The Washington herald., 1914-04-05

laws of other States with Colorado, where
| women have voted since 1s93-and always
| the statistics are TO the credit of the
other States. The comparison has proved
beyond contradiction that there are more
and better laws for the protection OF
women in States where women do not
vote than in those where they have the
ballot. Naturally, having political equality
1 in full suffrage States, a woman who
works Is expected to stand on a level
with wage-earning man. She must ask
no favors, must accept conditions as they
are, or as she has made them, or as they
are imposed by the law of supply and
demand. although her plea for equality"
has not increased her physical strength
rights is the attitude of men towards
women in the full suffrage States, and
! accept what you get
In thirty-four States laws have
been passed limiting the hours dur
ing which a woman may be employed.
The full suffrage States of Idaho and
Wyoming place no restriction on the
number of hours a woman may be en-
ployed. Yet women have voted in Wy
oming since 1869 and in Idaho since
1896! When, oh. when are the women
suffragists going to fulfill their prom
ises to better the conditions of women.
Give us the vote. and we will"
Il cannot recall all of their promises)
but. given the vote, they accomplish
nothing. In fact they have stood in
the way of some reforms that were
nearing accomplishment through mere
men" before women had a say at the
polls. In what States? Why, in Colo
rado. where women at the polls, sew
eral years ago, defeated prohibition,
and in California, where they have de-
feated local option in some of the
counties. Statistics show that drink
ing among women is on the increase.
so why should the liquor interests
fear the vote of women?
Idaho and Wyoming are "thorns in
the side of woman suffrage pleaders,
who attempt to explain that these
States do not restrict the hours of
employment of women because few
women in these Commonwealths are
in industry, and that there are few
trades in which they are oppressed and
require protection. But how can such
argument hold in face of the fact that
the neighboring male suffrage States
of Oklahoma, North and South Dakota.
and Nebraska regulate the hours for
women by law? Nebraska goes even
further by prohibiting the employment
OF women at night in all manufactur-
ing, mechanical OF mercantile estab-
lishments, in hotels and restaurants.
and limits the number of hours per
week, thus reserving at least one day
of rest in seven for women. Twenty
three other States. only one OF them a
full suffrage State, also restrict the
hours for women both by day and
week. with the same beneficial result
of one leisure day In seven. The States
Of Washington and California limit the
work of women to forty-eight hours
per week. but the ballot was not OBJ
tanned there by women in time to al
low suffragists to claim credit for the
Legislation, as they are so prone to do
on the slightest provocation without
always being armed with facts. In
Washington the law was passed by a
Legislature elected under male suffrage,
as was also the case in California,
where Il was enacted nine months be-
fore women were enfranchised in that
State.
SufrnGists slow TO Get Laws. 4
It was not until nineteen years after
woman suffrage arrived in Colorado that
a law was obtained benefiting women.
although attempts toward that end pre-
viously had been made. This State has
much more recent law, passed under
woman suffrage. allowing girls of ten to
engage in the street trades and boys of
sixteen to be employed as messengers at
night Is 1t any wonder, then. that there
Is so much need there OF the Juvenile
Court. or that the Florence Crittenton
Home has so phany inmates, as attested
by Mrs Barrett, the national president
Of the seventy mine homes? And Judge
Lindsay said that 1 per cent of the vot-
ing population of Colorado is composed
of women, The pity of IL, they are 50
much interested in politics that they
neglect the interests of their own chill
dren.
While there are four States with laws
protecting women in industry no better
than men. several other States. which I