Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-13
CHAIRMAN HAYS, THE PARTY
AND THE ETERNAL FEMININE
Leaders Who viii Predict the Results
Of Universal Suffrage Must Be
Wiser Than Solomon

- ardent advocates of equal suffrage
are founded upon the oldest human ira
ditions. They firmly believe that women
are at heart better than men.
Conventional pleas for the vote have
always takerfa the form of appeals to ra-
tionality, to logic, to common justice, to
common sense. But behind every prac-
tical consideration there is often an in
stinctive reliance upon the familiar con-
servatsm Of women, on their instinct for
good order and on their habit of devo-
tion to humane causes. Votes expressive
Of such attributes are still depended
upon to humanize politics and exalt
political aims.
Now, Mr.. Hays, national Republican
chairman, may feel this way about it.
There is no telling. In his appeal to the
states for immediate ratification of the
national suffrage amendment, party
idealsts will see a desire to summon the
best resources of the national mind and
spirit for the hard decisions of 1920.
1t will be far more reasonable to view
this summons from the national COM
mittee as forward move in the efforts
which both parties are making to mo-
bilize feminine sentiment against the
Great Day. All political leaders of the
first magnitude are frankly eager for
the good will of the 29000000 new voters
of the near future. They yearn to get
these voters safely under party wings.
They pine for the privilege of tutoring
them in the ways of politics.
They are not visionaries. After Janu-
ary only ten states will stand in the way
of the universal franchise. New Jersey,
| Kentucky, Maryland and Rhode Island
are reported ready for ratification. The
Colorado Legislature ratified the amend
ment yesterday, and thus twenty-five
states of the necessary thirty-six were
listed on the side of the suffragists.
With New Jersey, Kentucky, Maryland
and Rhode Island out of the way, there
will remain thirteen states which suf-
frage leaders depend upon to sustain their
cause. These are Arizona, Connecticut,
Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont,
Washington, West Virginia and Wyo-
ming. Nine of these states have already
granted full presidential suffrage to
women. Twelve of them are Republican.
Mr.. Hays is a good chairman and
wise one. Political leaders of both parties
| are gradually becoming reconciled to the
inevitable. They have passed swiftly
from attitudes of doubt, ridicule, antag-
| onism, resentment and awe to mood of
suave acceptance, knowing not what is
| to befall in the end.
Mr.. Hays is not playing an exagger-
ated role in suddenly appearing in the
open as the official little father of suf-
frage. The Democratic leaders, largely
because of the South, have always been
temperamentally opposed to women vot-
ers. They cannot safely appear as pro-
gressive as Mr.. Hays, even if they wished
| to.
Some of the qualms of uncertainty with
which routine politicians of all sorts view
the advent of universal suffrage are justi-
fed by the ardor and the mystic energy
of suffrage leaders in this city and else
where. They are establishing schools
of politics.
What is a ward? What is a division
leader and why? Why is Congress what
it is? Why do bosses survive? Why
do ward leaders lead? Women every
where are manifesting an ominous in
terest in these ancient and perplexing
questions. They are approaching their
Investigations with a sort of fervid in
tensity. And yet the women who have
already voted in many of the suffrage
states have been a sad disappointment
to the idealists.
There is always Chicago, where the
women voters are reported to have aided
the vets and kept wicked political ring
in power. Women, too, have been mani
Testing a sort of class interest that puz-
zles reformers who depended on them
too greatly. In some of the western
states the women's vote has reflected q
greater liberality of thought, genuine
concern with progress and "the legisla.
ton of humanity" But the difference
between the West and Chicago seems tc
! have been largely a matter of at
mosphere, environment and suggestion
rather than the reflection of exclusiv,
feminine purpose.
= The old cry has gone up. Wome1
voters, we are told, will be the mirrors
) of their husbands, their fathers and thei
brothers. They may be finer tempered
) than men, their opponents say. The,
| may have a greater devotion to virtuou
principles. But if you believe the peopl
e who have been analyzing election re
r suits in suffrage states, the loyalty O
;, women can never be definitely enlisted il
behalf of the abstract thing we call tn
state because the state does not live,
does not suffer, it is not visible, an
, women, therefore, are supposed to b
unable to serve it as they serve in tn
! routine ways of everyday existence.
o Suffragists cannot be blamed if the
are irritated profoundly by these super
# fcial deductions. They have not tn
Is Irnack of discrimination and leadershi