New-York tribune., 1913-11-23
WOMAN SENATOR
CALLS MEN 'TALKY
Helen Ring Robinson, Of
Colorado Legislature, on
Masculine Fault.
TOO HYSTERICAL
TO FRAME LAWS
Visitor Tells Audience How
Plural Wife, Cast Off, Beat
Mormon in Election.

From Colorado, where women havs =.
equal part in politics, came Senator Hei.r
Ring Robinson. the only woman Senate,
yesterday to condole with the women a.
what she called "the city OF bifurca,.a
politics" For an hour and a half a,
meeting under the auspices Of the Lean.
for Political Education, at the Hudso,
Theatre. she entertained an audience com.
posed chiefly of women with stories a,
her experiences in legislative halls.
Before she began. though, she explsinss
that she was not really the only woman
Senator in the history OF this country. a,
Robert Erskine Ely, the chairman. had
introduced her
Years ago." she said. "there was
man in Utah named Cannon, and Martha
Cannon, his wife She was his plur,
wife. and by and by he put her away
Not very long after that Mr.. Cannon ran
for the Legislature. Martha ran againr
him, and she defeated him and held thu
Office for sometime"
Senator Robinson said she had never
heard any logical reason why a woman
should not be a solon.
I'm Hartford, Conn. where I was ~
Gently" she said, IT met a man wha
argued that I was the only woman In
Senate Of thirty-five members, and seemed
to consider that a good reason why won.
en- should not make laws. told him hs
might as we'll hold that the fact tina,
there are only seven women among the
500 convicts in the Colorado State penl.
tentiary proves that women have all the
virtue
"Woman's province in politics is to in.
trcduce motherliness into the state. Soma
people think II a compliment TO say. 'sh
thinks like a man. I don't And tn
woman who thinks like a man is not III
kind we need in the legislatures. When
there is a woman at one desk and man
at another desk in the Senatorial cham.
ber II doesn't merely double the vote |.
means that woman is represented. The
railroads, the farmers, the doctors, the
business interests are represented IN our
legislatures Why shouldn't the home.
keeper be there, too? There was even
grocer in our Senate, and I know some
housekeepers who were glad was there
TO watch the grocer. I heard him bewail-
ing the fact that he didn't get his pei
bill through. I wonder Why he SAID
I didn't tell him. but I was the reason.
Senator Robinson frequently got her
own way in the Senate OF Colorado, out
contrary to all previous conceptions Of
her sex, she did not get 1t by talking.
II seldom talked for my measures" she
observed. why talk. when you've 60!
the votes?'
The sprinkling Of men in the audlehes
looked as IL they'd like 10 ask her now
she got the votes, but nobody did
II learned the folly OF talking TOO
much" she said, some years ago /
visited an uncle, and I tried hard 10 Dc
talkative and entertaining, and after l go'
home found that he had left some
money TO me in his will. That was 50
satisfactory that I went to see him again.
and was even more loquacious Shorty
after that ne died, and I made the mean
choly discovery that following my second
visit he revoked the codicil giving me
Request"
Many men in the Colorado Lesislatu.e
made the mistake OF talking too nluch'
according 10 Senator Robinson. In iac'
after one all-night session the men De-
came actually hysterical. some OF 'hein'
from the weary strain. and came 70 'ns
conclusion that our husbands and fathers
as a sex. are too hysterical to be making
our laws"