Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-05-04
Shall the Women Haze the Vote?
(1Y CAROLYN SMITH HElD.)

The number of women guiding the
suffrage movement has sometimes
been small, sometimes large, but it has
always been we'll knit and strong. In
this group have been the most disting
uished women America has produced
Equal suffrage has been rightly chris.
tened, 1.-The most magnificent reform
that has yet been launched upon the
world" 1t is an organized protest to
the injustice that one-half the human
race has been subjected to-. Govern
ment was founded on tyranny and
force of arms, and the ideas of fairness
and Justice have been fighting their
way throughout the ages. 1t is no ar
gument against enfranchisement that
the old social regime of the past was
opposed to it. The most active advo-
Gates Of woman suffrage are told that
woman's sphere is not in the political
world. do not consider this a legi-
innate argument against 1t. Never has
a reform been inaugurated that the
pioneers of the movement have not
been told Of their incapability their
unftness to have that for which they
asked But they have urged their re-
quest and finally were rewarded with
q chance to try. Such has been the
case with the four million women OF
the United States, who already have
the vote. The experiment has been an
ultimate success. But what about the
millions of women in the United States
that are still unenfranchised? Men OF
Iowa, what are you going to do for the
women Of your state when the amend
ment is submitted to you?
You ask, why should our women
vote?" They should vote because it
is only just and fair that all those who
must obey the laws should have a voice
in the making of those laws. They
should vote because they live In Ameri-
ca, the greatest democracy the world
has ever known. And what is the car
dinal principle of democracy? Is it not
the wish of the majority? Can we have
a true democracy when expression OF
opinion is denied to one-half our popu-
lation?
But you say, women are represented
in way by the male members of their
households. This representation takes
no cognizance of numbers. One man
may be called upon to represent him
self, his wife and several grown daugh-
tiers. possibly two or three unmarried
sisters. Another man may be bache-
lor and have no one to represent but
himself. Since In democracy 1t is
the desire to ascertain the wish of the
ajority, how can such method of
as this possibly meet
with the approval of the sane, logical
minded men of our commonwealth?
Again women are reminded by op-
porents of their political freedom, that
If they consider the laws unjust, they
can use their influence to have them
corrected. This is slow and unsatis-
factory method. 1t is conclusively
proven when we consider the long
periods of time it has taken to bring
about sef-evidently just measures. In
Massachusetts, it took more than fifty
years to make equal the laws of in
heritance between husband and wife.
After f1fty-five years of untiring effort,
the women of Massachusetts were
granted the equal guardianship law. In
Colorado and California, the very next
next legislature after the women were
given the right to vote passed the
equal guardianship law During the
last session of the New York legisla-
ture, the notorious Bewley Canneries
bill was passed This bill removed all
restrictions upon hours of work for wo-