massachusetts in 1898 through Wo-
mans influence, three years after the
sex had indicated in that state that
it didn't want to vote. Moreover,
nine out of every ten states I'm which
such courts now exist, chiefly through
woman's instrumentality, are without
the ballot for women.
Altogether it is apparent that the
question of woman suffrage is not
being benefited by the situation here,
and that there is small likelihood
that votes for women will come as a
result Of SOCialistic agitation OF So
ciety faddism. Meanwhile. the aver
age wife is practically labelled as be-
ing from Missouri with a request to
be shown, and admits that most of
her time is necessary to the home.
just as her husbands is to the office.
Talk OF sex independence may be all
right theoretically, but IN a state of
civilization in which the home is the
unit, sociolOgiSts find it difficult to
figure out how man can be indeDend-
ent of woman, or woman of man At
present, at any rate, there seems to
be little chance of New York having a
mayor elected by women. and the SUI
tragette movement has developed ONLY
two aspects. The first is a need for
policemen to protect women who try
to gain the ballot by street speeches
from packing boxes. The second is
the need of considering the matter in
its true light. But so long as the
movement is agitated as it is now BY
women who never did a stroke of
work in their lives, and by others who
regard 1t merely as the entering
wedge for socialism, Father Knicker-
booker is likely to find the whole
thing a source of amusement rather
than a practical problem.