Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-10
WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE.
Congress Places Hogs Ahead of Chill
dren.

when a delegation of women
went to Washington and asked for
the creation of child labor commits
sion, so that the children in the east
ern factories might be effectively
protected, Senator Bailey of Texas
said: Tell those women to go home.
We are attending to this govern
ment." And when, in spite of oppo-
sition, the child labor commission
was created, the best appropriation
the women could get was a paltry
$4,000, while 100000 was appro-
priated for the investigation of hog
cholera.
This was one of the things DR..
Anna Howard Shaw said in her Sat
urday night speech on the streets of
Portland: Now the trouble is that
our men are too busy raising hogs
too much engrossed in business, to
think seriously about the interests
of the children. That is the job that
belongs to us women. But we wom-
en- cannot get the help at Washing
ton that men can, because they have
votes and we have not. They ask
for help from the government in
their hog business and they get 1t.
We ask for hep for the children and
we don't get it. But we can get
along without hogs in this country,
and we cannot get along without ba-
bies. The women of the country,
whose job it is to look after the chill
dren and the home, need the ballot,
so that they can protect the children
and the home, just as the men need
it so they can protect their business
interests. There are 100000 little
children, from to years old, that
are being worked in the big eastern
cities in the terrible sweatshops, so
that greedy capitalists may add more
to their boards. Our women are
struggling hard with this factory
problem, and their efforts are inef-
fective because they have not got the
ballot behind them. Until women
have the ballot they can really do
very little towards correcting and
regulating the conditions under
which they themselves must work,
and under which 100000 more ba-
bies are being robbed of their health
and freedom and future. There are
lHOI6 IudH IOO,UOU WI hih6 "OAiSh
in the United States, and they all
need the ballot for their own protec-
tion, as we'll as the working men
need it for their protection.
There are some anti-suffragists
who persistently refuse to see the
connection between the ballot in the
hands of women and their ability to
correct the industrial evils with
which they are struggling. But who
doubts for a moment that the con-
gressman at Washington obeys the
commands of those who elect him to
office. Did you ever hear of con-
gressman telling a delegation of men
to go home and let him and his kind
attend to the government? The con-
gressman is only too eager to listen
and give heed to the voice of his con-
stituents. He pays no attention to
women, because they have no vote
with which to help elect him. So
when wonlen come to him with the
needs of the women and children,
who are being exploited by greedy
big business. he tells them to go
home Is it not plain that the wives
and mothers of the country need a
ballot? The factories and factory
conditions are rapidly moving west
ward enfranchise your Oregon wom-
en- and help them prevent the horri-
BILE conditions that will follow unless
the women and the humanitarians
are given the power to fight them