The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-05-04
What Woman Suffrage Has Done
for Chicago.

Chicago, the greatest city of the West, had
given women the right to help In municipal
matters, and it will be an awful jolt to the
balance of the sisterhood, living In other
States, to know that the present city admin
lstration of Chicago is the rottenest in many
years
One of the most despicable characters of the
city was known as bath House John" Just
what the rest of his name was, doesn't matter,
but he was the embodiment of all that stood
for graft, in every phase of the word.
Probably because of the type Of man who
lived off Chicago politics, and made so fat a
living at that, the suffrage movement was
really regarded as means of salvation, and
the workers In it's interest were earnest and
honest In their convictions.
All newspaper readers are familiar with
the unsavory disclosures that have been made
from time to time, of the political conditions
in this very large and very wealthy city,
whose population is so largely composed of
foreig ners.
AS a rule it isn't considered good policy to
reproduce "clipping" of any length, but the
Macon News has written so precisely along
the line of argument that this page has stood
for, in the matter of woman suffrage, the
entire editorial is given herewith
Under the caption of bath House john .
the News said:
The sufragettes have been noticeably
quiet since the election in Chicago when
Bath House John,'' of the most noto-
rious characters the Windy City has
produced, rode into Office on wave of
ballots cast by women their maiden jour
ney to the polls The embodiment of all
that is bad, both personally and politically,
the Chicago ward boss is hardly the kind of
candidate to which suffragettes can point
with any great degree Of pride
Just what excuse the women of the Windy
City, who have been raising such an awful
rumpus about voting, have to offer for Sir
Johns victory is not clear at present. That
they cannot deny they responsible for his
victory is certain. He received more than
four times many women's votes did his
opponent, said to be really worthy man.
Whatever the may Offer
however, it is evident either that women are
more to be trusted to vote they should
than men, else that the women who would
have voted on the side of decency and right
in that Chicago election stayed away from
the polls while others did not. There can be
other possible explanation for the result,
which speaks for itself.
And, whether it is to both of these
causes that Bath House John owes his
latest political triumph equal suffrage in
Chicago has proven again that the contention
of the suffragettes, who hold votes for
women panacea for all our political ills is
without the semblance of foundation in fact
There are two things to be considered IN
this: the enormous foreign population, in
which the women are ruled absolutely by the
men who are husbands, fathers or 'bosses,
and the fact that the men who rule these
women, are ruled in turn by the political
bosses, under many and various names.
The element of immoral women in Chica 90
is enormous; at one time the city itself was
designated as the wickedest, from police re-
ports and criminal data, generally, of any in
the United States.
The immoral woman lives by the grace of
the men who control the police and the politi-
cal Offices