Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-01-22

Washington. D. c., Jan. 70
you can take = man out and buy
him 4 cigar. and find out how he'll
vote. complains . politician. but
when 1t comes to . woman. what
can you do!"
Challenging the woman vote is
the despair, not only Of this politi-
cal seeker OF advance Information,
but Of politicians all over the coun-
try. All past attempts to CLASSIFY
the women's votes have failed.
Women have changed their minds
after being supposedly won over by
one party. Others have remained
nofi-committal to a degree alto
gether exasperating to politicians
interested in their welfare and
their votes. So uncertain is the
trend of the women's vote that the
parties begin to think that they will
have to play up the women and
then wait until the votes are count
ed to see the result.
The anxiety Of the parties is
readily understood when you con-
slider that some 100000 women
now have the right Of presidential
suffrage-that is, four times as
many as the American expedition
airy force, And these 100000
women may turn Texas Republi-
can, Massachusetts Democratic, and
the hair Of all the political bosses
white by November. For the wom-
en- refuse to be bossed.
Bribery as an aid to obtaining a
woman's vote has proved to be a
boomerang that knocks the candi-
dates prospects fiat, so far as that
woman and all her friends and all
their friends are concerned. The
vote is a sacred institution, she in
dignantly tells the would-be briber.
This sentiment, attached to so mat
ter-of-fact and earthly an institu-
ton as the voting privilege, may
seem a trifie top-heavy. Neverthe-
less. when q creed OF this sort be-
comes the slogan Of several mil
lion women it is bound to have
some effect. The effect on politics
so far, women politicians state. has
been a higher calibre Of candidates
for Office.
Comforting political favors also
fails to influence women voters, as
shown in every election in which
they have participated. In Norway
progressives lamented the fact that
they were the main advocates OF
, suffrage. and then when the women
4, got the vote they used it to put the
progressives out of power by vot,
ing for conservative candidates.
Similar instances have occurred
in this country, where women have
been appointed to committees and
Offices, with the mistaken idea that
their votes and those OF theil
friends and followers would there.
by be assured for q certain candi
date.
A large percentage of women, il
is generally conceded, take tbs
matter of voting seriously. Man!
of them are unused to politica
machinery, and many are not wei
posted on affairs Of state, but they
are resolved not to 60 to the ballo
box without first finding out ex
actly what~it is all about. This
according to women's committee:
! of Democratic and Republican par
J ties, is the attitude of women II
general toward the coming election
These committees laugh at thu
suggestion that the women's vote
will merely double the mems.
Some women have fulfilled thu
prediction that women would vot'
like their husbands" they tell you
but far more have voted accord
ing to their own IDEAS" This wa
illustrated in New York recently
when for the first time that stat
elected Republican candidates fol
Office, without the women voting.
It is not always possible to gaug'
the effect of women voters on ;
state election, as ordinarily theil
ballots are the same as those O
the men. But in cases where ont
party has dominated for years. ant
suddenly another party comes int
power with women voting. there il
no difficulty in locating the cause
In Illinois. women's ballots have il
some elections been marked so tina
the effect Of their votes could b.
studied.
Whichever way the majority o
women may vote, women are tax
ing a prominent part in both par
ties in staging the election. TIL,
women's Republican committe,
boasts of the fact that on the da,
after South Dakota ratified the sui
frage amendment, the Republican
state committee convened and nam
ed Mrs. John Pyle for presidential
elector. Two women have alread!
been elected to the Republican con