East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-05-02

at preSllentldl elecllOnS, anu upon Is ]
sues of great Importance, often ignor-
ing the minor officers and measures
which some times touch so closely our 1
daily life.
Can improvement be expected in |
our municipal affairs. and public ser
vice, while a large percentage of our
present voters remain Indifferent?
We women are inclined to feel a
lite skeptical
II the state business was to raise
and discipline armies. build jails, and
its chief occupation. We women would
not be asking for the privilege of
exercising the franchise. but the state
is coming to use its forces more and
more to deminish these evils and fur
ther the cause of education, justice
and science, and the promotion of
commerce and manufacture; the
healing of disease, the promoting
everywhere of increased reverence
for the individual soul.
as not every right thinking woman
deeply interested in at least some of
these activities, if not all? We believe
!
indispensable that she should have
in their management her full and
equal share.
1t may be a mere coincidence (but
an interesting one) that illiterary and
all its attendant evils loom largest
where woman have least power and
grows less where they vote.
Judge Ben Lindsey says, that the
sanest, the most humane. the most
progressive. most scientific laws re-
lating to the child, to be found on any
statute books in the world, are to be
found in Colorado, one of our
equal suffrage states"
The returns from the polls, show
an increasing tendency in the present
voters toward neglecting the lesser
issues in our civic and municipal
management. They no doubt seem too
much like womans work, and they are
right, our municipal management. is
but house keeping on a large and CO.
operative scale.
We women as a class, do not as
yet know our political A B C's Very
littel perhaps do we know about sub
sidy acts, bills and tariff but it must
be readily conceded that the majority
of us are expert at housekeeping,
and we need the ballot to regulate the
sanitary conditions, and moral at
mosphere in which we and our fam
lilies must live.
We know some things about the
canned goods We use on our tables
but not as much as we would like to
know. We would like to know for an
absolute certainty, that they are pure
and wholesome. Ptomaine poisoning
is becoming such a common occur
ence. We know some sanitary meas
ures that would not be out of place
ic adopted by some meat shops. gro
Gerry stores and bakeries. We know
what kind of milk our babies should
have. We know what kind of en-
vironment we would like our children
to have when out from the shelter
of our homes. Oh. in some ways we
know a lot. but being instinctively
progressive will not be content till we
know a lot more.
One of womans chief peculiarities
is that she refuses to stay put. She
was put in the Garden of Eden once
with all the good things at her COM
mand, but enui is enui not matter
where found. and her inherent spirit
of progress rebelled, the consequences
We're, she didn't stay put
Once upon a time, she was thought
fit for nothing but to be the servant
of her lord and master, obeying un-
qrestioningly in fear and trembling
his bidding.
She has evolved to something bet
ter. except in a few nations of the
world which are as yet, uncivilized
ard even there they say she is be-
ginning to awake.
Up until the middle of the last Gen.
tIry. she was relegated to the babies
and childrens classes in all matters
educational, and only fifty years ago
it was seriously believed, that know
ing the classics, would ruin her NOR
ais. philosophy her religion, and
mathematics her digestive apparatus.
And with a deep shame for our sex,
we conferss that the great majority
Of women voiced these same senti-
ments. Looking with distrust. and
downright disfavor on so wild an in
novation. These objections, and the
objections to the political women to-
day present some striking and instruc-
tive analogies: but thanks to a few
brave and courageous souls, they
didn't stay put. and consequently we
are today enjoying the same educa-
tional privileges as our brothers.
Today, the women of oregon, po-
litically speaking, are just where they
were put when Oregon became a
state In the disenfranchised class
along with the children, unnaturalized
foreigners, idiots and criminals And
the question today, in the minds of
the progressive men and women is,
will she stay put?
1t Is the type Of woman asking for
the franchise that is making the men
sit up and take notice, it is the think
! ing women. the best educated, most
refined and most capable wives and
mothers, and their cry is, give us the
ballot that we may become better
wives and mothers 1t Is meeting with
success wherever tried, and any in
| fluence for good should not only be
cherished, but encouraged.
1t Is movement that appeals only
to the progressive, thinking woman.
1