The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-05-31
WOMEN OF LEE
ASK SUFFRAGE.
Canvass Of the District Rrinsa to
Light Very Few Who Do Not
Want Voice In Affairs
Of State.
REST CASE WITH MEN
Suffrage Workers Feel That Wom-
ems Request For Ballot viii
Not be Refused on
Juno S.

Someone said rev days ago 10
Keokuk woman who has most of the
good things of life, Why do you
want to vote? Haven't you all the
comforts you need and have the laws
of Iowa ever oppressed you. The
woman said, Yes. have all | need
to eat and to wear, and comfortable
home and the laws of the state do
not Cypress me, but am so glad that
j have wide enough vision to see
other women who live and labor in
hard places and to see little children
who are at work when they ought to
be at play. Because the woman's vote
does help conditions such as these
in industrial centers, is why want
the vote for women"
Another woman who was in the
company said, Il know it does help
conditions, but even if votes for
women didn't change conditions in the
least l should still want to vote be-
cause it Is right and just that women
as well as men should vote in de-
mocracy." The women of this city
and Of this county can every one
give a reason for the faith that Is
within them. A careful canvass of
Keokuk and of the southern division
Of Lee county has brought to light
very few women who do not wish
to vote. The reports show only one
woman out in the county among the
many interviewed who said she didn't
want suffrage. Here in the city there
are few, but the most diligent work
on the part Of some of the Burlington
women has failed to bring about an
anti-suffrage league. On two occasions
these diligent up-river anti-sutfragists
have sent won en- here to organize,
they have written many letters and
even sent Colonel Irish as the crown
ing effort; that no organization of any
sort could be effected ought to answer
the objection of the man who says,
I'D vote for equal suffrage if /
thought the women wanted ii"
Few Men Oppose II.
There are few men in Keokuk
who say they do not favor equal suf-
frage and when asked why these are
some of the answers they give:
Most frequently they said, 1.-The
woman's place is in the home" When
one man said that few days ago,
the suffragist who was talking with
him said, Yes, think SO, too. But
suppose all the women in Keokuk who
earn their living outside their homes
there, that the woman's place is in
the home. Who would support them,
and how would the work in the fac
tories, in the stores and offices be
done? 1t is all well enough to say
woman's place is in the home, but it
isn't economically possible for them
to stay there, unless some of them
starve.
In New York during the suffrage
campaign the women undertook to an
swer that argument by asking every
woman in that city to stay at home
just one day. The men saw. how it
would have tied up business complete
ly, the stores. Offices and factories
would have been at stand still, and
the commercial exchange sent word
to suffrage headquarters begging them
not to ask the women to stay in their
homes even for one day.
Believe They Can Help.
Some men give as their reason.
Whats the use, it won't help politi-
cal conditions" Suffragists believe it
will for this reason: Men are wiser
| than women about some things, and
women are wiser than men about
others. Together they possess all the
wisdom there is. and more than is
possessed by either sex alone. Surely
the state needs all the wisdom there
is to deal with the many and conoli-
Gated problems now pressing for So
luton, Colonel Irish on his recent,
visit here, said some pretty severe
things about the voting privilege
lowering the morals of women. His
statements would have had greater
effect perhaps if he had been talking.
To a Keokuk audience about some
other state than California. Too
many Iowa people go to California
and get their knowledge of conditions
there first hand TO believe anything
he might say against the morals Of
the California women.
few men have said they did not
favor equal suffrage because it would
increase the cost of election. As Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Gait says that's a
kind of shabby argument, even if it
were true because women tax payers
for years and years and years have
helped pay the expenses for men to
vote alone. Anybody who will think,
a minute can answer this argument
for himself. About twenty-five per-
cent of the voters on an average
voted at the last primary election and
yet that election cost as much as
presidential election when there is
the biggest vote gotten out In both
elections there are the same number
of polling places, the same judges
and clerks and the ballots are printed
whether they are used Or not.
Arguments Fall Down.
But whatever theories anyone may
have on the evil results of equal suf-
frage, either upon the state or upon
the women themselves, they fall down
in the face of facts.
For twenty years" says Alice
Stone Blackwell, editor of The Worn-
>an's Journal active anti-sufragists