Newark post., 1914-11-11
SUFFRAGE NOTES


Hilles.)
Equal suffrage is another "men-
ace" that has ceased to be a live
issue in California. Fought even
more bitterly than the Initiative,
Referendum, and Recall, it has
now taken it's place with such ac-
cepted facts as meals, climate, and
babies. A journey from border to
border failed utterly to disclose
any male person who would admit
that his home had been ''broken
up while a search through the
records proved that the women
had not plunged into office seeking.
What Women Haze Done
There can be no question, how
ever, that they have been active
politically, for there is general
agreement that the following laws
are due to the woman vote and fem
mime insistence: joint guardian
ship, "red-light" injunction and
abatement, raising the child labor
age from twelve to fifteen years,
mothers pension, teachers pen
sion, the eight hour law for women,
minimum wage board, immigration
commission, state training school
for delinquent girls with most ap-
proved correctional methods and
thorough vocational training, re-
quiring fathers to support illegiti-
mate children, prison reform, and
argus-eyed statutes with reference
to weight and measures.
The women have also wiped out
gambling Of all kinds, and, taking
complete possession of the local
option law, have succeeded in
placing one-half the territory and
one-fourth the population on the
dry side. In his authoritative
"Story of the 1913 Legislature, "
Franklin Hichborn makes this
comment:
Up to the 1911 session, the or
ganized gamblers were, on a moral
issue, the most potent group at
legislative sessions. They actually
directed committee organization
in their own interests. With the
institution of women's suffrage in
1911, however, the race track
gamblers were practically elimin-
ated from California politics. and
organization of woma1, u the &c
'iss;sas iss5as became feprtttne most potent
power in the state. The members
of the 1913 legislature gave re-
peated evidence of appreciating
this fact thoroughly.
The specific instance that we
had in kind was the "red-light"
law which places the responsibility
of disorderly houses upon the prop
erty owner instead of the wretched
inmates. This bill, first introduc-
ed in 1911, was killed with ease
ard dispatch, Senator eddie"
Wolfe welding the principal ak.
This notorious politician had serv-
ed for years, and was deemed a
fixture by the male vote.
In 1912, the very election in
which women participated, Wolfe
was cast into the discard, and E.
E. Grant, his successor, was hand
Z ed the abatement law as his Mes
ksr"uaNith he + session the Cal
iforrlia0 Federation of Women s
Clubs maintained headquarters in
Sacramento, and when the measure
came up for consideration the
word went out to fifty thousand
female voters, and the storm Of tel
egrams and letters commenced
and continued until final passage.
In point of argument, facts, au-
thorities, and statistics, the wom-
en- made such a showing against the
horror Of the necessary evil
theory that, when Governor John
son announced a public hearing,
\ csmmercialized vice could not
rnuster one speaker.
while it is a record that shows
>cger emphasis on the moral and
lne than has been customary
4 the most prejudiced can
freely urge that it is "hyster-
.al. F" There is also one thing to
remember-the women are not in
the majority in California. Many
Of the measures had to go before
the whole people for approval, and
their majorities in every case must
be taken as indication that male
sentiment backed up the women.
only Prejudice Suruiues
Summing up the objection thai
one finds in California against al
four fundamental changes-Initia