Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-10-30
Wonan's Awakening Responsibility.

Chronicle assures our citizenesses.
that they should have no fear OF fraud
in city election in the Pacific me-
tropolis This editorial assurance
says: Under our present system OF
baIloting il is not possible to stuff the
box or falsify the returns without a
certainty of detection in case of re-
count
Perhaps the "citizenesses' of Cali
fornia. and of the country as well,
might not have feared dishonest
election in Frisco, but that which they
actually did fear. and in which their
fears were realized. is coneisely and
accurately set forth by DR. Anna
Shaw. in her address before the Ma
tonal Woman's Suffrage convention
at Louisville, on Friday, Oct 20. when
she said:
Here Gn California; as never be-
fore were the friends and foes of
women's freedom more equally lined
up, wherever vice, corruption and GU
pidity held sway. there the vote for
refinement, education, industry and
self-respecting manhood and woman
hood dwelt, there the vote in favor of
women was strong The lines were
clearly drawn. 1t was contest be-
tween the home building, home work
ing forces of society. and the home
destroying. life-blasting forces And
industry and the home won
In the remarkable forward move
victory in California just recorded, the
women of America have taken new
heart and are building new hopes.
They are encouraged by the leading
minds OF the strongest best educated
and most virile manhood of the civ
'flized world. Wherever intelligence.
honesty, fair mindedness and manly
character stand forth, there is seen
strength and encouragement for wom-
san suffrage. Interviewed by a writer
for the Woman's World, President
: Taft has just given expression to
words of great Importance to those
loyal souls who have been fighting for
years in the gathering of strength for
their cause The President said: Il
want the women of the country to
he. - ~, nf
suffrage as soon as they all want it.
| believe it has not made any
substantial difference in politics. and
this is possible, perhaps, because its
adoption and its results have been
tested only in those states where the
population is sparse and where the
problem of intrusting the privilege
and the power to women in the con-
centrated populations OF great cities
is not presented.
Any class seeking the right of suff-
! rage should seek il as Il whole and
should create the belief that it will
exercise as whole the political pow
er conferred upon ii. Ii il does not
care enough about suffrage for the
whole class to exercise the power
then it seems to me that there is al
WAYS danger of the privilege being
exercised by that part of the class
least desirable as political eenstitu-
cnts. Also there is the further dan
ger that the right to vote might be
neglected by some of those who are
highly intelligent and patriotic
"As / have often said, the women
will get the right OF suffrage when
they want it, and nothing on earth
viii prevent them from getting it
when they really want it. But. aside
from the actual voting power, the po-
litical influence of the women of this
country is something tremendous, al
most incalculable. We knew that
women, by their influence on their
husbands, determine how many of the
votes are cast every election day. And
there is no way of definitely estimat-
ing the tremendous influence of the
woman who trains her boys to take
healthy view of political questions and
To study all the issues which may
come up 10 influence the county, state
or nation
mother and the wife will be increased
in the home by her new status as a
voter, of course we are unable to es-
innate AS President Taft has truly
said. THE giving of the franchise TO
woman in sparsely settled regions has
been an advance toward equal SAT
frage but not an indication as to its
merits In more densely populated and
socially active sections. as we hope
viii be demonstrated IN the state Of
California The uplifting of youth by
the mother, the sister and othe'
women OF the household has ever beei
conceded by the masculine elemen
~ hieh boasts of it's political acumen
Ii is believed by those advanced mas
culine minds. who have given earnes
thought to the subject. that the in
iiuenee OF the mother. who has tn
equal right of suffrage with her hus
band. viii have a largely Increased in