The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-28
Education, NOT
BALLOTS, Need
nti-Sufragist Argues There
Are Too Many Laws
Already.
PROTEST FROM PUBLIC
Should Vote Be Given Women, Femi-
mist Would Become Tyrant. Mrs.
George P. White Prophesies.
BY MRS. GEORGE p. WHITE,

| In letter in regard to his address
before the Boston Bar Association, Mr..
Taft said:
! Il called attention to the fact that
| there have been passed by Congress
| and the State legislatures in the last
| four years $1,000 laws, and that such
a mass of legislation was an evil Of
| burdensome proportions, as we are
| rapidly finding out. This excess of leg
| islation l attributed to two causes
| The first was the erroneous belief
that any reform could be accomplish
ed merely by legislation, and the sec
! ond was that Legislators are prone to
enact laws, not because they believed
their enforcement would do any good
/ or because they had their enforcement
I in mind, but only because their votes
would profit them politically"
In another paragraph of his letter.
Mr.. Taft shows how men have been
! led to vote against their own con-
victions merely to secure the ap-
/ prevail and support of a comparatively
4 small element in the electorate whose
votes they feared might defeat them"
Protest from Public.
There has been a general public
protest against too much legislation.
Calls for early adjournments of legis-
lative bodies in many leading papers
when a State legislature was stopped
in its sessions by smallpox. indicate
to every thinking person that there Is
a wide public demand for less law
making, especially for the sort that
merely plays to the political galleries
The real demands of the American
public center about better enforce
ment of the laws we have and the ad-
dition of only such measures as are
proved to he constructive, and based
on the intelligent convictions, instead
of the political fears, of legislators.
The Laws We Need.
There are thousands of laws before
our various legislatures now Child la
Dor laws, workmen's compensation
laws. laws of limitation of the hours
of labor for women and children. and
laws in line with safety first" prin-
ciples are among those that command
our greatest attention. The most
notable feature about the framing of
legislation on these subjects is that
marked agreement exists as to the
principles of such laws but wide
difference develops in regard TO the
justice and expediency OF certain pro-
visions
Minimum wage laws, and eight-hour
laws. for instance. have not proved al
together satisfactory. and the remark
able pleas that have been made
against them have not come from any
business interests" but from editors
and labor leaders who raise the point
that these laws often work hardship
to the very class they were designed
to protect. All legislation is n deep
subject that ought to get the best
study the part OF our lawmakers,
and should be developed in accordance
with the widest possible range of data
on it's actual effect where tried. or
its probable benefit if tested for the
first time. Political coercion in the en-
actment of laws that are in reality
nothing but clever epigrams. or cam
paign slogans. and serve no purpose
but to make their sponsors popular for
the moment back home" can have but
one possible effect-the multiplied ton
of useless and ill-considered legisla-
ton to crowd our courts, create I'M
certainty and industrial depression,
and promote more public disrespect for
our laws a whole.
SuHraEists and "Antis."
Good laws for women and children
are desired by both men and women,
by suffragists ana anti-suffragists
The suffragists believe that the quick
est and best way to get better laws is
to give women the vote-give them
Po"ti W CotTCt lne l6SlS-
lature into enactirs any particular
measure they desire. The "antis." on
the other hand. believe that all laws
ought to be based on the intelligent
convictions of the men who are ap-
pointed to frame them. not on the |
clamor of some small element in the |
electorate that is able to exercise-or |
claim-a balance of power" and issue |
'blac klists'' against every man who |
votes against its edicts.
But the main argument the ants !
advance in this connection is that the |
women with the vote have been able |
to get no constructive legislation that |
they have not also gotten without the |
vote. whereas the best laws made for |
women and children are made in male |
suffrage States.
Back to First PLANT.
This is not idle assertion, and |
numerous lists have been published |
from time to time on the subject, but |
the most significant proof of it is that
the suffragists themselves have re-
Gently gone all the way back to the
original list of grievances they got
up in 1S4S. for samples of "discrim-
nation" against women. and are now
exploiting photo-drama picturing
laws and conditions that only might
have happened"-in six States of the
Union, three of which, lawyers say.
are woman suffrage States! 1t would
be impossible in all the other States,
with Pennsylvania leading the way
with its married woman's property
act. passed April IL, 1S4S. and its
equal guardianship law and maternal
appointment of testimentary guardian,
enacted in 1881 and 1894.
Equal guardianship laws were
among the original demands and vet
Wyoming, with forty-five years of
woman suffrage. has not granted them
TO women The only laws-of doubt
full beneft-monopolized by States
where women vote, are the eight-hour
laws for women in certain industries
in five suffrage States. in two of which
the ballot In twenty-five States
legislation affects women,
as well as men. in certain public en-
pigments, while provisions for zone
days rest in seven" ''fifty-four hours
a week" and the maternity acts that
safeguard the salary of the woman
worker during motherhood. are only /
present where women do not vote
Good Laws Through Educatie..
As New York legislator recently |.
wrote to the suffragists. il is public
opinion, and not pure politics, that
leads TO the framing of good laws
And even Meyer London, the Social
st. recently declared that laws should
not be passed until assured of public