The Washington herald., 1915-04-18
SEES Menace IN
FIGHT FOR VOTE
Mrs. Stoddard Says Efforts to
Prove Vice Rampant
Imperils Morals.
THINKS REVERENCE GONE
THINKS REVERENCE GONE
1t Has Been Replaced by Boldest
Speech and Action. Asserts
Opponent of Ballot.


Of suffragists to convince the world that
vice is rampant. In her advertisement
of this statement and the mad rush for
the ballot, reverence has been displaced
by boldest speech and action. The ma
jority of women do not want enfran-
/ chisement. They feel that the duties
which are necessarily theirs no one but
| themselves can perform and that to ac-
| cept political responsibilities would be to
| risk and sacrifice the highest interests
| of their families and society over which
| they have complete sway. SuffragiStS
! are great theorists and most inconsistent
| in their theory. On the one hand, they
| are willing TO take a law which may
| have been passed since women voted in
| some State. lauding il to the skies and
staining special recognition OF their eff
| forts in its behalf, at the same time ut
| terly failing to acknowledge a law equal
| ~ good if not better brought into being
| by male suffrage state years before.
Equal Guardian ship Law.
They Glamour about an equal guardian
| ship law. especially the one in Colorado
| which has only been of recent express
| sion and not placed there through its
| women's vote. but brought about by
| woman in Buffalo residing at the time
and help of Mrs. George Townsend. of
Buffalo. who had put through A similar
! measure in New York the year before.
We do not hear a suffragist relate this
fact when speaking of Colorado's equal
guardianship laws nor do we hear her
remark that Wyoming. with woman suf-
frage of forty-fve years standing, has
no guardianship law upon its books.
Colorado is the only suffrage State out
: -
law. The trouble with the suffragists is
they do not play fairly in the game
which they have undertaken.
We have had our petty rivalres in love
affairs. dress. pride of housekeeping. de-
velopment of our children. college am
bition and social prominence, but all Of
these things have never reached an
open warfare or a pronounced dccIara-
ton of strife. We have had our differ
"nres of opinion in WAYS and means Of
carrying on our woman's work through
the various boards Of charitable organ
izatiOns and commissions. hut not until
this violent question OF women in poll
tics arose did W" have two deliberately
arranged antagonistic forces Of women
modified war between women-woman
arrayed against woman
This is the most deplnra hlc phase ~
tn" whole situation. Suffrage has
brought about the parting Of tho ways
where women stand. and if it were drop
ped this moment. tho deadly seed has
been sown and the harvest must surely
follow. II women 20 into politics with
mau'S methods. il will only react upon
her to n disastrous degree. and il she
carries into politics woman's WAYS and
methods she will he unable to cope with
the situation. Women arc not good
losers a rulc and inclined to cloat
as viCtors. When their deepest feelings
arc aroused through strong desires and
emotionalsm Of spirit. they are bitter
fChters-as kirlinG has expressed it
The female Of the species is more dead
" than the male
Complex Game Of Politics.
We have seen it all down through his
tory where woman and her spirit was
involved. This game of politics. which
is complex today. will il not become in
finitely more SO with women minelinC
in it" Will she not suffer all the handi-
caps that men endure plus all her own.
and will We not he duplicating energy
or msplacing energy to a violent degree?
Think of the effort, time and money that
has already BEEN scattered during the
past fifty years on this issue Think of
our progress so far without the vote in
that length of time. hTink Of what that
money and energy could have brought
about and how much more quickly. and
what lines of reform and upift work
could have been accomplished.
Each year that passes sees the tide
OF remedial legislation rising. During
the past twenty years nearly every State
IN the Union has taken practical meas
ures for the protection of minors who
are wage carriers. The last three years
show the most remarkable progress in
States which ho,d Io,isIa,i snto,'n
important improvements were made in
fve-Arizona. Minnesota. Maryland,
Mississippi and Rhode Island. and in
1919 of fOrty-three States holding Iccis-
lativc sessions. thirty-rwo enacted bills
bearing child labor Vet the suffra-
gsts delight in announcing the lack of
interest and activity along these lines
taken by the men. This seems most I'M
just toward our deserving men. for in
studying up the laws for children which
exist in suffrage and nonsuffraCe States. |
we learn the best child labor laws arc
found not in States where women vote. |
but in those States where men only have
the franchise-for instance. in Washing
ton. woman suffrage State since 1910. |
any child, hoy or girl, ten years of age. |
is permitted to beg. pedde sing on
the street for gain, while in Colorado, |
twenty-five years woman suffrage !
State. the only restriction imposed by i
the State legislature for this kind of |
work relates to girls under ten years. !
there being no interference ubatoyer