The Washington herald., 1911-05-06
LESSON TAUGHT BY
TARRYTOWN VOTERS
Was an Awful Shock to the
Anti-suffragists. ,
By DOROTHY DIX.

The Cassandras Of the anti-suffrage
party, who are always indulging in dire
full prophecies of the awful things that
VII happen to women and the country
If women get the ballot, are earnestly
entreated to consider the recent election
at Tarytown.
1t appears that Tarrytown Is urgently
IN need Of new water supply, new
mains for fire protection, and a new
horseless f1re-fghting engine.
The tax-paytng women in Tarrytown
have right to vote on matters affect
ing taxation. and so what did they DO
on election day but rise up, as one
woman, and go to the polls and vote
the $4,000 tax needed to supply these
improvements for their town.
Millionaire women. society women.
working women. white women, colored
women. even anti-women. all voted for
a pure and abundant water supply that
would conserve the health of their fami-
lies and protect their homes from danger
OF course. it's exactly what anybody,
with a grain Of common sense in his
head. would know that lot of women
would do. II was precisely what the
women OF New Orleans did ten years
ago when they voted millions of dollars
of taxes on themselves-for New Or
leans women own three-fifths of the real
estate in that city-to sewer the city
and drain 1t, and furnish pure water
TO it
Discouraging to the Antis.
Anything that makes for the health
of the well-being or the uplifting OF the
community will always have the women
back OF it. The Tarrytown election must
be horribly discouraging to the ants, be-
cause it shows so conclusively what
women will do with a vote when they
have one
Also il demolishes another favorite
anti theory. and that is that women
wouldn't vote, even II they could, be-
cause the Tarrytown women simply
turned out en- masse, to carry the reform
they wanted and that their votes gave
them the power to achieve.
The attention of the ants is also called
to the curious way in which the men Of
Tarrytown behaved on election day. Not
a single one of them slugged or insulted
a woman at the polls. This is marve-
lous, but true.
Just why men who are kind and polite,
and even somewhat in awe of women,
all the balance of the year, should rise
up on election day and beat and mall
treat ladies at whose tables they are
accustomed to dine, and whose patron
age supports them, Is one of the mys-
teries that nobody can explain. However,
the anti-suffragists have assured us, with
tears in their eyes, that this is just what
would happen if women voted, although
under our balloting system we are all
compelled to vote along with our neigh
bors at the same polling place.
1t is, therefore, with infinite pleasure
that we record the reassuring fact that
none Of the wealthy and cultured gen.
tlemen of Tarrytown were suddenly
transformed into hoodluns and thugs on
election day. nor did they punch single
lady's head, nor tear her new spring
frock off.
On the contrary, they behaved with
just as much courtesy toward women
as they would have done at a garden
party. and the women found the act
Of voting attended with just the same
thrilling dangers that dropping a letter
into the post-office would have had.
Nor does the inexplicable conduct Of
the men of Tarrytown end with their
failure to blacken the eyes of the
women voters. On Of the principal
arguments of the ants against giving
women the ballot is that it will break
up the family.
Yet. according to all reports, many
Of the women were accompanied by their
husbands or brothers or male friends,
and the two sexes came along as amicably
together to the polling place as they
would have gone to church or the thea