The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-08-22
NO NOTICEABLE CHANGE?

this country Reading the editorial
comments what strikes one most for
City. perhaps, is not SO much the re-
fufancy with which some of these
newspaper editors admit the fact that
the ballot is about to be conferred
upon these women, who have not yet
been enfranchised by their state leg
islStures, but the apparent unfamiliar
ity' with conditions in those states
which have given women a voice IN
government.
The Times Union, for instance, says:
.'The number of persons qualified for
participation in the election will be in
creased about onefourth, and that Is
about all. Well. the die is cast
and the next generation will think
voting is the most natural thing IN the
world for women"
Speaking of those states where
women have the vote. the Times-Union
says: Elections were just as corrapt
where women voted as where they did
not vote and no more so. There
was no noticeable change except in
the number OF voters" We do not
believe that woman's suffrage will
make any difference in the fate OF the
country or In the character OF its peo-
pie and we do not know whether to be
sad or to rejoice. II we knew that the
majority of the good women of the
country wished to vote we would re-
joice that their desire is to be graft
fled. If we knew that the majority
regarded 1t as an infliction we would
regret that they are to be compelled
TO submit to it, for Whether they wish
women who may differ with them in
political opinions will vote"
But why, it might be asked, should
the women of this country be so sud
denly shielded from their obligations
to their country? They have not been
so carefully shielded in the business
world, in industry, in the home. Why,
then. is man so chivalrously inclined,
when it comes to a woman expressing
her option through the ballot? 1t can
not be because men do not consider
women capble of performing this duty,
inasmuch as they have placed this op-
legation upon all men of age, IRE
spective of nationality Woman is
shielded in no other walk of life. She
tends and has Tended for herself,
through many years. Yet she must be
shielded from the use of the only
weapon which has ever been found 10
give to any entity its full r-ghts,-the
ballot
The woman vote, through the ratifi-
cation of the Anthony amendment, VIII
he raised from thirteen million 10
twenty-five million,-almost doubled.
There are today in this country, ana
not confined to the states which nave
enfranch.sed their women, approx
mately twelve million women engaged
in gainful occupations. That is, near
10 half of the women OF the United
states work for their daily bread.
OF these women, nearly one and
half million hold positions requiring
executive skill. A good proportion OF
these women earn their livings IN
southern states, where women are fast
coming to an appreciation OF the
voice in government, and it IS bcause
of this appreciation that many south
ern towns have acceded to the de-
mands of women, and have given
them equal municipal rights with men.
The American women in executive
dents. at $4,000 a year to office man
ayers at $4,000 a year. The execu-
tive secretary of the Business and
Professional Womans Clubs is
southern woman. Jane Martin, presl-
dent of the League of Advertising
Women. and a member of the execu-
tive committee of the Associated Ad-
vertising Clubs of the World, is earn
ing $4,000 year. Mrs. Helen Rog-
ers Reid, wife of ogden MillssReld. Is
capable enough to assist her husband,
as the head of the advertising de-
partment Of the newspaper he owns,
the New York Tribune, and is counted
as one of great executives of this
country.
Nearer home, Mrs. O'Brien, OF
has been acting mayor
of that city, and a capable one, and
is now president of a bank In More
haven. All over this state and every
other southern state there are women, |
capable as any women lin the world, |
in business. in newspapers, in
education, who have not equal rights
with the man who. runs peanut stand
or the one who owns shoe-shine
parlor.
Because there are women who are
too Indifferent, or too lazy, or too
backward to want the vote, is there
any logical reason why these women |
who do want it. and whose influence
is needed in the government, should |
continue to be classed with aliens, |
idiots and criminals?
It is true that there are many women
who do not yet understand the obli-
cations and privileges of the suffrage,
or who through prejudice. do not want
the ballot. If ever we are to have
Justice and true democracy, the wom-
en- who do not want the ballot must
be educated to what it will mean to
translate this dormant force which is /
theirs into an active impulse.
1t was said that southern women
were untitled for the business world. /
and that has been proven false. That
the southern women will not utilize the
vote to The best advantage Is equally |
a fallacy