The Washington herald., 1914-07-05

Utah had so5.O33 more qualified voters
than Kansas. Missouri. Nebraska. Ore
gon, Nevada and South Dakota CaIl then
male suffrage States; Oregon and Kan
sas now have equal suffrage). and yet
cast 1854 less ballots. 1t appears that
woman suffrage Is an actual detriment
10 an electorate's interest in the govern
ment. even when great national issues
are at stake! And II votes for women
actually lessons not only the percent
ages, but the absolute number OF bal
lots cast in a State, it is impossible 10
see how the '4.OoO. no women who vote
now" are going to deliver the prom
ised political help TO ambitious politicians
who now seek to beEuile them with
false hopes of enfranchisement State by
State.
Inst straw for Lost Political Hopes.
1t is an odd fact that every weak po-
litical party in the last fifty years. has
advocated votes for women" in the
hope that its own power would be aug
mented. The Mormons. who hoped at
one time to organize an independent em-
pire in the West, claim to be the origina-
tors OF woman suffrage. They conferred
the franchise on women as well as men
in order to increase their political pow
er in thinly populated States. On a
wave of Populism. Colorado gave votes
to women in 1898, and with the assist
ance of the Mormons. I'tah and Idaho
established woman suffrage in 1895 Wy
oming, which has only 2s. $40 women over
twenty-one even now. has added their
votes to it's incOnsiderable electorate since
1869.
After Populism subsidized, no further
progress was made by woman suffrage
-
less defeats in legislatures. Since then
five States have passed woman suffrage
amendments. and one has conferred par
tial suffrage by legislative grant. But,
as confessed by Mrs. Harper, the direct
cause of the enfranchisement of women
in all these five States was the ''insur-
gent movement in politics the
leaders believing they could hold their
ground with more certainty IL they had
the support OF woman voters" II will
he remembered that the leaders of the
Progressives were those who got the par
tial suffrage in Illinois through the legis-
lature, too.
But it is significant that every one of
the third parties that have counted on
the aid of women voters has met with
failure. Col. Roosevelt himself, probably
the keenest politician our country has
ever produced, has always perceived the
weakness and general unpopularity Of
the woman suffrage issue. While in Cal
ifornia in 1910, at the height Of the suf-
frage campaign in that State, he delib-
erately walked away and refused to talk
to a lady with a votes for woman"
badge pinned across her breast as soon
as he observed II, although he cordially
greeted the foreigner to whom she intro
duced him. He is quoted as having said
that a petition with q million signers
would not convince him that the ma
jority of women want the vote. Yet l60-
900 women's names is the greatest num-
ber that have been presented on any such
petition.
Col. Roosevelt in 1912, with Judge Lind
say, Jane Adams and the McCormicks
as his advisers, allowed votes for women
TO go into his platform. But the indif-
ference shown in the election probably
convinced him that woman suffrage is
not a political power sufficient to deserve
attention, for since his return from Bra
I'll. although there have been abundant
opportunities for the expression Of his
opinions regarding this question, he has
seen ft TO ignore II altogether, though he
was a visitor in England at the height OF
the greatest votes for women demon
strations in history!
Col Roosevelt is an astute politician
and knowing how indifferent women
prove after they get the franchise, and
that the great majority of both men and
women oppose this useless experiment.
he is leaving II TO its fate, knowing that
its alliance with Socialism. feminism and
militancy, and its Official proclamation
against ideals Of womanly conduct. mar
rage relations and obedience to law that