The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-02-18
WOMAN SUFFRAGE
CONTINUED from Page oneJ

ana all the women VINO responded 30
nobly to the call, have within the past
few days enacted a larger stroke of
history than they realize. l am not
sufficiently sanguine to believe Con-
gress will grant the request, for Con
gress does not want to face the issue
of woman suffrage now" Congress
has not wanted to race that issue for
many years back, but l promise you
women will soon force Congress TO
face it, for women are just awakening
to the fact that the right of the fran.
CHI Sc touches them in their most vital
interest-their happiness. Several
thousand women of Hawaii have petit
toned Congress for the right to vote
on prohibition because the question
concerns the home most vitality and
affects the welfare and happiness or
themselves, their children and every
member of the family Business in
terests? How can any sensible man
deny the fact that the wife is even
more seriously affected by the bust
ness interests of the husband than
even he himself? Are not both iden-
tical-inseparable? Indeed the wife
through her maternal instincts. IS
more deeply affected than the hus-
band. And the thousands of women
who work, in the city of Honolulu,
are as seriously affected as their en-
ployers and their male fellow workers
by business interests"
This movement has convincingIy
and overwhelmingly refuted the moss
grown argument (?) of the anti-sur
fragist, that women do not want to
vote" Women do want to vote, on
questions which affect them, and
when they finally realize that every
question of life which touches the
man, equally affects the woman, every
woman of sane mind will want a voice
IN all questions of government What
is government but the promoter ana
preservation of individual happiness?
Pure food and water, sanitation. pup
lie health, the punishment and pre-
Vehtlon OF crime, education, morals,
public utilities and necessities, inter
national relations, war, commerce,
each and every department of govern
ment and public welfare affects wom-
an equally with man; and under a
republican form of government she
is justly entitled to her voice in the
making OF laws controlling and regu-
latlng those questions which so vital
ly affects her happiness. If the women
OF South Carolina had the franchise
how long would they allow the pres
ent laws to stand which grant no di-
vorce on any ground whatever. and
which regulate the proportion of prop
erty man may will his concubine?
IN many states lin fact the majority
the wife has no legal guardianship
over her children, the husband can
VIII that guardianship away absolute
~ TO whom he desires. 1t is a curious
reflection on purity that unmarried
women control their children in those
same states. In many states the wife
mas no absolute property rights, re-
CARELESS of the fact that in manv in.
stances she has really earned more
than the husband; the husband can
even collect the wife's wages-many
other laws which are equally uniust
and wrong, a constant menace to the
peace and welfare of society, exist IN
many yes, most of the states in the
union.
Give the women Of those states the
ballot and these unjust laws will i'm
medlately be repealed and remedied
as they have always been in every
state in which suffrage has been
granted. Colorado, which has had
woman suffrage since 1893, has the
finest laws for women and children IN
the world
The idea that the exercise of citi
zenship takes woman out of her
sphere, the home, is an erroneous
one, born of ignorance and prejudice
as so many exploded theories are
-"poltics" is essentially good govern
ment, of all the homes in the whole
republic-every unjust law, which af
fects the home and happiness of one
human being in the republic, jeopar
dies the happiness of every member
or the republic. In self-defense, and
for the safety of himself and his fam
lly' every man in our land should in