Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-28
WOMEN AS VOTERS
Members Of the Board Of Reslstra.
tlon Commissioners Have Some
Few Explanations to Make
BY GEORGE NOX MCCAIN


and fancy the other members of the board,
ere looking forward with some perturbation
to the period between the 9th and 23d of
October.
1t is the time when the board will sit to
near applications, complaints and all the
various and sundry things that usually arise
as matters for their consideration and judg-
ment.
President Fell tells me that thus early is
foreshadowed an outline Of what is to come.
From fifty to sixty persons, the majority
OF them women, call daily for information
concerning their new duties as voters.
While the commissioner is too astute and
gallant to even intimate it, | rather suspect
that he is in accord with Rudyard Kipling,
when he declared, '"Thc female of the species
is more deadly than the male"
That is in the matter of asking questions
involving minute details as to her rights MS
n citizen.
"IIUNDREDS of women who have been
IL absent from the city during the sum
mcr are returning to find that they cannot
register because they have not been as
sesscd,' said Presd mt Fell.
Almost invariably the answer is: I do
not see why cannot vote. Mrs. Jones and
Mrs. Smith are going TO vote, and they have
been away all summer
with considerable elaboration of detail
some member of the board or an attache ex-
plains that Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones made
arrangements to be assessed and are there
fore entitled to register continued Mr..
Fell.
I" But why can there not bc an exception
in my case? / was away all summer and
did not know had to be assessed continues
tho fair delinquent.
- But it is the law. and there can be no
exception made not even in your case, is the
convincing reply.
"'Wcll.' and there is usually ring of
defiance in the voice, 4 don't care If it is
the law. it isn't fair and | am going TO in
sist on being registered. If my friends can
be registered and vote, there is no reason
why / should not have the same privilege
And them" smiled President Fell, "the ex-
planation and the argument start all over
again.
"A MOTHER mystery to scores of women is
n the matter of voting on age; that no
poll tax is required from tn" first voter.
1T is no uncommon thing for women who
would have been entitled to vote on age four
or five years ago to insist that they have no
right to pay poll tax for their first vote
under the suffrage amendment, said Com
missioner Fell.
''Thc argument is that the poll tax law is
not applicable to their first vote. even
though they be twenty five or twenty seven
,''IN VT NE'' U''I DlON'Nl uNudilS tuhtN
form in the expression:
We'll. don't care. It isn't fair. You
men. 1t seems to me. are putting all sorts If
obstacles in the way of women voting. I
am going to see If something can't be done
about il.
1t can readily be seen that Mhcn women
by the thousands. instead of by the score ut
present. retail their woes as prospective
voters before them next MONTH the Board
Of Registration Commissioners will have
their work cut out for them in large rec
tauguar chunks.
T ONCE asked Alice Paul. the most mill
i tant of all the militant suffragists and n
very engaging and attractive young woman
at that:
"What are YOU going to do after yar
achieve your aim and secure the franchise
for women? Run for CongrcssT'
"No-o-o.'. shc replied mcditatively. with
quaint little tilt Of the head
II think" she continued slowly. that
I shall 60 on working in the cause just ms 7
have done. Because. you sec, there will b"
a great deal to do even after women get Tho
vote. They must be organized and in
structcd as to their rights and duties as cit-
zcns.'
And Alice Paul is living bravely I'M to her
idea expressed months ago. according to
newspaper reports from the capital. where
she maintains headquarters as president of
the womnns organization which has bpnr
fitted so much from her gcneralship and in
teligent activity.
She is inspiring her followers to demand
full. if tardy. recognition as citizens in their
right to hold Office. II women have the
right to vote they have the right to hold
office, not five or ten years in the future, but
now, on the instant.
"This IS the way I long have sought"
would be an admirable motto for Miss Paul's
with tho r1lpDIa ''TTayinp fni nd II
we're going to make tho most of it,"
would suggest the advisability of poll
ticians. both state and national, keeping a
fixed ami steady eye upon small young lady
who answers TO the name of Alice Paul,
That IL when she gets properly started.
She hasn't started yet.
A GENTLEMAN who has had a wide OK
n periencc in connection with the customs
| service and who is. by inclination and prac-
tice an abstanCr from intoxicants, expresses
the opinion to me that the present unSntiS-
| factory condition Of affairs regarding the on .
| forcement of prohibition Is trifng compared
with what will follow in the course of the
next few years.
There is popular belief that when the
| present stock of legally distilled alcoholic
| liquor, particularly in the way Of whisky,
! is exhausted there will be rapid diminu-
| tion in the Use of spirits due to inability 10
| obtain a supply
This vicw according to the gentleman. is
| falacious. He is of the opinion that the
| time will never come, at least within the
| next quarter Of century, when those who
really want alcoholic liquors will find it i'm =
| possiblc to obtain them.
The same is true of champagne and tho
| higher grades of foreign wines,
With the vast extent of our Coast line,
with Mexico on the south and Canada on the
north. the opportunity for smuggling in large
| quantities are so extensive that it will re-
Guire vcritable army of prohibition agents
| end coast guardsmcn to hold the rum run
ncr in even reasonable check or restraint
He does not despair however of the
ultimate triumph of prohibition as a general
| principle.
The increased difficulty of securing intoxi-
cants will ultimately discourage such nt-
tempts and the acquired taste for liquor will
disappear.
The coming generation, unacQuaintcd with
| the taste and the temptation of intoxicants,
will, ne believes, solve the problem of pro