The Washington herald., 1914-04-26
"SCHOOL VOTE
NOT POPULAR"
Anti Says Women Prefer to
Leave Such Questions
to Men.
POINTS TO STATISTICS
Mrs. Joseph M. Stoddard Shows Suf-
fragists Have Refused to Vote on
Educational Matters.

Some statistics about the enfranchise.
ment Of women on school legislation show
rather concIusively that women do moi
desire to vote and are quite willing tc
leave important questions to the men
Thirty-six States have suffrage for wom-
en- on school matters and less than
per cent Of the women avail themselves
of this opportunity.
II is like putting ones head in the
sand along with the ostrich TO demand
political suffrage when facts about school
suffrage confront the women who have
this power and refuse to use it.
Listen to a short story about school
elections OF Pasadena. Cal. on NOvemb"r
u. 1918. At an election November l..
Pasadena failed to vote bonds to repair
leaky roofs and make sanitary repairs
on school houses. to complete new school
houses under construction and to make
il possible to provide school for the en-
tire school year. The superintendent Of
schools said the school year will have
to be cut a month or two and some
schools will have to close when rain be-
gins
Bonds Voted Down.
1t happened to rain November 12 in
Pasadena and some thought the bonds
might have carried had the vote been
taken on a fair day when the women
could more conveniently get to the polls.
so IL was decided to have another cleo
ton to vote for bonds in a less amount
than was voted on November T. So on
January IS. 1914. a fair day. another cleo
tion was held and the bonds were again
defeated so the voters OF Pasadena de-
cided that the repair of Ieaky roofs and
sanitary improvements of school houses.
as well as Fairgrounds for the children
were to be indefinitely postponed. The
total vote for and AGAINST the bonds was
4.32. Only 90 per cent of the voters
were interested enough to go to the polls
at election January l6.
Is this an example OF women caring
ono way or another about voting on inn
portant questions? Massachusetts also
furnishes interesting information on this
subject. In 1879 at an urgent demand by
the suffragists. the school franchise was
granted to women. Any woman citizen
of Massachusetts, over twenty-one years
OF age Is entitled to register and vote for
the candidates for the school committee.
There is no poll tax. no property quail
fcation and the rights belong to all wom-
en- throughout the Commonwealth.
The Boston Globe Of January 10. 1919,
says: This years election was the
tnlrty-1ourth IN Which women voters OF
Boston participated. In the fifteen years
93.4 per cent of those registered
voted. In the fifteen years. ls9i-19Os, 63.7
per cent voted. For the four years. 1870
1913 (no election in 1907. II was so per
cent. In two cities and 1os towns having
!. .467 women registered not a woman voted
in 1910 Besides those los municipalities
there were sixty-nine towns in which no
either registered or voted, so it
appears that out OF 354 cities and towns
there were only III or 49, per cent, in
which women voted for school commit
ices in 1910
Few Ever Register.
Among the sixty-nine towns in which
no women registered or voted in 1910,
there were two which had upward of
900 MISUNDERSTANDING and Meth
len. In Peabody and Weymouth with
over 1900 and 1900 inha abitants respec-
lively, no women voted. although forty
,ne registered in the first town and 5S4
n the second. In Dedham with over
1000 inhabitants, fifty-ive registered but
lone voted. In Braintree with over 5000
inhabitants. but three were registered and
lone voted.