The Washington herald., 1914-07-05

have existed in this country since IT76
will soon reduce woman suffrage to the
level OF Populism, free silver and other
dead issues.
Nothing so clearly demonstrates the
true position of the woman suffrage
agitation as the candid examination of
its history. and inspection OF its rec
ord of indifference. weakness and alb
sence OF achievement in States where
women vote. All these States, II will
be seen. have a total woman electorate
hundreds Of thousands less than the
female population over twenty-one in
single Eastern States like Pennsyl-
vania or New York. In other words
less than one-tweIfth of the women IN
our nation are enfranchised. and Of
these less than one-fourth are suffi-
ciently interested to use the ballot
when II is extended.
II may be sal dthat thousands OF
women in male suffrage States want to
vote; but to offset this are the 20 per
cent OF the women in suffrage States
who prove they do not want the ballot
by not going 10 the polls And out Of
the -four million women who vote now"
plus women who want to vote in the
male suffrage States. IL is significant OF
pitiful failure when the National Wom-
an Suffrage Association claims only
100000 members in the entire country!
This. too, in spite of the fact that every
suffrage parade assures us on blazing
banners that one million Socialists
vote and work for woman suffrage
Woman suffrage is well advertised,
and political leaders who have given
the question little serious study are
often misled into believing that all
women. or at least the majoriy. want
woes. but these gentlemen should re-
view history. and consider the start
ling fact that there is no record on
earth of the majority of women want
ing something for sixty-hve years
without getting it! OF the 24555. 754
women OF voting age in the United
States, 2O,51s,ss3 are, or have been,
married. They have children to raise
or teach and homes to govern. They
have male relatives that respect them,
who always defend their actual rights
with far more yigor than the rights of
husband. father. or brother are safe
guarded. They consider themselves
neither slaves nor parasites" as the
suffragists call ANY woman who lets
her husband support her" They regard
themselves as the partners instead of
the competitors OF men, without whose
companshiop the joys of love, home,
motherhood, and happy family ties are
impossible.
They know that woman suffrage rep
resents but the political aspiration Of
the minority feminine elements who
glory in being ''individualistis" human
beings" instead OF mothers, wives, Sis
tiers, daughters to men to whom God
and Nature unite them by stronger bonds
than have ever been formulated in civil
law or party platforms. They know this
feminine element Is the natural mate to
the minority masculine element that
seeks to express socialism, communism,
or modified anarchy-the men who carry
red banners in all the suffrage parades.
and work and vote for women suffrage"
under the lure Of expected help that new
er materializes.
But great national parties, and candi-
dates familiar with all the facts, are
too well informed to pin their hopes on
a "woman's world movement" that never
succeeds in getting the Endorsement or
support of over 3 per cent of the sex
IL pretends to represent, and affects to
'emancipate.'
On the wave of third party power and
the influence of Socialism in some OF the
minor Western States. woman suffrage
may yet gain ground in isolated in
stances, but on the whole, the sex revo-
luton which II represents is less possi-
BILE than the industrial revolution that
Karl Marx promised in 1s4s-the same
year that woman suffrage took concrete
shape in America.
These twin agitations. each of which
indorses the other, cannot get support,
even from the so-called CLASSES" they
represent: and the majority of women,
as well as the majority of workers oppose
both Socialism and woman suffrage.