The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-09
ASKS IF CAUSE
IS WORTH While
Mrs. Ruth Guthrie Harding,
of New Jersey, Discusses
Suffrage Questions.
DIFFERENCE IN POWER
Shows that Only II Per Cent Have
Declared for Right to
Vote.
by MRS. RUTH G. HARDING,

l refrain from touching upon the SEN
timental arguments against woman suf-
frage. l am not a sentimentalist. Yet !
know that II sentiment were TO be eiimi-
mated from American ideals, the nation
would suffer. I believe woman 10 be an
individual; I believe her to possess power
in the State: but believe her TO be de-
signed by nature for a difference in
power from that OF man.
This suffrage question Is not OF direct
bearing on her equality TO man, but II
Is OF direct bearing upon her relation to
man. and her fitness TO he the mother Of
men. 'Eschew the biological" said one
sufragtst to me. a state eschewing the
biological would not. progress very far
Women are not created solely for one
purpose Women are not: woman Is.
Questions the scheme.
question the working out of any
scheme in which the emancipated indI-
vidual. be 1t myself or some other indi-
vidual. sets herself above nature to regrl-
late the uplifting OF the State" But
aside from this viewpoint. II woman suf-
frage could not be proved to be posi-
lively detrimental TO the State, is merely
changing and charging the game of poll
tics sufficient argument in favor of some
thing achieved at the expense of the con-
victions OF over half the women Of >
State; Justification OF the effort to force
upon the majority an unwelcome duty-a
futile ''privilege?"
After sixty-fve years OF ceaseless agi-
tation, the National American Woman
Suffrage Association and the Congress
sional Union claim an aggregate of 654, 900
members in the entire country. This is
only 27 per cent OF the mature women.
Nearly two million wcmen in nine StateE
may vote II they wish, even II there are
ll5,OOO fewer women in all these States
than in Pennsylvania alone.
Why do SO few women want the ballot.
and so few of tho women who have It
exercise the franchise. or seek its extern
sion?
The suffraGIsts want Congress to pass
a law that will enable per cent of the
citizens of any State to force the other
30 per cent to take up the question OF
women at every election
to eternity, unless the franchise Is grant,
ed. Is 1t any wonder that the women
who want to preserve democracy and the
rule Of the majority, as well as their own
freedom from the useless burden OF the
ballot, should resent the suffragists
claim to represent woman?
Call Her Demands.
The suffragist never fails to call her
demands those of the women OF New
York" Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, as
the case may be.
She assumes that women who don't
want to vote, Ought to want IT." that
they should disregard the history Of
woman suffrage in the States where
women vote.
In Colorado, women have voted TWEEN
ty-one years, in Utah and Idaho for
in Wyoming, forty-four. In
none OF these States is the status Of
woman improved by benehcent laws that
are not better developed under neighbor-
Ing male suffrage States.
Might work for women" says Mrs.
Grace Duffield Goodwin. rs not prohib-
tied In Colorado, Idaho. Utah, or Wyo-
ming-and this fact renders Ineffective
any eight-hour law such as has been
passed IN Colorado, which applies only
TO women in standing occupations and
allows them TO work seven days, or fifty
six hours a week
Not one OF these States where women
have voted for a generation has a work
mans compensation act, although twenty
two States have gotten such legislation
under male suffrage. Nearly every one
Of the States that bound these suffrage
States have such legislation. The second
State In the Union to enact . workman's