Norwich bulletin., 1916-09-09
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Women Have Not Availed Themselves
 of Suffrage.

MT. Editor: As your columns are always open to the best thoughts of the day for the good of the communi- ty. and for children in particular ask to be permitted to call the attention of your feminine readers to the fact that Sept 14th is the date for new voters to enroll. It is many years since Connecticut gave her women the school suffrage. They have not avail ed themselves of the privilege and re- spOnsibility as they should have, pos sibly because they have confused it with woman suffrage. School suffra ge has absolutely nothing to do with woman suffrage. Politicians would like to throw dust into the eyes of women and thoughtless men, for political req sOns-they know that they cannot use the women to further their political schemes. Women all over Connecticut are waking up to a sense of their re- spOnsibility in school matters. The state has generally adopted the plan cf placing women on the school board. Women are not as keen to accept school suffrage as they should be, since the schools are next to the homes in moulding the character of our chil- dren. "'Tis education forms the com mon mind" and this can be best done only by the cooperation of men and women on our school boards. In an issue of School Progress is the fol- lowing common sense reasons why women should be on school boards:
 The board of education is 8 body or citizens chosen to act for the par ents and the community in equipping and maintaining our schools in the best manner possible. It is an az -k1lowledged fact that every child learns more in the first five years Of its life than it does in the next ten,
 Every mother will recall with what grief she parted with her little six year old when she placed him in the first grade in school, where one-third Of his waking hours are to be spent under other influences in determfnfng which neither she nor any other moth CT nas any part.
 Who is it that visits the school rooms? To whom is a note sent in regard to conditions of health or be- havior and who does the Investigating !? Always the mother.
 Is not a widowed mother with one or more children much more interested in the education of her offspring than the man who sits on the board who either has no children or whose chil- dren are beyond school age?
 Consider the fact that in nearly ev- cry school building 75 per cent. of the faculty is made up of women teachers; 7; Tn some cases this percentage runs as high as 95 With no woman on the school board these teachers are with OuL 9EpEeSeu LdLlOH. some persons as sert that women should not serve be- cause of their ignorance of business. Any woman who can manage the finances of a household is capable of carrying on any school business
 In several communities in this state (Penn) you will find that the per- sonnel of the board of education is equally divided between men and women.
 In fact, there are @ great many men and women who are strongly opposed to equal suffrage who will assert there should be women on the school board. Christian women are not doing their duty when they shirk their responei- bility toward the public schools. They do stirlf 1t when they refuse to be qualified as voters on school matters. If this is to be a religious nation women must realize that our public schools come before the Sunday school, for our children are in Sunday school put one day In the week and in day school five days. We hear. very much these days about the "man behind the gum in our preparedness speeches we want to hear more about the worn- en behind our schools, for they are needed there as much as the mother behind tho home" It is the mother heart that must speak in unison with the father heart on our school boards. Women of Connecticut enroll as voters on school matters Sept f&nh, Remember you are responsible for the