The Dickinson press., 1914-09-26

lTURDAY, SEPTEMBER &c, 10
ing vote Of the community, and over
coming the shifting and moving pop
ulations who come in here.
Answers Opponents
Our friend will be here in a few
days to tell you the faults of voting.
She will tell you it will destroy the
home. She doesn't say exactly how,
except women will neglect their
homes and families if they vote. We
have heard from our grand fathers,
and our great grand fathers that the
most desirable thing for a woman is
home; that she will do anything to
get q home; that she will lay all
kinds of traps to get a home. Isn't
it a remarkable thing that a>woman
who wild anything on earth to get
9 home can only be kept there by
making it impossible for her to ever
get out?N Our friend says If she
votes she will desert her home, neg
lect her family, forget to love her
husband and leave her children, and
she will go to the polls on the first
day Of January and stand there for
ten hours a day, three hundred and
sixty-fve days in the year and you
couldn't get her home to save your
neck.
But before that woman gets
through telling you that you will
neglect your homes, she will tell the
men, and bring statistics to prove it,
that it will be no use to give women
the right to vote because they
wouldn't S it ANYHOW. If we
wouldn't use it, I can't see the harm
Of giving it to us and if we wouldn't
use it how will we neglect our fami-
lies and break up homes. Logic
is one of the things that escapes the
attention of the noted anti-suffragist.
Doubling the Vote
The next argument they give you
is that if women vote they will vote
exactly as their husbands do and
will only double the vote. Every
body knows that that isn't true. If
it were strue, if every man believed
his wife would vote just as he wanted
her to, do you suppose we would have
to have, another woman suffrage
meeting. ~
When this woman tells you it is
only doubling the vote it shows how
little she knows of what fa;avote is.
What is a vote? Doesn't a vote rep
resent something that has gone be-
fore the vote was cast. Doesn't that
vote signify among intelligent human
that every person who cast it
has been thinking about the subject
upon which they vote; that the per-
son who cast the vote has been dis
cussing the question with somebody
else. Where n person casts a vote
for two you have got but M person
interested. Where each person casts
his own vote you have two persons
the question. You have
done something besides doubling the
vote. You have doubled interest,
doubled devotion, doubled patriotism,
doubled the highest ideals of citizen
ship.
Using the Ballot.
I believe our good friend is going
to give you statistics and among
them will be statistics to show that
the women of North Dakota haven't
used the ballot they have, therefore
they should not be given the other. I
wonder how many men would take
the pains to register if they could
only vote for schools on a ballot
about six inches long while the
men were voting for everything on a
ballot six feet long. .
W. women have to pay taxes and
have to- support the government Just
as you men do. What burden are
you giving US by giving us the bal
lot Is the ballot a burden OF is it a
lever by which you lift the burden Of
government from us and make things
easier or better for themselves. We
women bear the burden Of the gov
eminent and shv,Gd share its privi-
also. This is :not my statement.
It is Abraham, Lincoln's. He said
Il believe in all who bear the burdens
IF government sharing it's privileges
also women not excepted" And every
other man of Abraham Lincoln's
type had that ideal of democracy.
Real Democracy
+ can't understand a man calling
himself a democrat and not believing
democracy but there are a lot Of
them who do. It was a long time be-
fore we got Mr.. Bryan to know what
real democracy was, and nobody ever
it more beautifully than MI.
Bryan except Mr.. Wilson, and it was
! long time before Mr.. Bryan could
see the fundamental principles Of
He sees them now.
When he was running for president I.
wrote Mr.. Bryan a letter and asked
lin what stand he would take on the
suffrage question if he was
to the presidency and he
wrote back that his party had not
aiken any stand on that issue; and I
wrote back and I said that I was not
.nquiring about the stand Of his par
", but ] wanted to know whereAhei
would stand If elected to the presi-.
lency. And the gentleman wrote
back that he had been SO busy study
ng the vital question Of democracy
of course suffrage is not a vital
question of democracy--that he
lever had had any time to study the
uoroa n a11ff pa un uIIestiOn. Il knew he