The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-05-21
Votes for WomenC Column

visit by the State President Of the
Universal Franchise League, Mrs. John
Pyle OF Huron, and the district presi.
dent, Mrs. May Billinghurst OF Pierre.
They We're making a tour OF this
quarter OF the state, organizing county
locals for the league. \ number of
representative women received them
in the council chamber of the city
hall. Mrs. Pyle explained at some
length the aim of the league and the
plan OF work, after which they organ
lied a local.
There are two lines upon which the
forces of universal franchise should
work, !. e., to awake and interest
those m who are now Indifferent
to their political disabilities as citi-
zens and TO convince the male voters
that the ballot should not be withheld
because of that Indifference.
1t Will be remembered by South Da-
kota electors that when the Indians Of
the state were enfranchised that there
was no universal demand upon their
part for the ballot. Nor were they
called upon Ito make it evident that
they would use the ballot if il were
granted them" as the Minneapolis
Journal would have women do. Just
how women are to educe this evidence
before they are given a chance to vote
is unfortunately not explained. In
fact no great majority" demand for
the ballot has yer before been re-
CURED of a class before the act of its
enfranchisement, and there have been
several such acts, state and national,
since the adoption of the constitution.
No reform was ever accomplished
where the majority We're not for a
Ions time Indifferent until in the full
ness of time agitation and education
has done its work. There was no gen.
oral demand by women for the higher
education, but it was granted, and the
event has proven of inestimable bene-
fit to the race.
The enfranchisement of women is a
still higher education for nothing edu,
Gates like responsibility. And in view
of the many social problems that con
front the country today a class fitted
by nature and training to look after
details and conserve human life is i'm
peritively needed. that these problems
may be solved in the interests of the
common welfare.
As to the Indifference of
they are already citizens and home
and family" should be their slogan (f
their minds are alert and their con
sciences Quick) for the welfare of
home and family depend upon the wis
dom of laws and the f%aithfulness of
their execution. The fact that they
are not yet endowed with the most
effective means of accomplishing re-
suits, does not exempt them from do
ing their duty in striving to secure the
best possible under present conditions.
By agitation, by petition, by using any
legitimate influence at hand, much
may be done to modify unjust laws or
to secure good one This has been
done in the past. Whatever laws
there are now, securing legal rights to
women and children, have been ac-
complished by such means, since the
s~o-called "woman's rights" agitation
began. 1t is about sixty years since
were granted the legal right
to their own clothes, (they belonged
to the husband) and Lucy Stone who
was active in the work said 1T took
eleven years of asking to secure it."
No such odium or opposition would
be encountered by today, as
was met by those earlier And
the changed and changing economic
of the present, demand an
activity greater than theirs, for legal
regulations must obtain in hundreds
of ways which were formerly unnec-
essary. Politics are no longer "out-
side the home" in the sense they once
were Charlotte Perkins Gilman says,
Even the purity of the milk supply is
regulated by law. and politics are not
only inside Of home but are inside of
the baby" SO that when women are
Indifferent to politics they are also in
effect, Indifferent to the welfare of
their families.
1t will interest some to know that
Mrs. Pyle and Mrs. Billinghurst re-
port an excellent meeting in Water
town, with great enthusiasm among
the leading women of the place.