Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-27

give my vote against the Resolve, iusti
fled by the facts as they appear to me.
Mr.. COOK of Nassalboro Mr..
Speaker, | am very grateful to the
gentleman from Augusta (Mr New
bert) for his eloquent tribute to Wo-
men. What he said is all true, and
is it not a pity thai such people as
those whom he has spent half an
hour in describing cannot vote. CAP
plause) ! wish to assure the gentle
man that if this carries and is sub
mitted to the people there will be no
riot around his dwelling, no one will
invade his home or disturb his moth
err. If this question could he rid of
the thousands of years of prejudice
| that have come down to us, and if we
could view this question without preju-
dice il would not take a minute for
us to decide it. If this could be pre-
scented to us Tor the first time that
| we are going to have ballots and To
| whom shall we give them, without any
history or knowledge of what has been
done in the past. could any one doubt
but that this would be just as likely
to be given to women as to men"
/ There can be no doubt about that. If
| you wish to restrict the ballot then
restrict it on sensible lines.
Now, gentlemen, as | say, suppos-
ing it should come up for the first
| time in building a Constitution what
restriction shall we place upon the
ballot. Would you make it a physical
test, would You make the prohibition
like this. that all black eyed people
may vote and none others? or, would
you make any other physical test OF
voting? 1t would be as absurd. any
physical test that YOU could make, as
it would be to make only those who
wore No boots eligible to the right
of suffrage.
Voting is a mental act, and does not
require physical qualification. a man
may vote even if he has no eyes; man
may vote if he is without hands The
physical frame has nothing to do and
ii is mental act and should have IL
| mental test; and if you can make any
test that is reasonable. a mental test
that "a person shall read and write and
shall be able to understand our sys-
tenn of government, or anything else
then anybody may be able to pass
ouNil ii test DIS lIdl. but when you
make sex u test you put before half
of the people that are born into the
world a barrier that they cannot get
over in government.
oh, how we like to say as did the
great Lincoln, Government of the
people for the people and by the peo-
pie, but it is not a government of
the people; it is a government by one
half of the people. How many women
there are in this country who have all
the inherent rights and yet who can
have no voice in the government of
themselves; they can have no voice in
the question of the taxation of their
own property Here in the city of Au-
gusta is one of the richest women in
the State, and she cannot vote as to
the taxing of her property, which
amounts to thousands of dollars year
She has no husband to have any voice
IN it, but her coachman or her garden
ef. an Italian, who has only been in
this country a little while, can vote
away her property without knowing
one thing about the method of govern
ment. Why, talk of these people who
have come over here from Southern
Europe, half of them do not know any
more about political economy or the
running of a state government, and
they could not tell it from the bust
ness of embalming oysters. daughter
and applause)
AS | say. this act of voting is a
mental act. and it requires almost no
time. In a pamphlet that was laid up
on my desk, yesterday it was said that
would 70 ,rfx .
their present duties if they were al
lowed to vote. How much time does il
take you, gentlemen, in the run of a
year. to do your voting? Does it Sc
| riously interfere with your business {?
II women cannot have the time from
their business of washing dishes and
washing Your dirty linen and all those
things, occupations of the household
If they cannot have time enough to go
and cast their ballot, then, God help
us nobody else can. (Applause.)
An old farmer said of his wife who
had gone crazy, Il don't know what
made Mary crazy, she hasn't been out
OF the kitchen for - years" | say. let
them out of the kitchen once or twice
Year To so and vote: il will keep
them from going crazy. Now since
this is d mental act, the act of voting
and it does not take time enough to
be worth considering, the only ques-
ton as to allowing women to vote
would be whether they were intelli-
gent enough to vote. That is a ques-
ton upon which we are all satisfied,
as TO the intelligence of women that
they are equal in Intelligence to men.
You look up the records of scolar-
ship in our schools and colleges, and
You will find that the average rank
OF women is ahead IF the rank of
men: not because they have more
ability but because they are more
conscientious in the pursuit of their
studies and are not sl>y-larking
around nights as much as the boys.
UaughterO
The mind then does the voting. and
it should be q moral mind to vote at
best. | think the men have no adj
vantage over the women on that
ground, and that the morality of
women is as great as that of men; |
believe it is much greater There are
more women unsellishly devoted to
service in this world than there are
men. What a large class of women