The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1912-08-30
REASONS WHY WOMEN SHOULD
NOT BE GIVEN FRANCHISE.


NOT BE GIVEN FRANCHISE.
1t has been said that it takes work to
hammer away at the same old sins with
the same old truths and yet strike fire.
The objections urged against equal
rights for women have wearisome
sameness, but so long as they continue
TO. be brought out the advocates OF
square deal must continue to hammer
away at them even though it is impossi-
bic 10 obtain a spark of fire from such
materials as we are given to strike on.
The same little series of threadbare TAI
lacies is even now being paraded before
the reading public. Opposition comes
as matter of course. All great social,
political and religious reforms have
been resisted by prejudices, customs and
the old cry of 'inopportune. So 1t Is
with this. 1t is battle in which rea-
son and justice are opposed by senseless
fears and selfish notions. The cause is
Just. 1t may be defeated TO-DAY, but
never conquered and tomorrow it will be
victorious.
1.-THE majority of the women do not
want to vote"
julius Caesar said he had observed
that most people easily believe what
they wish and likewise easily disbeleve
what they do not wish to believe. This
sentiment is particularly applicable to
the holders OF the above opinions as only
an infinitesimal fraction OF women have
ever shown themselves either opposed
or reluctant. OF those who have shown
the slightest interest in the question
either way, the enormous majority are
in favor. At the time Of the last New
York Constitutional Convention the suf
fragists secured more than 100000 sigma
lures to their petitions; the anti-suffra-
gsts only $4,000. At the late Michigan
Constitutional Convention petitions for
suffrage were presented bearing TO, 900
signatures. There were no petitions
on the other side. When, in Chicago,
l04 organizations with az aggregate
membership of more than 100000 women
petitioned for municipal woman suffrage
in the new charter, only one small or
ganization of women petitioned against it,
A few years ago, in Massach usetts, when
an official referendum WAS taken or THE
question, not one woman in 900 voted
against it. zine 10 238 out of 322 towns
not one woman voted NO" Julia Ward
Howe is responsible for the statement
that 10 our 4S United States, only nine
have anti-sutfrage organizations of
any kind while there are suffrage asso-
Citations in 81.
women will not vote when given
the right; witness the small number
who exercise school suffrage"
.Ohicia figures show that women DO
vote in large numbers wherever they
have the right In Wyoming, where the
women have had full suffrage since 1869,
the Secretary of State says 80 per cent
of them vote. The Colorado Secretary
Of State says about so per cent of the
women register and about ~ per cent
of them vote. The Chief Justice of
Idaho and ali the Justices of the Idaho
Supreme Court have signed a published
statement that the Large vote cast by
the women establishes the fact that they
take a lively interest," We find the
size of the mems vote TO be 10 proper
ton to the size of the election. At pres
idential elections it is very large; at
State elections much smaller; at a Mu-
nicipal election smaller still and at
school election only a fraction OF the
men turn out to vote. Ask those who
habitually attend our own school meet
ing if this last statement is not true.
Wherever women have the right to vote
they frequently use it in larger numbers
than the men of the same city or state.
10 our equal suffrage states from 70 to
So per cent of them vote, whereas, n
most states of the union only go to 60
per cent of the qualified men voters act
ually cast their ballots; and in some of
the equal suffrage states almost one half
they do not nearly constitute one half
the program. In the first election after
the women of California were enfran-
chised, 80 per cent of the women voted.
ut would double the criminal vote"
Among women the vicious and crmi-
nal class is comparatively small. In the
prisons of the United States as a whole,
including those for all kinds of offenses,
women constitute only 519 per cent of
the prisoners, about one in 20, and the
proportion is growing smaller Equal
suffrage would increase the moral and
iaw-abidIpg vote very largely, while in.
creating the vicious and criminal vote
very little. This is not matter OF con-
lecture but OF statistics.
sit would double the ignorant vote"
The reports published by the National
Bureau of Education show that the high
schools of every state ia the union are
graduating more girls than boys, some
of them two or three times as many.
Because of the growing tendency to
take boys out of school early 10 order TO
put them into business, girls are getting
more schooling than boys. Equal suf-
frage would Increase the proportion of
voters who have received more than
merely elementary education.
'It would increase the corruption of
politics."
Those who thrive upon the corrup-
tion of notifies do not think so. The ip. |