The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-03-12

rise up and force through the de-
hands OF the equal suifragists. In
truth, little as they may have under
stood it, the women who were there
pleading their own cause We're, at the
same time, fighting the battle of the
common man.
What was it these anti-suffragists
urged? That there are too many vo-
ters now; that many of the present
voters are unlearned; that many men
who now vote are not roperty own
ers. OF course, they would change
all that if they could In other words
they would disfranchise the working
class of America upon one pretext or
tho other,
Il is my sincere belief if manhood
suffrage is to continue in America,
the demand for equal suffrage, regard.
less OF sex, will have to be admitted.
am told that my views are old
ia hioned That, although | am a So
ci.iist l am really a conservative.
cannot help it, | believe in the prin-
ciplo of equal suffrage as a matter of
alatract right | believe that when
you demand that women shall obey
the laws, you cannot deny them the
RICH, to vote what laws shall be en-
acted, unless you go back to the phil
osophy which underay slavery and
divine right of kings, AS a matter of
simple democracy. it seems to me,
womans claim to the suffrage is un-
answerable Government without
consent of the governed is tyranny.
There is, however, another, per
haps stronger argument for woman's
suffrage. For good or III, the evolu.
tion of industry and commerce has
developed the sei-supporting woman.
The woman worker is the factory and
the workshop the proletarian woman,
needs the vote for precisely the same
reasons as the man In the factory
needs it, The vote is power, a wea-
pom. and the more women are drawn
into the bitter class conflict of mod
ern society the more urgent is their
need of the ballot 1t is all very well
for the woman of property and of
leisure to talk of the appeal to chiv
airy and of the silent indirect in
huence of women" The working
woman cannot rely upon these Chiv-
airy never vet caused the capitalists
as class TO mitigate the exploitation
Of their women workers and the wage
working woman has small chance to
exert any silent influence upon her
employer The individual may do
this If she. is prepared to pay the
price But that price is the price the
wretches of the underworld must pay
their patrons.
It is to the lasting honor of the So
cialist movement that il has always
boldly stood for equal suffrage |
have not at all times agreed with the
policy which the Socialist party has
adopted toward the organized move
ment for equal suffrage but | have al
ways been proud of the fact that it
stood for the principle
am not laboring under any delus
ion as to the immediate result of
equal suffrage II will not bring
about the millennium Women will
make the mistakes that men have
made and are making Many of them
will vote against their own best in
terest. They will have to learn as
men have learned and are learning.
But until their claim of political
equality is admitted our democracy
viii be incomplete and insecure And
! until the complete equality OF the
sexes, political and economic, is es
tablished, no solution of our great so
cial and economic problems is posi-
bic.
1t seems important, then, to insis
at this time upon the Importance OF
having all women but especially tn,
working woman, realize that suffrage
is not the end but only a means e
the end of the complete emancipation
of their sex from the thraldom o
privilege The demand for equa
pay for equal work is as much a par
of the movement for "women's rights
as is the demand for the suffrage
When a woman worker-whether sh,
be a teacher in a public school, ste
nographer in an Office. or merely !
factory hands paid less than MAJ
would receive for doing the sam,
work. womanhood is Just as mucl
outraged as by the political iniustic,
which yokes the most virtuous anC
intelligent woman with the lunati,
and the criminal, and denies he
right to full and complete citizenship
This larger concept of the rights
of women this complete poltica
and economic equality of the sexes
is the vision by which the Socialists
Of America are inspired today