Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-01-10
Extracts From
"Why Man Needs
W0man'S Ballot"
(By Clifford Howard)

That was the attitude of the public
only fifty years ago: that same public
that has persistently opposed the adj
vancement of woman; and now that
she has advanced, in spite OF opposi-
ton and ridicule and persecution, and
has shown her true worth and her true
abilities and powers, this same intol-
Grant public is not only obliged to adj
nit her capabilities, but weuld now
make OF them an argument against
granting her the franchise, because,
forsooth, woman is smart enough to
accomplish all she wants without the
| ballot.
| Could there be presented any strong
er argument in favor of woman suf-
frage than the civic work accom-
plished by women without the ballot?
Has she not shown US her fitness to be
clothed with the full powers of citi-
zenship? She has served splendid
probation in the last few years and
comes to US with credentials that we
dare not ignore.
| In al her work she has felt and has
been made to feel her political in
feriorty, and although she has &C
complished much, there is much more
that she has been unable to do, simply
because she lacks the power to enforce
her wishes. Let one example suffice.
| For fifty-five years the women of
Massachusetts sought to obtain law
making the mother an equal guardian
with the father over the child. Rea-
sonable and just as this law was, the
women OF Massachusetts did not sue
coed in securing it until a great trag-
| edy aroused the state. On the other
hand, the women of Colorado desiring
| the same law, secured it in just one
year.
| In this single instance, chosen out of
! hundreds, we have an illuminating eX-
ample of the difference between the
power of the woman without the bal
lot and the power of the woman who
stands equal with the man as a politi
cal sovereign.
Furthermore, it must be remem-
bered that the securing of good laws
is, after all. only half the battle If
these laws are not properly enforced
they are well-nigh useless. Many of
our public spirited women of today are
| finding their chief work In endeavor-
ing to secure a proper administration
of the laws that they have been instru-
mental in introducing. 1t is one of the
hardest tasks and one of the most dis
couraging of all with which the women
of today have to contend. They find
the men, the public officials, unsym-
pathetic and indifferent, and against
this indifference and lack of sympathy
| it is well-nigh impossible to make any
headWaye These men are the public
servants, as much the servants of the
women as of the men, and yet the wo-
linen have no control over them and
have no choice whatsoever in their Sc
lection. They are obliged to accept
them, and the results are fully as dis
heartening and confusing as if the
housewife were obliged to employ only
such help as her husband insisted
upon selecting for her and whom she
could neither discipline nor remove for
violation of her household rules.
The only remedy for such q condition
of affairs is to give the woman the
ballot, that she may express direct
choice in the elction of public officials.
Surely, if we are today permitting wo-
men to help us in the training of good
laws, and are gladly availing ourselves
OF their voluntary services, and their
| Judgment and advice upon matters in
which we acknowledge their superior
intelligence, surely, / say, they deserve
| in return the right to help us select our
public servants.