River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-02-03
Women Suffrage
Is Moral Issue
By Rev. DR.. John Roach Straton
Pastor of Seventh Baptist Church
Baltimore, Md.

| am in favor of woman suffrage.
vor of it from a moral standpoint.
The moral side affects every woman
in this country. There are 100000
working women in this country. About
1,000, 900 of them are widows. AS
class they are much underpaid, for the
same kind of work done by men
higher wages are paid. Take the
school teachers of the country: About
Is per cent. of them are women. In
that profession they are far superior
to men and yet they are not paid as
high salaries as men teachers. In the
factories, stores and other places
where women are employed their pay,
as a rule, is small. The question
arises as to what can be done for the
protection of these women. 1t is
question Of justice, as well as NOR
al one. They should do as the men
have done, form themselves into
unions and demand their rights. AS
individuals the laborers of this coun-
/ try did little, but as soon as they
united and became politically strong,
they secured, through their unison of
political strength, the eight-hour day,
better wages and better sanitary con"
ditions in the shops where they are
employed. If they had not political
value they would not have secured
those rights. Women may expostu-
late as long as they please, but so
long as they are politically bound they
can do but little.
| am not In favor of unrestricted fe-
male suffrage. | believe the vicious
and ignorant should be excluded from
the right of the ballot. The Ameri-
can women to-day represent the high
est standards of virtue and intelli-
gence of any country of the world, and
l believe they would vote as intelli-
gently as men,
Women are acquiring more proper
ty year after year. This is especially
true in New York city, where the
women pay more taxes than the men,
and yet they have no voice in the way
their property should be handled. We
have got to face the fact, whether we
want to or not, that we are living in
an advanced AEGEAN age in which
conditions change rapidly. Every mo-
ment in the past has had it's element
airy period, in which the object sought
has been compelled to fight it's way to
a successful issue. | firmly believe
the present movement for woman suf-
frage will be crowned with success
within a decade.
1t would enhance her value as
woman and a mother if she took a
part in making the laws affecting her
home and children A mother sees her
child only about one-fourth of the
time. The rest of the time the child
is in school, on the street or at the
playground, and all the time 1t is be-
ing affected by the laws controlling
schools, streets and Fairgrounds.
The suffragette movement has gone
to extremes. 1t is like many other
movements which have had to fight
their way before they became a sue
cess. In time the disagreeable feat
| ureS will be eliminated and the real
merits of the question will then stand
out. Next to the altar Of God the bal
lot ought to be the hottest thing on
the soil of free republic, and if wom-
ans gracious womanhood and refine
ment is thrown about 1t, it will be so.
Women will vote independent. That
has already been demonstrated by the
| fact that it was the women's vote
which reelected Judge Ben Lindsey,
in Denver, last fall. Judge Lindsey
was the nominee on a reform ticket
A clean man through and through
Against him for reelection was the
corporation forces and the saloon.
They combined to defeat him, but the
women voted Independently, and it
was due to their vote that he was re-
elected. Woman suffrage is bound to
come, and on that point l fully agree
with Justice Brewer. Our economic
conditions are changing. Divine Prov
| idence is changing society and bring
ing it to still higher level.