New Britain herald., 1917-04-02
MAJORITY OF WOMEN DON'T WANT TO VOTE
So Miss Minnie Bronson Tells
 Methodist Churchsoers

q suffragists/ and the anti-suffrasdsts,
 explained Miss Minnie Bronson, gen.
 eral sepretary of the National Asso-
 ctation Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
 It the evening service of the Metho- dist church last night, ia the opinion
 as to the methods of doing the great est good to the community and the country. Both the suf1ragists and
 the anti-spffragists stand on the com- mon ground of wanting to better the country in which they live, but whore thoir paths part Is as to methods. Miss Bronson said that many people
 look upon anti-suffragists as woman of tho rich and idle classes who cara
 not how the. other half live. Many also look upon them. as allied with the bad. vicious interests, she said. To refute both arguments Miss Brof- son named a half dozen or moro of the leading anta .sir1rAeist women in tho country, sl1dS1ing thAm to be wornen0f the khest honor in 4fi classes aud women who are doing q great good in the world. Miss Bron- son said that in the state of Illinois there is woman suffrage and the snftragists point with pride to the
 fact that one of the first measures they put through was the establish ment of free kindergartens. This is 1aughabIe the speaker said, and she declared that at the time Illinois was about the 0niy state In the Union that did not have free kindergartens.
 | }, Attacking tho argument that wom- on ought to have the right to vote because they are unquestionably the mental equal Of men, Miss Bronson
 made some interesting statements. She declared that voting is not an
 inherent right but, according to the decision of the supreme court of the United States, Is a responsibility to thes state. If voting were an inherent right the right to exercise the fran chise could not De denied to people
 because they had not yet reached the age of twenty-one, or to aliens be- ceuse they had not been naturalixed The idea of majority rule. said Mss Bronson, is 90 that the few will obey the many and in this respect she said thaA physical force enters into ! the arguAent, Tor instance, she said,
 nine bad men will vote against a
 measure. but ten good men will vote
 for 1t, therefors the nine bad men
 obey betause they know that tho
 ten good men have the physical
 strength with which to enforce their
 wishes. However. I don't believe
 that nine bad men woui obey any
 good law just because ten good wom- en voted for it, the speaker said. Men and women are very much alike in their opinions and woman. rather than standing by her sex. will stand l by hhr own, Miss Bfonson said. To support this argument she referred to the recent president election in H.
 hnois where the vote cast for Charles E. Hughes by the mentwas practically the same as that cast by the women,
 making the ultimate result of the election not one bit different.
 Not Win of a Majority.
 The suffragist movement is not . said, because majority of the women
 throughout the cDdntry do not wait 1t. A vast majority of the women in the United States either are op- posed to voting or are entirely in- different. "Llet the women of the country vote on the question and if even very small minority vote in favor of suffrage we will cease our anti-suffrage activities and bow to their will," Miss Bronson said.
 To prove that the question is not g. democratic one Miss Bronson men, toned Ohio where suffrage four years ago was defeated by 89.OO0 votes. Two years ago it was defeated by the overwhelming majority of 1S3,000 votes. Seeing that they could not win by democratic appeal to the voters the suffrage element went to the legislature and finally succeeded in getting their bill passed. despite the fact that so vast a majority of the voters had registered against it, The question. Miss Bronson said. is whether women can do the most good by working along political lines or working in other ways. It is on this question that the suffragists and anti