The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-09-21
A WOMAN'S PROTEST AGAINST
SUFFRAGE

leu ~ IHt NOlt4S Vi SOull bdhOld Al
the presidential election, November :
The ballot is not a natural right. II
is a responsibility which the state i'm
poses or withholds at its own pleasure.
The question of who shall exercise the
franchise is one of expediency. II is a
political question and all political
questions are properly determined
from the standpoint of the states ad
vantage.
Material to this question of the
states advantage is the question OF
whether ome generally desire the
ballot. For eternal vigilance at cleo
tons and in the Investigation of public
men and measures is the price Of
liberty from disagreement. The
willingness of a sex TO assume respon-
sibility for the management of public
affairs is therefore material to tn
question of whether it should be bur,
dened with this responsibility.
Hence, in dealing with a woman
suffrage proposal, the first step should
be to submit the proposition to the
ONE of the state. If they approve
We may fairly assume that they will
accept their responsibilities cheer
fully and discharge them vigilantly.
However, if the women in the majority
fail to approve the proposal, the fair
inference will be that the frachise re-
sponsibility, if imposed upon them,
will be shirked by the majority of wo.
men to the disadvantage of the state.
In all states government suffers
more from indifference in the e~lector-
ate than from all other causes com
bined. This Indifference is most marx
ed in the oma suffrage states. They
cast a smaller proportion of their po-
tential vote than the adjoining states
in which men alone vote.
The assumption that suf-
frage helps the cause of temperance
by increasing the proportion Of anti
saloon votes is a mistaken one. Mon
tana and Nevada, woman suffrage
states, are the wettest in the Union.
California, under woman suffrage,
gave a majority of 200, 900 against pro-
hibition. The saloons driven out of
m~an-suffrage Iowa this year found shell
ter in Illinois, where women vote. At
East Dubuque, H., at the city and
township elections last spring, 20 per
cent, and "A per cent of the women
voted to license saloons. Temperance
has been and can be advanced without
woman suffrage. Socialism and
and Feminists of the East are hoping
for a woman suffrage victory in South
Dakota this fall. They wish to see the
sex liberated from the present code Of
Christian morality and they see in the
gradual spread of woman suffrage an
eventual means to this end.
Straw votes" taken by suffragists
with intent to show that this response
bility is desired by the women of
South Dakota are entitled to no more
credit than the suffragists themselves
accord them when they refuse to sub
NIT the question to a jury composed
of the women of South Dakota and not
of the men voters. Their national as
ISOLATION admits hat it does not speak
for a majority of the ONE Of this
country and explains that 'the major
ity never wants progress"
This is a mistake. The majority is
always for progress, but progress
means saving, not wasting. The OBJ
ject of elections is to record public
opinion. Where women vote they
merely reflect the public opinion re-
corded at the same election by the
men voters. Man-suffrage states have
furnished the models for all the popu-
lar legislation accomplished in double
suffrage states. Double suffrage means
nothing more nor less than doubling
the expenditure of time, money and
effort involved in recording just such
opinion and obtaining just such re-
suits as would have been recorded and
obtained without diverting the atten-
ton of women from their peculiar in
terests and thrusting them into a poll
teal strife distasteful to the majority
of the sex.
Sincerely believing that our senti-
ments are shared by the majority of
the women of South Dakota. and be-
lieving with Elihu Root and Bishop
Vincent that woman suffrage means 4
loss to woman and a loss to the state,
we ask the men of this commonwealth
to Vote No on the Woman Suffrage
Amendment. Respectfully,
Mrs. C. M. HOLSTER, President,
Mrs. j. L. Lockhart, vice-President,
Mrs. s. s. Ruble, Treasurer,
Mrs. E. Jacobsen, Secretary.
South Dakota Auxiliary of the National