The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-04-23
WOMAN SUFFRAGE
THE LAW NOW
Continued from page one.

ltjFdltt On women, declared MIS-
Blggers.
SO quietly had the names TO the
petition been secured that it caused
CONSERVATION among the politicians
| when the women presented the com
pleted petition with $3.50 signers. to
the secretary Of state. The aspirants
for political berths, whose records
might not stand the test OF women
voters, Immediately conferred with a
view 10 preventing the petition from
being presented TO the people, This
anxiety to attack the petition was one
Of the strong proofs Of the general
prophecy that the vote on our amend
ment would surrey larry. If those who
manipulate our politics had not ben
confirmed in chIs opinion they would
have permitted the question to be
voted upon. They dared not take this
risk. Immediately the plan of sus
PENDING action on the petition was sug-
gested. on the absurd charge that 5000
of the signatures were fraudulent. A
hearing was granted by the secretary
of state, January %, the suffrage as
ISOLATION being ably defended by three
of Oklahoma s prominent lawyers,
Judges J. L. Brown, J. B. r. Robertson
and 2. Maggie, these men being promi-
nent in the Republican, Democratic and
Socialist parties. The secretary of
state sustained the petition, wherein
the remonstrant appealed to the su-
preme court He was allowed forty
days in which to file his brief. At the
expiration of the time, he was unable
to sustain his charges, and prayed for
a further extension, which the court
granted. He was given until April /
to produce proofs of his allegations.
Meanwhile, we are losing no time in
working in our <campaign.'
Clara B. Arthur, president of the
Michigan Equal Suffrage Association
reported that Michigan S petition TO
congress asking that women be en-
franchised by federal enactment. is
headed by the names of the state off
cial familv-the governor. lieutenant
governor, secretary of state. the va
riOus state commissioners, the presi-
dents of several of the State colleges,
prominent clergy and other distinguish
ed men and women are among the
signers.
During the year women taxpayers
have exercised their voting privilege in
large numbers, she said.
\ mems league for woman suffrage
is now forming, the invitational com
mittee being headed by ex-senator
Thomas W. Palmer, who was the first
man to champion woman suffrage on
the floor of the senate in 1884.
How a socialist views the woman
suffrage movement was expressed to the
convention by Mrs. Meta L. Stern. She
declared that anyone could be suf-
fragist without being a socialist, but
declared it impossible to be socialist
without becoming suffragist. Social
ism she declared an untried theory, but
suffrage, she said, had been successfully
tried in many places. In part Mrs. Stern
said:
'Mothers need a voice in educational
matters. The arguments advanced
against woman suffrage are never di-
rected against that which is, but only
that which is to be- At present the
antisuffragists favor higher education
for women and other things that are
achievements of the wOman's movement
and that were as bitterly condemned
when they were untrid as woman suf-
frage is today. Every proposed reform
was greeted with the outcrv, You will
destroy the home and the family
''Yet none of the prophesled disas-
ters ever occurred. Socialism, like
woman suffrage, has been accused of
seeking to destroy the home and the
family. Yet it only seeks TO bring
about a more perfect civilization, in
which all members of human society
may enjoy a true home and family life.
"The socialist ideal is utterly incOn-
ceivable without a world in which all
men and women shall be free and equal
beings. One can be suffragist with
out being a socialist, bat one can not
he a socialist without being a suf1ra gist.
Socialism is still an untried social theo-
". but woman suffrage has been sue
cessfulIy tried in various parts of the
world, and everywhere women have con
tinued 10 marry and rear children.
so we can prove from facts that
woman suffrage does not destroy the
home and the family. There was a
time in the early days of the socialist
movement when we believed that the
woman question would be solved with
the social question. We have since
learned that we need a political democ-
racv of men and women to usher in an
industrial democracy of men and wOm-
en-. That is why socialists stand for
woman suffrage.'
Alice Paul. speaking on Woman Suf-
frage in Great Britain, presented an
exhaustive review of the situation in
England. She declared that the cause
has been misrepresented and distorted