The Washington herald., 1914-04-05
WOMEN VOTERS
NEGLECT Duties"
Suffrage States Far Behind
Others in Laws Affecting
Feminine Workers.
PLACED ON MANS LEVEL
Anti Leader Declares Sufragists, In
Urging Equality. Do Not Intend
to Press Demands.
By Mrs. WILLIAM wILFRED
BIRDsALL.

Woman sufrragists, in urging equality.
have no intention of pressing this de
mand to conclusion. Nowhere, where
suffrage has been granted to women
have they shown any disposition to
euualize conditions when there is a bur-
den hitherto borne by men
While some women, in the equal SUI
frage States, have accepted jury duty.
most of them have repudiated IT, and
often for the most trivial excuses At
other times, when compelled to serve,
they have demanded equally trivial con-
sideration which men have not had-
Some of the second or third rate sur
fraEe leaders have said occasionally that
they do not want legislation especially
designed for the protection OF women.
yet their protests have been weak ana
ineffective, their statements only tndl-
vidual opinions and not indorsed al
large by supporters Of the feminist move
ment On the other hand, men, recog-
mixing woman to be the mother OF the
race and her conservation necessary to
race continuance in its best condition,
have steadily passed laws for her pro-
lection. Government reports tell US that
rs far back as 1873 women were found
in industry in as many as seventy-nve
enpIoyments, and in 1850 in 175 profitable
occupations Before and since that time,
there has been persistent ehort on the
mart of legislators to lessen the burdens
of women, until, at the present time
forty-four Of tine forty-eight States have
laws for the safeguarding OF wage-earn-
ing women. These legislative acts are
better and more comprehensive than
those for the safeguarding Of wage
earning men. Any plea for equality
must 40 far consider this situation as 70
take AWAY the privileges OF women, or
20 give the same to men,
s1rr-evists contend that the ballot is
rncessary particularly for the protecton
Of women workers, and they even go SO
far as to say that certain events wouio
not have occurred had women possessed
the vote. -
- yo-t IN 1910. would have been
,.o,dared unnecessary IL these workers
bad rad the ballot That occurrence was
Carefully investigated by special agent
of the Department Of Labor ana IN
I5ustrv His ftures were carefully COM
nIIed are accessible, and they show that
20 per cent of the strikers were men
that Sc per cent were women unoer
txenty-one years Of age,i who, thereiore,
would not have been voters, and that
rev cent were women Of voting age, who
had not been in this country long enough
to gain q residential qualification neces-
sary to vote. There is no argument more
groundless than that the ballot can pre-
vent strikes or that IL can advance
wages. II the vote or legislation could
raise wages, the unions would have gone
out of existence long ago. Through or
ganization, merit or favoritism only are
wages advanced, and favortism only are
this except the women sufragists, the
little minority that makes claims intended
for soap-box oratory and street crowds
who viii hurrah without knowing why
very often An appeal to sentiment is
not always an appeal to reason. Anti
sufragists always appeal to reason, and
30 per cent OF the sentiment OF the coun-
try is With Their.
Comparisons have been ;aade OF The