The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1917-08-30
THE OTHER SIDE
Voter Replies 10 Local Suhragists'
Appeal
To the lndependent-Reporter.

An appeal of the local suffrage ~o-
men to the voters of Skowhegan,
which appeared in the independents
Reporter OF August 18th deserves
some notice because of the false
grounds upon which the appeal is
made
1t is a strange contradiction when
women are compelled to look to men
To save them from their own sex And
yet such is the situation in Maine To-
day when a minority of women are
seeking through the electorate to force
upon a majority Of women a privilege
which they do not ask for, and to
impose upon them a duty from which
they wholly shrink.
1t is a special plea of the equal
suffragists that suffrage should be
conferred upon woman because she
possesses the intelligence to properly
exercise it But as related to suf-
frage. the intelligence of woman is
not at issue To raise that issue is
begging the question, because both
sides agree that, in intelligence, wo-
man is the equal of man. The real
reasons lie far deeper than that-in
the nature of woman and not in her
intelligence.
Nor has the war changed the status
of woman in relation to the ballot.
The women of the nation are doing a
noble and humanitarian work in seek
ing to alleviate the suffering and
mseries of the war, as is their nature
and as they have done in all the wars
of civilization, to the glory and honor
of her sex. They are also supplying
the places of men in many kinds of
manual work But the issues of the
war and the responsible business of
fighting and controlling and directing
the gigantic forces of conflict are left
to the strong hands and stout hearts
of men as they should be
Indeed the gravity of this question
has been deepened by the experiences
of the war Never was the danger of
entrusting To women a share in the
government so plain as today. The
pitiful spectacle of the helplessness
Of the only woman representative in
Congress when confronted with the
stern business of voting on the war
Resolution is a warning. The states
of Kansas and California were carried
for Wilson by womens votes in the
last election on the plea that he kept
us out of war, 1t follows as the
logical sequence thht, if the power
were in the hands of the women, the
power of the government To enforce
eongcription today would be hopeless
/ lv crippled Voters. have you thought
of it in this light. and are you willing
to consciously set in motion machin-
cry and forces that would paralyzo
your government and render it help
less in times of National peril? And
yet this danger only arises becau.,
the dictates of love and sympathy il
woman rise above every other con
sideration
Another warning is seen in the
shameful and seditions conduct of th,
women suffragists picketing the Whit,
/ House Many suftragists, to their
credit. disclaim any responsibility for
this But il is Il warning, neyerthe-
less. because they put the success of
their cause above everything else
even above the welfare OF the country
in The midst of the peril and travail
Of great war.
This reply is not in answer to the
suffragists appeal alone It speaks
for the great body of nen-suilrage We
! men of SkoWhegan who neither seek
nor want the ballot because they know
that the modesty and charm of Wo-
manhood the sacredness of mother
hood and the happiness Of the home
are better preserved without it; who
from "A sense of womanly reserve
shrink from individual appeal to Vot-
ers, but leave men to impartially
Judge what best hehooyes the mother
hood and childhood of the nation
JOHN W FOGLER