East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-04-27
VOTES FOR WON EN-

What better argument in favor OF
woman suffrage could be asked than
that offered by the avowed enemies
of the cause? They admit at once,
sincerely and earnestly, that woman's
effort would be to purify politics and
social conditions, and it is for this
reason alone, as they candidly de-
clare, that they are fighting the ad-
mission of woman to the full powers
of citizenship.
Clearly, therefore. the Importance
of woman suffrage is not to be baubed
wholly by the demands of abstract
justice and equity. 1t has more sub
stantial. more serious, a more vital
value than that. We need the wo-
mans vote. 1t is not necessary. in
deed. to go any further in proof of
this, than to the declarations made by
its enemies, the corrupt and vicious
elements of society.
1t will be found that many of the
prejudices and arguments against
woman suffrage are based upon con-
ditions that no longer exist. Our ma
ton has moved forward with such
prodigious speed, that only the most
nimble-witted among us have been
able to keep pace with it. While we
are today riding in automobiles and
electric cars, the ideas of the great
majority of us are still travelling by
stage coach. And thus it happens
that many of the arguments in op-
position TO woman suffrage are today
as thoroughly out of date and ridicu-
lous and old-fashioned as is the hoop
skirt. Would we discuss the subject
intelligently we must regard it in the
light of present-day conditions; we
must realize the tremendous transfor-
nation that has taken place in our
social and economical conditions
within the past two generations.
Fifty years ago, for example, there
was but one woman's college in Am
erica and that was not much more
than a seminary. Today there are
a hundred and fifty womens coll
leges, to make no mention of the
many co-educational institutions. Sew
enty per cent of the graduates of our
high schools are girls, and today
there are more young women prepar-
ing for college than there are men.
In the educational status of woman,
therefore, there has been a most re-
markable change. Our fathers op-
posed woman suffrage on the ground
that the women We're not deserving
and We're not capable of a liberal ed
ucation, and behold! today the wo-
men are fast becoming the better ed
ucated half of society. Sixty wears
ago there was not woman physician
in the United States. Today there
are more than eight thousand of them.
There was not a woman lawyer; to-
day there are nearly three thousand.
There was not woman clergyman;
today there are nearly six thousand
And so with all the professions and
technical callings. In our fathers
Gays none of these was open to the
women. The women were not consid-
cred capable of filling them.
Sixty years ago there were but five
or six occupations open to women
teaching, sewing. housecleaning, and
the like-and, all told. there We're
but comparatively few thousanr
women who were earning their own
living. Today there are more than
three hundred occupations open to
women and there are today upward
of six million women who are sup.
porting themselves by their own la
Dor. A whole nation of women earn
ing their own livelihood. In the face
of this tremendous fact. what be.
comes of the one-time argument thai
women were not capable of support.
ing themselves? Our fathers could
not have conceived of the coming OF
time when the industrial, the com.
| mercial, the business life of this ma.
ton would be vitality dependent up.
on the labor of women. Were the
women to withdraw from the indus
trial word today and return to the
conditions Of fifty years ago, the ma
ton would collapse. The bushes!
and commercial world would b,
thrown into state of chaos.