The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-05-23
THE WOMAN VOTE.

The franchise for women has been practical
ly assured, through the majority vote in favor
of equal suffrage in the lower house of congress
J. H. Smithwick of Escambia county cast his vote
in the affirmative as did Darme and Sears
Clark voted in the negative
The claim made by suffragists that the amend
ment will pass the senate is based on the promise
of a United States senator from Georgia to vote
for the measure.
This will provide enough senatorial votes to
pass the Susan B. Anthony amendment, and
Florida women will eventually be given the
rights of citizenship through the action of other
states.
It is significant that Georgia should give the
deciding vote, inasmuch as Georgia has held fast
to states rights, yet Senator Harris is receiving
the praise of many southern newspapers, and
especially those of his own state, for the stand
he has taken on the suffrage question.
Senators TrammeI and Fletcher have both
stoutly insisted from the beginning that they
were not opposed to suffrage, but believed in
putting the problem up to the state legislatures
to solve But it is very apparent that the Flori-
da legislature is either very ignorant of the ques-
ton involved, or else afraid to put it up to the
people of the state.
The tone of editorial opinion evidenced in the
state press in regard to the attitude of the solons
at Tallahassee is certainly not commendatory.
The legislators have taken it upon themselves
to say what the people want, instead of giving
the people themselves the opportunity of saying
what they want, when it comes to the woman
vote.
From the discussion in the legislative halls,
one might well believe suffrage to be something
new and untried while the fact of the matter is
that not only has the woman vote been tried
out, but that it is acknowledged to be the de-
cisive vote in presidential elections
While Wilson has refused to dictate to con-
gress on the passage of the Susan B. Anthony
amendment, he has made no secret of his own
convictions in favor of the ballot for women,
and cast his vote in favor of suffrage in his own
state.
The democratic congressman know that wom-
an suffrage is a plank in the democratic plat
form, yet many of these representatives are
afraid to cast their ballot for the equal fran
chise on the ground that the states do not want
it, seeming to forget, or else to be ignorant of
the fact that the Susan B. Anthony amendment
will be ineffective unless ratified by the states,
which in the last analysis certainly puts it
squarely up to the state majority.
The republicans have their ears to the ground.
They still hear the echo of the triumphant vote
of the women of the west. They realize that it
was these women who defeated Hughes, and
they doing their best to corral the woman
vote. It looks as though, through the stupidity
of the democrats, they are going to do that very
thing. If they do, their candidate is elected, no
matter who he may be or where he comes from,
for the simple reason that the legislators of the
south have tied their own hands,
1t stands to reason that the democratic men of
the south cannot offset the republican vote and
the woman vote of this country, if they get that
woman vote solidly against them. The women
have made no threats, SO far, but it is pretty
generally understood among women voters that
il the Susan B. Anthony amendment is not
passed by this house of congress, that they will
not give the democrats another opportunity to
fail to pass this amendment if it is in their pow
er to prevent. That it is in their power to car
ry the presidential election If they stand 20