Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-03-18
A VIEW OF wOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.


An inquiry into the results of
woman suffrage in those States
where it has been tried and is in op-
GRAFTON, yields great encouragement
to suffragistS. These States are Col
orado, Wyoming. Idaho, and Utah.
The Governor of Wyoming writes
that woman suffrage has had marked
influence in improving political con-
ditions in this State. Women
seem to possess an Unborn intuition.
in political matters. The Governor
of Idaho writes that legislative activ-
tiles have been along wiser and clean.
er lines since the adoption of suf-
frage, and the whole tone of public
life has been raised and improved.
Woman suffrage has been an I'M
qualified success. The Governor of
Utah declares that the participation
of woman in public affairs has been
most successful, and he says every
State should admit women to the
fullest franchise OF the same tenor
are reports from the Senators repre-
senting the four suffrage States and
from eminent women who have
watched the actual conditions on the
ground.
In Wyoming, well established
custom has given the Office of County
Superintendent OF Schools to women,
and it is admitted that the educa-
tiOnal affairs of the State are well
administered.
Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker, of Colo
RADIO, boasts that that State has the
best humane laws, best child-labor
laws, the best laws for the care and
protection of women and children,
and the best administrat of these
laws, and she adds that this legisla-
tion was initiated and driven through
by women. The concluding para
graph of Mrs. Decker's letter is of
special significance, and will no doubt
be widely quoted as evidence of one
of the great triumphs of women. 1t
is as follows: " A very beneficial re-
suit of equal suffrage is that it has
done away with sex consciousness.
1t is possible for woman in Colo
RADIO to sit on a board or attend a
meeting made up otherwise entirely
of men. They think nothing of it,
and We do not either There is no
thought of sex; they recognize us as
equals. 1t is the sense of splendid
equality, this comradeship, which is
one of the richest gifts the right of
suffrage has brought to the Colorado
1Omen.
From all quarters where the ex-
pertinent has been made the tcsti-
mony is the same-from Finland,
Norway, New Zealand and Australia,
where the franchise is complete, and
from England and States in this
country, where limited suffrage is in
operation, as on school matters, tax
alton, etc. But it must be granted
that the movement which began with
the publication of Mary Wollestone-
craft Vindication of the Rights of
Women" in 1890, has made prodig-
ious strides during the past quarter
of a century. At the Seneca Falls
Women S Rights convention, held in
the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca
Falls, N. Y. July 10, 1913, the
movement took shape in this coun-
try. James Mott was chosen to pre-
side, because men came in such num-
bers that the women thought it
good politics" to cOnciliate them.
But the leading spirits were women,
especially Lucretia Mott, Martha c.
Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and Mary A. McClintOck. 1t was a
little convention and was much ridi-
culed, but it was earnest and enthu-
siastic. The principles there laid
down have guided suffragists during
the past half-century and the result
cannot be laughed at as meager or
unimpOrtant.