Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-17
EQUAL SUFFRAGE.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE.
The page of argument issued by the
association of North Dakota woman
suffrage contains a number of facts
which bear directly on the situation,
but which may or may not be inlu-
entail in deciding the QUESTION in this
state. In several other states their
influence has been negligible.
The statement that the voting fran
chise isSdesired by only a small, mi
nority Of women Is, of course, not
susceptible of direct and positive
proof by e of any data now at
hand. Answers to circular letters,
straw votes, and the like, are interest.
ing and, perhaps, useful, as far as
they 60, but as a rule they do not
convince those who do not desire in
advance to be convinced. But we be-
lieve that it Is fair to infer, from all
the data o%btainable, that only a small
percentage Of women have any strong
desire to vote, while a very consider
able number of women would greatly
prefer that the men continue to do
the voting.
The statements frequently made by
advocates of equal suffrage that the
enfranchisement of women tends to
raise political standards are not prov.
en-, if in fact, they are not disproven
by the experience of states in which
woman suffrage has been an accom-
plished fact for years. There is no
perceptible difference between the DO
litical standards of these states and
the states where women do not vote.
In those states women do not vote
together, but their votes are distrib-
uted among parties in about the same
proportion as the votes of men. This
has been shown in our school elec-
tons In this state. In the city of
Grand Forks, for instance, no matter
what the sex of the candidates for
county superintendent, while one
group of women has been working &C.
lively for n candidate, another
group of women has been working as
actively for the other. There is not
the slightest reaso to suppose that
the result of one of these elections
has been materially affected by the
votes OF women. And the introduc.
ton of the women's vote has not i'm.
proved campaigns o. campaign meth.
DDS In the least. Some women, like
some men, have voted solely with re-
gard to the public welfare, and some
women, like some men, have been in.
ftuenced by much less worthy mo-
tives.
This has been the experience, sub.
stantially, of every community where
the vote has been given to women.
There is no reason to believe that the
extension Of wamen suffrage to other
than school subjects would lead to
any different result in this state.
Some of the suffrage enthusiasts
overlook an important fact. This is
the equality, before the law, of "the
5colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady."
The same law that e%nfranchises mi
lady will e%nfranchise her maid, and
the woman who makes trouble for the
police will have exactly the same DO.
slitical standing and the same voting
privilege with the social worker. In
other words, while manhood suffrage
has conferred the vote on the good,
the bad and the Indifferent of the
male sex, woman suffrage will confer
voting rights on the good, the bad
and the Indifferent of the female sex.
With al this, the movement for
women suffrage seems likely to win.
Almost any movement will win if a
persistent and enthusiastic campaign
rs made for it, and one equally per-
tsistent and enthusiastic is not made
against it.-Grand Forks Herald.
The House committee on foreign at.
fairs has voted in favor of appropri-
ating $4,000 for Secretary of St>te
Bryan, to use in entertaining the del
egates to the fifteenth International
Anti-Alcohol Congress, to be held in
San Francisco next year. Just how
much of this fund will be used in the
purchase of grape juice is conjectural.