The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-03
Why Shouldn't Women Vote?
Asks Mrs. WhitehOuse
Champion of Woman Suffrage Says That Chvary Instead
of Disappearing When Women Vote Will Develop
Into New and Better Type
NJ vIRA BOARMAN wHIrEuOUsE.
DHE anti-suffragists talk much of
chlNalry ThaV nraalil.t IL u Ill san.

TIME anti-sufragists talk much OF
chvalry. They predict It's disap-
i pearance from the face of tho
earth when women vote. Miss
Alice Buck. speaking against woman
suffrage at the Congressional hearing in
Washington last December. said:
Men have been heard 10 remark that
when women get the vote they tmen)
will not even deign to offer n lady who
is standing in a trolley car seat;
others. that they will discontinue to
raise their hats when greeting them;
and some who are husbands and fathers
even say that they will cease to support
their families-that II women vote they
should support themselves"
1t seems Incredible that a change In
women's political position. brought
about by a recognition not only Of their
rights as human beings but also Of the
moral service which they AZ voters
would render to the community, should
produce such effects as Miss Buck an
ticipates The fact that women vote
will never make them as we'll able as
men 10 stand in street car after a
days work, nor will the ballot relieve
them of the natural duties OF mother
hood nor of the consequent inability to
support themselves without neglecting
some of these duties. 1t seems unlikely
also that normal men should want to
abandon their own responsibility ofsup-
porting their families merely because
their wives and daughters are given a
voice in the government of the country.
II may be noticed in passing that the
latest census gives report that In this
country there are now 100000 women
who do support themselves. and some of
them support their families also. To
these women at leas, the threatened loss
Of that kind of chivalry OF which Miss
Buck speaks will mean less than she
seems To realize.
In regard to standing in the street
cars one working woman probably
stated the position of all the others
when she said. II would gladly stand
for twenty minutes In a street car going
home If by doing SO ! could get the
same pay that man would have had
for doing my days work" II men
should discontinue TO raise their hats
10 women who vote it would be the end
of a pretty habit, but times and man
ners change and there would at least be
no real suffering caused by the disap-
pearance of this custom.
But experience in the woman sui.
frage States shows that Miss i cks
fears are really groundless. Women
have voted in Wyoming for forty-fse
years. in Colorado = twenty-one years,
in Utah and Idaho for eighteen years.
and in the other six womin suffrage
States COR much shorter time, yet long
enough to sh W that no such chcnges
hav. taken place or are going - take
place.
! As large a proportion Of men in th,se
STATS give their seats 20 aen in
Get cars. raise their hats l.. greeting
them and support their miles. as In
non-suffrage States. l, fact, the evil
dsnce seems to be that men become
more truly respectful toward women
when women, by their intelligence and
public spirit, show that they deserve il.
\ real re ect takes the plac the
indu,gent superiority which was the
basis Of the chivalry of the Middle
Ages
Or. William Hirsch discussed the or,-
gin and mea.. ing of chivalry. in "A PAM
phlet issued by the New Yor,; State
Association OPP Jsed 10 Woman Suf-
frage. He says that mems present
attitude toward women is prompted by
chivalry." He explains that this sem
tlment took its origin at a J. ,riod OF
history when brutal force was at the
height of It's glory: It became mot
1aly the duty Of an honorabl knight
TO leave these defenoeless peop.e I'M
disturbed, but to protect them with the
strength OF his arm whenever . lch pro-
lection was needed. Thu protection of
the weak and defenceless lis Chivalry."
And he continues: women want to re-
main no longer unarmed, and what Is