The Washington herald., 1914-09-20
Caught in OWN
NET, SHE SAYS
Sufragists' Theory Proved
Wrong in States Where They
Vote, Declares Anti.
GAINED BY UNDERTAKING
If They Had Been Clever Politicians
Would Have Concentrated Forces
on Constitutional Amendment.
Vice Chairman ot the Organizing Committee. Penn
sylrHnia AssIciation oprosed 70 Woman Suffrage.

Vice Chairman Of the Organizing Committee Penn,
sylrEniA AssJciltion orposed to Woman Suffrage.
BY MRS. Al STIN VI. PURVEs,
There is not a governmental theory or
a form Of political administration that
has not its advocates and apologists TO
point out with much logic that II is the
most nearly perfect system ever devised.
The imperalist. the republican. or the
limited monarchist can each explain in
plausible terms why his form of govern
ment is best, and likewise the demagogue.
the socialist. and the feminist can all
advance very pretty theories as 10 how
the world could be made into a paradise
II their own patent progressivism could
be applied
Likewise. the patent medicine adver-
tiser and the automatic machinery sales
man both possess Unanswerable argu-
ments to prove that We cannot be healthy
unless we use Smith 's-Guaranteed-C Cure
for Everything; or that 1t is impossible
10 heat our homes properly unless We use
Jones Auto-Electric Mechanico-Dou-
BILE Reversible c-Thermoscope
new theory in government, like q
new medicine or machine. must be test
ed and tried before We can judge its use
fulness. In business. all the recommen-
dations and influence in the world can
not save the employe or the sales or
management theory that does not
make good" and the machine that
won't work, no matter how artistic its
design. must go to the scrap heap. 1t
Is the logic OF fact against the logic of
theory
Case Against Woman Suffrage.
II any further proof were needed TO
point out the essential fallacy of the fem
mist theory that man and woman have
identical duties and relations to the
state. it has been furnished in the States
where women vote. and is being supple
mented by more vivid examples at each
new test.
In 1853. Wendell Phillips remarked that
he did not see how the ballot could pos
sibly be refused TO women. At that time
the theory about woman's need and
right" to the ballot was a pristine
ideal in a beautiful dream. 1t looked
good, AS they say-better than votes
for women" have ever looked since. But
In the same year Wyoming women got
the ballot There was no great exodus
To the promised land by the feminine
seekers OF freedom" and economic in
dependence etc On the contrary, Wy
oming has remained the forty-seventh
Commonwealth from that day to this.
andf had 1855 men to every 100 women.
the second highest ratio in the United
states, in 1910 There Is an average Of less
than one woman to the square mile in
Wyoming today, and yet for forty-fve
years women have had this theoretical
paradise, where they have the same
rights" as a man. The only inference
Is that neither Wyoming nor woman suf-
frage has interested American women.
for in the same period, 1870 to 1910, 10
women went on through to Washington
tp every ffty-seven that remained in
Wyoming, while Oklahoma, New Mexico.
North Dakota, and Nevada have all
increased their feminine populations
nearly twice as fast as Wyoming.
When q new freedom does not attract
the class or sex it Affects to "emsnci-
pate" we have a right to ask why.
Before 1850, every negro slave that could
possibly escape. went North, to gain
freedom across the Mason and Dixon
line. The suffragists say that women are
slaves" Why have these slaves never
attempted to colonize Wyoming and Colo
RADIO. where they are theoretically "free."
TO the same extent that they have patron
lied other Commonwealths bordering on
these States. where the ballot is in the
hands of men? Can II be that women
a Is
run eficiently. by men. and that the
sort OF freedom they most desire is to
be excused from the duty and the bur-
len OF the ballot.
Where the TeKt Tells.
II the suffragists had been really clever
politicians they would have kept their
experiment stations in the
West, like Wyoming, Colorado. Idaho,
and Utah, which they have had for a
and all Of which, plus San
Francisco, have fewer inhabitants than
the city of Philadelphia, and concentrat-
I'd their whole FIRE on a national amend
nent to free" women throughout the
country at one stroke. Their best leaders
rave always known this. that the State
by State campaign would subject the
heory to so mouy tests and so much op-
,osition that the national amendment
curse Is the only feasible plan. II Is
ignifcant that both the National wom- |
n Suffrage Association and the Con-
;ressional Union for Woman Suffrage
we're organized for the express purpose"
u enfranchisins women by q Constitu-
ional amendment. In no other way can
he three women in every 100 who are |
uffragists hope to slip through"
votes for women" against the united |
pposition Of the majority of both men |
nd women.
But In 1sfn tha s.insprve,ovy, .,d ..-,.-