The Washington herald., 1914-10-04

|
| voter will be on the subject Of liquor
| trafic cannot be guessed, as there are
| as many individual opinions in regard
to that as TO any other question. But
suffragists as a whole are not responsible
/ for Individual opinions"
Thus DR.. Shaw emphaticaIly denies that
her organization has taken any stand
against liquor. and the Nevada suf-
! frsgists appeal for a square deal" from
! the liquor interests on the record of suf-
frage States. while the Illinois leader ap-
preciates the assistance Of the vets"
Mrs. Minnie Reynolds, for the National
! Suffrage Association, recently challenged
any one to find a word concerning pro-
hibition among the pamphlets issued by
the association.
This is undoubtedly true. The suf-
| fragists do not print pleas for prohibit
tion among their official issues of ''Iitera-
| ture," because they are afraid 10 antago-
nize the liquor interests. But regular
leaflets etc, addressed to temperance
women, and setting forth the vote as
the only hope, are distributed under aus
pices of certain individuals in the anti
saloon movement who have been led to
believe in suffrage.
One of these leaflets, now before the
writer. declares that the strongest op-
ponents OF the woman's vote are the
liquor and vice interests" and is labeled
IAN Appeal to the Temperance Women
of Pennsylvania" II is signed by an
individual-so that the suffrage associa-
tions cannot be accused Of standing for
the abolition of the saloon.
The Attitude Clearly shown.
DR.. Clarence True Wilson. a prominent
temperance leader, states in the Portland
COregonl Telegram:
A. q I fafn
in opposing woman suffrage, because no
State has adopted II without setting back
the temperance cause some twenty-five
years. Los Angeles went wet by a.
900 majority; also the town Of Pasadena,
which was dry almost its entire his
tory, goes wet" with the coming of
women's votes. Pasadena had in 1910
2,6SS more women than men"
But just what the attitude Of the wom-
an voter on the subject of liquor traf-
fic is not a matter OF guesswork as
DR.. Shaw would attempt to lead US TO
believe, but of history as stated by the
Nevada suffragists, and the temperance
workers who have studied the subject.
Colorado women had a chance to vote
on prohibition in 1872 II only s. per
cent Of the Colorado women had voted
against the saloon, prohibition would have
won by a mojOrity of over 5000 ballots
without a single male vote in its IA
vor-but it was defeated. Why?
Ladies'" a Denver chief Of police told
a committee of political women who pro-
tested against the order prohibiting un-
escorted women in saloons after p. m,
Il can prove to you from records here
in my ONCE that the women Of Denver
drink more whisky than men" So per-
haps there is a reason for the defeat Of
prohibition by the free women of Col
orado.
st. Monica, Cal, with more women over
twenty-ore than men, is not only wet"
but after women got the vote, decided at
the polls to keep the town wide open
rights anc Sundays, many Of the places
where liquor was sold being cabarets and
wine IUoms Of especial danger u young
girls.
As tn Nevada suffrage president de-
clared, I'VE could cite other examples"
How Suffrage Helps Liquor.
These things are not hard to explain
when one reflects that without the bal
lot every woman who is a Temperance
advocate has a splendid opportunity in
her own home to see that her measures
are ably represented at the polls by men.
But with the NDte. the mother OF six
children who is busy, or i'll, or caring for
a EicE child OF election day. is not the
equal Of the woman from the rcd
Eight district wr ne=IS 10 IrI Ic:Itivt TO
vote against prnhia.ticn.
When only 5000, or less than Is per
cent. of the mature women in a city like
Chicago can be gotten to the polls under
the maximum inducements, as was DEM
onstrated three weeks ago, II is hardly |
likely that the best and noblest ideals of |
all women are adequately represented.
The woman is going to be "stay-at-
home" citizen whether she has the vote |
on the statute books or not and every
intelligent man and woman knows that |
the woman who doesn't go to the polls |
and whose natural duties will always |
tend to keep her away from caucuses, |
and elections will have her |
interests and her ideals better protected |
by her husband, son, father, brother or |
hance than she will by the feminist, the |
female politician or the woman of the |
streets
No woman who is a sincere and in |
formed advocate of temperance can de-
fend a belief in woman suffrage. It Is |
not a question Of what women will do /
when they get a vote" but of what |
they have done with it, and Wyoming, |
with forty-fve years Of woman suffrage. /
where no county has ever been voted
dry" is sufficient indication to every
thinking person that '.just what the att- I
tude Of the woman voter on the subject 4
Of the liquor traffic" is abundantly |
proved TO be absolutely inimical to the
temperance and abolition of vice which
all good women desire
Another significant suffrage action Is
the recent announcement Of Mrs MedIn
Mccormick, a leader of the Illinois suf-
fragists, that she would take the stump
against Representative James R. Mann,
the Congressman who introduced the
Federal act which makes the entire ma
shtnery Of our national government avail
able against white slavery. Why do suf-
iragists want to defeat the man who did
more than suffrage agitation has ever
ireamed Of TO correct the social evil?
lust because they don't like to have a /.
mere Mann. protectinr uEnmanhnnd7