The Irish standard., 1914-01-24
What Will You Do With The Ballot?
Or. Ross Advises Women of Illinois)


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what are you going to do with it?
To the women who have not thought
of voting, or who have halfway de-
cided not to vote, l wish to say:
Have you ever walked down State
street in the eight or nine hundred
block? If you have, you must have
observed the horrible looking speci
mems of humanity split along the street
men with viciousness and debauch
cry written all over their faces.
Each one of these men has vote
and he is going to use it. He is not
going to stay away from the polls
through Indifference or laziness or any
sense of home duties. He, and thou
sands of others of his kind with which
the State street lodging houses will be
deliberately filled before election, viii
vote just as some dishonest, grating
politician dictates, to help on the vice
and corruption here in Chicago.
Now, you have the power to offset
one such corrupt, dishonest, vicious
vote. Aren't you going to use it:
Aren't you, the Catholic women of Chi
cago, going to break the forces OF the
power of evil? Forty-fve per cent
of the people of Chicago are Catholics
-one-fourth of the voters of Chicago
are Catholic women. Have we not a
right to expect that you should rise up
as a unit to smite the army of dark
ness that has too long held us in
thrall?
Each one of you, it seems to me, has
an obligation to vote-just as real
an obligation as to hear Mass on Sun
day or to abstain from meat on Friday
1t is not like an invitation to a card
party that you can accept or not just as
you please. 1t is an obligation that
you cannot shirk without offending
God. Any little within, such as dis
taste at appearing at the polls, will
not be sufficient excuse. For there
is duty placed upon you by the SUI
preme law of charity to kill that one
vote for evil that it is in your power
to kill.
You must, then, vote. And you must
vote honestly. Never let there be
ground for saying of you, as there has
been for saying of Catholic men, that
they have used the franchise dishon
estly. The Catholic woman of Chicago
must be above directly or indirectly
corrupting public officials-if they
should become officials themselves
they must be irreproachable. l would
not SO much as suggest that you might
consider the taking of outright brides
the payment of so much cash for such
and such a service. But you must
keep your eyes open and your hearts
pure to detect every indirect form
such as promise of reelection, socia
prestige, and every personal advant
age.
Catholic women must not use theil
power as citizens or as officials merely
for their private profit. Do not vote
for an aldermamn simply because he
will have street opened for your
benefit, when dozens of other streets
ought to come first. Our government
should not degenerate into a wild
scramble for personal privileges re
CARELESS of moral law and Gods JUS
tice. II there be good reason to call
our governments by the expressive
name of troughs, we have no right to
become pigs there in our eagerness to
get our share of the graft. To steal
from the people is as great sin OF
greater than to steal from an indi.
vidual, no matter how the operation
is conducted, no matter what name II
bears in public opinion.