The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-08-17

certainty is and that's why We want
the ballot to protect our homes. Did
you ever think that boarding houses
for men, mems club houses have all
been represented but never the home,
until the women were given the fran
chise. You say a man represents
him? II he represents his wife and
himself, he certainly ought to have
two votes Some times 1t is said that
women cannot 60 to war and therefor
they should not vote. My friends,
women do go to war by the hundreds
as nurses and hospital dietiticians
and workers. The women don't want
to go to war and they don't want the
men to go to war. They believe there
are other tribunals and better ways
to settle national difficulties than by
the horrors and bloodshed of war.
Bad Women W. Bad Men.
Some times 1t is said women
should not be given the ballot because
the women OF the underworld would
vote. The argument Is OF no effect,
because these women form only a
fractional part OF one per cent Of all
the women IN this nation. These poor
women, thirty-three and one-third
per cent OF whom commit suicide
every year, dotno wish to register and
thus make their names and residences
known. But all the bad men vote,
my friends, they vote early and often
II
is argued by those who. do not study
facts and figures that giving the fran
chise to women would break UP the
homes. The proportion of divorces in
the east, New York, Pennsylvania.
and other states where there is no
suffrage, divorces have increased
three times as fast as the population
and the proportion is greater than in
Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, California
and other suffrage states. 1t serve
not to break UP the home. but to unite
it by adding one more common inter-
est of the father and the mother In
the home.
Some people say the women will
not VOTE If they are given the fran
chfse; some Of them might stay at
home with the seven million men who
stayed sat home last year from the
presidential election. Anyone who
says that the women will not vote,
is not informed on the question. I'M
the city of Chicago at the last elec-
ton one per cent more women voted
than men. It is claimed by some that
women have not the poise that men
have, but let their feelings rule them.
Whenever that statement is made to
me I say I attended the last presi-
Dental convention That Is argu-
ment enough on the poise question.
Answers Masculine Argument.
Others fear that to allow women to
60 to the polls with men and vote will
make them masculine. We go to
church with men, and to the theatre
and into society with them and some
of us even live In the same house
with then. and It hasn't made us man.
nish. why should it have that effect
TO go to the polls three or four times
year with them?
Some people claim women do not
know enough to vote. They forget
that mind Is not a matter Of sex. A
greater proportion Of young women
than men are graduated every year
from our high schools and colleges.
The women do study and think.
Foual suffrage is no longer an expert
ment. It has been tried successfully |
IN ten of our forty-eight states and
women are allowed to vote in every !
English speaking country In the
world except free America. In Eng
land and Canada they are allowed
TO vote on municipal questions and
IN those countries municipal scandals
gro unknown. We sometimes hear OF
tbem in the United States. 1t has
been said to me, Does not the mill.
fancy of the English women reflect
d;scredit on the American women?'
Nav / ask you in return, Does the
n,I,,tancy of Germany and Austria
and russia today reflect discredit up
IN the American men?" One question
:. inst as sensible as the other. I'd
like to say to the rank and file OF peo-
nle that when you talk In horror
-tr;cken tones about the English
yemen YOU don't know what you are
+alking about. Take the pains to