The Washington herald., 1914-04-19

that not one of them banished rum
through the votes of women.
Men alone at the polls have driven
liquor absolutely out of Maine. Tennss-
see. North Carolina. Georgia, Florida,
Alabama. North Dakota. Mississippi
Kansas and Oklahoma. These are the
ten prohibition States. Women have been
enfranchiscd in only one OF them. Kan
sas. but Kansas was won TO prohibition
three years before extension OF the vote.
Women voters. therefore. can claim no
victories for prohibition anywhere in the
United States.
Women Voters Favor Liquor.
No one will sainsay that the influence
Of women. unenfranchised and conse-
quentIy nonpartisan. has done much to
help the temperance spread. At the
same time. looking at facts in the face.
il must he admitted that women at the
polls have proved themselves unable to
rout liquor from Wyoming. where they
have voted for forty-five years: Colorado.
where they have voted for twenty-on"
years: Idaho and Utah where they have
been enfranchised for eighteen years;
and though they have had the vote in
Washington State. Oregon. California.
Arizona. for comparatively only a few
years. they are not found in any big
movements 10 swing these States TO pro-
ohihition. Here, then. are the eight fun
suffrage States which have not intro
duced prohibition. Kansas. the other full
suffrage State. has been mentioned as
having been won to prohibition by male
voters.
In the light Of these statistics. the re-
suit Of the voting influence Of women
against the saloon in the recent Illinois
election. fades into inSiCnifiCanCe. Suf-
fraEe speakers and writers. forgetting
what has not been accomplished by wOm-
en- voters will still insist that if women
are enfranchised in other States. they
will bring about prohibition Illinois
Iwhere. don't forget. only local option
was the issue as regarded liquor will
he held up As an example Of what wOm-
en- will 90 with the vote.
The suffragists never tell the fun
story because it hurts their cause. They
eXaCgerate on the exceptions. and play
hard for publicity along such lines. They
will hardly mention that ~ per cent of
the men voters Of Illinois cast their
ballots for temperance. Nor will they
state that 16o.O" women entitled to vote
in Chicago remained away from the
polls. The women who did vote in Chi
caGo helped to defeat their own nine
women candidates for city council. Miss
didates. publicly expressed her disap-
pointment that some Of the women who
promised to vote for her proved disloyaI
and deserted. The women proved do
cidedly partisan. refusing to rally to the
support of candidates of their own sex.
or to help nonpartisan candidates. Yet.
suffrage orators and writers have said
that women at the polls will be nonpar-
tiSan. Who believes it,
TIL
made over woman suffrage might lead
the uniformed into believing that
women have been enfranChised to
great extent throughout the country. II
might be startling. therefore. to some
feminists to learn that the population of
the nine full suffrage States exceeds that
of Pennsylvania by only 6S. 43o,
Official census figures. the last obtain
able and the only reliable information
anybody has as TO population. gave the
number of residents in the mines suffrage
States as follows: