Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-05-12
DOROTHY DIX ON .
4. WOMAN's- BALLOT.

women Ought to Vote, BecauSe-
Taxation without representation is
| tyranny, whether the individual who
pays the taxes wears trousers or pet
ticoats, and because all just govern
0ent must rest upon the consent of
the governed.
Women form One-half of the popu-
lation, and as long as they have no
voice in the government they are
held in serfdom. It is not just that,
merely by reason of sex, one-half of
the people of the country should rule
the other half.
It is folly to say that women are
represented by the votes of men Of
their family. No man is willing to
sacrifice his suffrage and let his faith
er or brother vote for him.
Women should vote because they
are unlike men, because they have
different aspirations, different needs,
a different point of view, a different
way of reaching conclusions. Fem
mime talents, has been proven in the
States in which women have suf-
frage. When a clean man was put up.
on either the Democratic or the Re
publican ticket and a corrupt man on
Lie OtAOI I1ChOJ, IAO WOAAS1u tOLO AL
variably has Topped over to the good
man. It was the women of Denver,
irrespective of party, who kept Judge
Lindsey in Office after the party COM
mittees had turned him down, and
thus enabled him to continue his
great work Of child-saving.
Women should vote, if for no 9TH
er reason than because women, If
they, had a chance, would be just as
potent a factor in politics as they
are in religion. They would compel
mems interests in the subject.
Everybody knows that if, women
ceased going to church, shut up all
the missionary societies and preach
ers' aid societies, .nine-tenths of the
churches would have spider webs
growing across their doors inside of
a month. Practically all of the men
who go to church and contribute to
religious causes do SO at the instiga-
ton Of wife, mother, sister or sweet
heart.
The majority of good men are re-
sponsible for the rottenest of politics
and for our .plundered and misruled
cities, because they are careless about
voting and often do not trouble to
vote at all. Women would have bet
ter civic conscience, and If they were
given the ballot they would only vote
themselves, but see that their hus-
bands and brothers and sons did.
r 1t is often said that if woman had
suffrage, it would increase the num-
Der Of votes cast without affecting
the result, ass every woman would
+
er, or her father. The chances are
that the influence would, work the
other way, and men vote with their
women folks.
In America the majority of girls
they read more after they are out of
boys. They go to school longer and
school than young men do. There are
also millions of middle-aged women
banded together in all sorts of study
clubs all over the country and it is
folly to claim that these women are
not as well qualified to understand
any political question as their hus-
bands are.
That all women would not vote
wisely, that they would be swayed
by eloquence, by the personal charm
of the candidate; that even the ballot
would not bring the millennium to
women, is freely conceded. But the
majority of men are Republicans or
Democrats for no better reason than
that their fathers were before them,
and this Is. still very badly gov
erned world. Yet no one would advo
cate that mans most precious right
the right of suffrage-should be Ia
ken away from hinl.-Dorothy Dix,
in San Francisco Examiner of Aug.
IA, 1908.
Hon. W. S. Collins. president Of
the Big Horn County Irrigation Com
pany, says:
Il have lived in Wyoming 81 years
and during all that period women
have voted at all elections. / have
often found newcomers adverse to
Women's voting. This soon wears
of, and in year or two husband and
wife, brother and sister, father and
mother and daughter and son go to
the polls together the same as to any
other meeting. There is nothing
thought of it. no remarks made about
1t. !
1 Women are no more corrupted by
voting with their fathers. brothers
and husbands than they are by going
with them to any other kind of meet
ing. Women's influence for good
| Is felt here. as it Isl in the home and
around the Preside. The polls are
levrSneed with full knowledge that
women will go there to vote. Should
any man attempt to locate al polling
place where woman should not go
that man would have sort shrift.
'There Is very little bribery here.
The man who eleCtipneers with Wh1s-
key is sure to be beaten and 1t is
mot often attempted. Women almost
invariably split their tickets. They
vote for the men they deem the best.
and it follows that all parties endea-
vor to put up their best men. Wom-
en- everywhere are always in favor
iof law and order. It Is owing to the
Iwomen's vote that our young State,
where the cowboy still four1shes,
lhas stringenW laws against gambling.
| women Nere read of State affairs,