Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1916-10-19
AS TO EQUAL SUFFRAGE.
The Deadwood Telegram, copying an article in criticism OF q
statement recently issued by certain Sioux Falls women with regard
to suffrage. editoialy adds: :

statement recently issued by certain Sioux Falls women with regard
to suffrage, editorialy adds: a
ssThe foregoing criticism Of the estimable Sioux Falls
ladies, though somewhat harsh, is justified. No one ques-
tons their right to make known their unwlllngness to have
the voting privilege conferred upon them. But their assum-
ing to speak for any considerable number of women of the
assumption, may well be resented. And the arguments
which they advance in support Of tt their views views may 4yhpp properly q,sEly
be criticized by the women of South Dakota, who desire
to have the suffrage privilege conferred upon them.
1t might be asked, with proprety by what right the equal suf-
T 1Tagatf has ssT been to % . SPEAK oppor ton tne for GREAT tbe 00 Women en- o of South 1' Dakota 9f s.al to
register their preferences with regard to woman suffrage.
the cause, and resolutions have been adopted favoring it-but, it
may also be recalled, that three tailors met once upon a time in
1--WE, the people of Great Britain, . etc.
The Saturday News assumes that, through agitation and other
wise, a large proportion Of the women of South Dakota desire to be-
accorded the privilege of suffrage, but whether a majority Of them
The Saturday News knows Of women in WATERFOWL who are
opposed to woman suffrage. It also knows Of women in Watertown
of them favor tat any rate, they are making more fuss about it,
But it will be found, upon investigation, that hundreds of women
the question. On which side should their Indifference be eouted II
Have not the antisuffrage women as good a right to assume to speak
for them as have the sufragistsg
1t isn't a matter of for or against, 50 far as the criticism referred
to is concerned: it is a matter Of tolerance, the right of free speech,
within reasonable limitations.
So far as equal suffrage itself is concerned, the editor Of The
Saturday News has walked side by side with women to the polls in
more than twenty years, and he feels that he can speak from per-
possessed of the same sort of human instincts that the men assume
to possess. Some of them are democrats, others are republicans, a
few party prohibitionsts, and yet another few socialists.
In Denver, as an illustration, the preponderatng number of the
women OF the better class, without regard to party politics, rallied
almost as one to the support of Judge Ben Lindsay of the juvenile
court, because they believed that the judge had done something and
would continue to do something for the betterment of the youth Of
Denver.
The republican bosses and the democratic bosses, backed by
every democratic and every republican newspaper in the city, made
frantic appeals for the overthrow of Judge Lindsay, because he had
steadtastly blocked their attempts to convert the juvenile court into
a vehicle for political manipulation.
To these political cries from Macedonia, as it were, the good
republican women and the good democratic women turned deaf ears,
as they marched armin-arm to the polls to save The juvenile court
from political prostitution.
Still when the question of ;oane;n +ha sa1oon oomo ~. e..
determination they seem to have been divided in their opinions, a
good deal like the men were divided, for Denver has always gone
. wet by a substantial majority.
The Saturday News, therefore, is unable to share the views of
some that the country will go pelmell to the devil if the women are
allowed to vote.
Neither is it able to believe that all our social and economic
evils will forthwith be solved in the event of the adoption of the
leGual suffrage amendment.