Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-10-07
Suffrage
And Colorado
BY Anita c. Block

One of the questions that the So
cialist woman who goes out to speak
for suffrage has to ansker most fire.
quently is: IF woman suffrage is
such a good thing why haven't the
women voters of Colorado done any
thing to stop the terrible labor trou-
bles there?"
To answer this it is necessary for
us to understand what is the relation
of women AS SUCH to the great la
Dor struggle, or class struggle that is.
going on in every State and every
country today, and that, on account Of
local conditions, happened to take on
it's fercest and most brutal aspect in
Colorado.
What is this class struggle, or con-
slant battle, between labor and CAPT
tai? 1t is the struggle on the part OF
the working people to get their just
share of the worlds goods. They
want what they are entitled to in re-
turn for what their labor has produc-
ed, instead of getting merely a miser-
able little fraction of it in the form
Of wages, while most Of it is claimed
and kept by their employers as their
own legitimately earned profits.
So whenever labor troubles are
on, as in Colorado, it means that the
wage workers are fighting for their
own interests as against all other in
terests.
NoY,. what basis has any one for i'm
aginfng that woman AS SUCH,
when she is not of the working class
and possesses entirely different inter-
ests from those of the working class,
will nevertheless champion their
cause just because she is a woman?
Is it not absurd to fancy that the
women of the capitalist class are go
ing to fight their own husbands and
sons and fathers and brothers on be-
half of the working class? Is it not
absurd to think they will fight for the
interests of other women's children
and against the interests of their own
children?
Some women not of the working
class in Colorado supported the strik-
ing miners, but then so did some men
not of the working class. Both did
it because they believe that the cause
of the workers is just. Neither did
it because of their sex.
When we who are fighting the bat
tie of the working class demand votes
for women, we lay special emphasis
on the need of the working woman
for the vote so that she can PRO-
TECT HER OWN INTERESTS. That
is what the vote is for, to give all
adult men and women the power to-
protect their own interests.
Therefore we can have no quarrel
with woman suffrage because the cap
italist women in Colorado have been
voting for what they consider their
own interests. That is what the vote
is for.
Had the workingmen and working
women of Colorado realized all these
years that that is what the vote us
for, and had they voted in their own |
interests, we should not be calied-up-
on SO often to answer this question
about woman suffrage and Colorado.
For then they would not have needed
the votes of other women in Colorado
to stop their slabor troubles" They
would themselves have stopped them
by the intelligent use Of their own
votes-of united working class vote.
Women are entitled to the vote not !,
because they are all-wise angels, butt
because they are ordinary human be-
lngs striving equally with men to !,
solve the problems of life.
Carpenters at Lancaster. Pa. have