The Co-operative news. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1917-1918, 1917-11-15
WOMAN SUFFRAGE
Is A NATIONAL
NECESSITY
~ Victor l.. Berger


both from political and an econ
omic standpoint. Women are part
of the demos--of the people. They
are the other half. We never can
have democratic rule until we let
the women vote. We never can
have real freedom until the women
are free. To quote the immortal
Lincoln on slavery, we cannot endure
as nation half free and half I'M
free.
WOMEN are now citizens in all
but the main expression of citizen
ship-the exercise of the vote. They
need this power to round and com
plete their citizenship. Already they
have this power in some of the
states of the union. They must
have it in all of the states in order
that their rights and powers of
citizenship may be equal everywhere
within the nation.
In political matters they have
much the same interests that we
men have. In state and national is
sues their interests differ little, if
at all, from our interests. In NUM-
cipal questions they have an even
greater interest than we have. All
the complex questions of housing,
schooling, policing, sanitation and
kindred matters are peculiarly the
interests of women as the home
maker and the rearer of chilren
Women need and must have the
ballot, by which to protect their
interests in these political and adj
ministrative questions.
The economic argument for woman
suffrage is yet stronger. Econo-
mics plays an increasingly import
ant part in all our lives, and poll
teal power is absolutely necessary to
obtain for women the possibility of
decent conditions of living. The low
pay and hard conditions of working
women are largely due to their dis
reimbursement. Skilled women who
do the same work as men for lower
pay could enforce with the ballot
an equal wage rate
The ideal woman of the men of
past generations was the housewife
the woman who could wash, cook,
serum, knit stockings, make dresses
for herself and children, and take
good care of the house. That ideal
has become impossible. Those good
old days, if ever they were good,
are gone forever.
The housewife used to wash. Now
the laundry has taken away her wash
tub and does the work better and
cheaper The "hausfrau" used to
knit stockings. Now the knitting
factories does her knitting. The
frugal housewife can buy two pairs
of stockings for quarter. She can
buy dresses cheaper and better than
she can make them.
Even the scrubbing, ironing and
housekeeping are now done by cleo
tricity. In many of the large ap-
artment houses in New York and
Washington no cooking in apart
ments is permitted. Instead, there
is one restaurant where usually they
have a man cook. And the work
ingman, as a rule, eats only one
meal day, or, at best, two meals
day, at home. The kitchen is Slip
ping away from the woman.
In the good old days, moreover,
the woman was supported by her
father first, and later by her hus-
band. The situation is entirely diff
ferent now. The woman has to 90 to
work, often when she is no more
than ID years old. She surely has
to go to work some time, if she be-
longs to the working class. She must
make her own living in the factory,
the store, the office, or in the school
room. She must work to support
herself, ant often must also support
her family.
The economic basis of the life of
woman has changed in America
as we'll as in England and Germany.
And, therefore, the argument that
woman should not vote because
she ought to stay at home and take
care of her family is an argument
the basis for which has been des-
troyed. She cannot stay at home,
whether she wants to or not. She
must go to work to take care of
her family. She has acquired the
economic function of the man, and
she ought also to acquire the fran
chise. Without that franchise she
cannot protect her interests as a
wage Garner.
1t is often maintained that wo-
men are, as rule, ignorant of pol
ltlcs, and that they would make a
mess of it if the franchise was
given them. 1t cannot, however.
he asserted that man have 49,. 1 .