Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-08-04
Horse Jumps Into Auto and Injuries
Woman Occupant.
Estates Rights" Doctrine

Congressman who oppose the Fed
eral amendment for woman suffrage
today allege States rights" as their
reason. Suffrage, they say, must be
granted by the States. The sovereign
ty of the State must not be inter1ereo
with by the national government.
The subject of voters qualifications
fs a subject for State control and not
for the national government.
There NAV be a few congressman
who honestly adduce this as reason
for opposing women suffrage as a
subject for congressional legislation.
With most, it is fair to say, TINS
states rights argument is merely a
snhterfuge. They feel that they are
likely to be embarrassed by having
to go on record on woman suffrage
If they vote against it, they line Ut
the women in their district against
them: if they vote in favor of 1t, they
NAV be voting against the policy OF
their President and party and against
the opinions of many people who are
still ruled by prejudice or ignorance.
The congressman wants to dodge;
so he relegates the question TO the
States
Obviously, the question as to
whether or not 1t is right for women
to vote is unaffected by State lines.
Whether 1t is expedient for her To
vote is equally unaffected by state
lines What is true on the Kentucky
side of the Ohio river is equally true
on the Indiana side of the river, and
what is true in Western Kentucky
cannot be false in Eastern Illinois.
The women citizens of the United
states are not so different on one side
of an imaginary line from those on
the other side of it as to make some
At to govern themselves and the
Others unfit. There is no reason why
state boundaries should be consider
ed in determining whether women
shall have the franchise.
When this Democratic Congress
and President decided to frame up a
banking and currency bill and DECIDED
to divide the country into great pusi-
ness districts, they did not. CONSIDER
State lines The banking reserve dls-
tricts were carved out on the map
regardless Of State lines; their
boundaries have to do merely with
the economic conditions IN certain
geographic sections.
All political problems nowadays
are business problems. The principal
accomplishments of this Congress
have been enactments dealing with
economic subjects. The tariff, the
banking act, the trust bills, the canal
tolls repeal-all these have TO do WITT
manufacturing commerce, credits
and money. So far as they are con-
cerned the United States might as
| Hell be without State boundaries
! The money affected is as much thu
money of women as it is of men. The
ownership affected is as much th'
ownership of females as it is of males
| The taxes paid are paid as much by
women as by men. The welfare O.
| commerce and the vitality of credi
! are as much in the interest of womer
as of men. 1t would have been jus
as sensible to say that the tariff is {
| local issue and should be handled b.
/ the States; that banking is a loca
issue and should be confined by regu
lations within State boundaries. an,
| that the trusts. being creatures of tn
States, incorporated by State law
and owing their existence to the SOW
ereignty OF the States, should be lef
exclusively to the States for their reg
ulation and contradiction Gardner