The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1914-08-26

graduate from the
high schools of the country. In New
York state, although the proportion is
less about $4,000 girls to 61,000 boys),
1t is still greatly in favor Of the girls.
1t is only fair to Judge of the educa-
ton of the future voters by their at
tendance at the public schools, as 90
per cent Of the population is educated
In this way.
Imposing Facts.
When it comes, however, to colleges
the women do not lag behind. Forty
four per cent of the college degrees
"a. b. were taken by women in 1910.
and the proportion is constantly in
creasing. They are also carrying off
large percentage of college honors.
AS far as scholastic education, through
school, high school and college, has q
value, the women of this country are
on the whole even better fitted to vote
than the men.
In the opinion of some anti-suffra-
gists, however, education in schools
and colleges is not the sort of expe-
rience that makes of a man or q wo-
man the right kind of voter. Mrs. Will
liam Forse Scott, in a pamphlet issued
by the New York State Association Op-
posed to Woman Suffrage, says that
"only by life in the office, street, mar
ket and shop does the voter get the
training which fits him in some degree
for the exercise of his duty"
This standard of qualification would
exclude all those women of great cul-
ture who have the leisure and perhaps
the desire to inform themselves on
public matters-the very women who
say in a drawing room with such conf
dence, "Of course we educated women
should vote, but to double the igno-
rant votei"
Qualified to Vote.
By this same standard, however, the
(estimated) 100000 or 100000 work
ing women of the country share with
men to the full that experience Of the
office, street, market, ETC., which is
considered so necessary for the train
|
population of voting age Of this coun-
try is about "a 100000, more than one
third of them are already qualified to
vote by the standard set by those very
people who are opposed to all women
voting.
Benefit of Training
They are similarly succeeded by
| girls who will work five or ten years
1 and then retire to domestic lives of
their own. All this endless chain Of
| temporary working women, counting
up in a generation to many times
100000, are having the benefit of
that very training and experience
which alone, according to Mrs. Scott.
can fit the voter "for the exercise of
his duty"
Miss Lucy ]. Price, speaking against
woman suffrage at the congressional
committee hearing in Washington, De
cember, 1913, defined the ignorant
vote which it is so desirable not to
double as the vote that does not uD
derstand what it is voting about.
The women who are in question
have been through an apprenticeship
which prepares them for the duties of
their own lives. They become the
purchasers of the country. They
spend in the markets and shops as
wisely as they can the wages or sal
aries of their husbands.
OF certain aspects of politics such
women cannot be considered ignorant
In the cities they are familiar with
all the conditions which affect their
homes and the lives Of their children,
conditions which are in the hands of
politicians who are elected by popu-
lar vote.
They know whether the food they
buy in the markets is properly pro
tccted by laws or city regulations.
They know even better than their
husbands the sort of school and hospi
tial to which their children must 60
If the children are unruly and get into
trouble who would be so interested as
the mother In children's courts and
the methods of reformation or punish
ment?