The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-09-10
THE AMERICAN
WOMAN VOTER ARRIVES

Carrie Chapman Gait, president of
the National Woman Suffrage Asso-
citation. "Hell is going to break loose
in Georgia if the Suffrage Amend
ment it ratified" predicted Speaker
Walker, leader of the opposition in the
Tennessee legislature; "this is now a
white mans country and we have a
white mans God" american de-
mocracy, won for the white men by
the Revolution, extended to all men by
the Civil War, is completed by the
woman's victory today throughout the
United States" says Alice Paul, pres
ident of the National Woman's party.
Suffrage atavists have brought us to-
ward the stage of squaw-right reach
ed five thousand years ago by the
Hittites just before humiliation and
by every other decaying civilization
declares The Woman Patriot Wash
ington, D. c., an organ of the Ma
tional Association Opposed to Woman
Suffrage. Thus speak leading friends
and foes of votes for women, finally
assured by the Tennessee legislature's
ratification of the Nineteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution of the Unit
ed States. BY his amendment equal
suffrage is extended to all the States
in time to vote this fall. Woman-suf-
frage organizations estimate the vot-
ing population as 2o,883, 566 women
and 29,577 500 men; 17,500,00O women
previously enfranchised by States, g.
100000 more enfranchisement by the
amendment. State qualifications will
affect actual exercise of the suffrage,
and estimates of the woman vote at
100000 or over may be excessive.
But for the Importance of its pro-
visions, as the Newark Ledger OBJ
serves, "the Nineteenth Amendment
easily holds first place among form
al changes made to this country's
fundamental statutes" "The victory
is not victory for women alone"
says the Kansas City Star, at is a
victory for democracy and the prin-
ciple Of equality upon which the ma
ton was founded. AS such it has an
even greater meaning than the sur
face one most apparent. 1t means
that our democracy is still in the
progress of growth, still capable of
renewing its life and vigor and of
adapting itself to the new require
ments Of progressing age"
National political party leaders,
the Presidential candidates, and Pres
ident Wilson responded to appeals
for influence to secure ratification by
the Tennessee legislature. After rat
ifcation, Mr.. Cox said:
"The civilization of the world is
saved. The mothers of America will
stay the hand of war and repudiate
those who trife with a great princi-
pie. The action of the Tennessee leg
islature has another significance. 1t
is an earnest of the Democratic pol
icy to pay its platform obligations"
Senator Harding said:
"All along / have wished for the
completion of ratification, and have
said so, and am glad to have all the
citizenship of the United States, take
part in the presidential elections. The
Republican party will welcome the re-
spouse of American womanhood to its
appeal to the confidence of all our
people"
Washington correspondents report
that political managers are at sea
concerning the probable alignments of
new woman voters in the campaign.
Claims Of Republican and Democratic
papers continue to follow the lines re-
viewed in the Literary Digest for Aug.
7, based upon the records of the cam
didates; notifications by Republican
legislatures; the crucial thirty-six rat
ification coming from Democratic
South; the League of Nations being
a divisive issue among women as
among men.
Doubling the number of American
voters will involve transitional per-
iod of confusion, of readjustment,"
remarks the New York Evening Mail,
which adds:
"The country may face it with
tranquility born of the demonstration
that in field of related public activ-
ity women have proved a constructive
force subject to no discount. AS Red
Cross nurses in the world war, as mu-
nitions- workers in the plants of the
country, and as devoted and practical
toilers in countless lines of war activ-
ity, they performed a service that
brought results and that had the very
spirit of the men on the firing line.
The ballot crowns this service, and
tIlS pSiNiSS dlSuSo thhI VIC paHOG Will
be well used"
Says the New York Evening Post:
"Now that the battle is fought and
won, there may be compensation
found in the very fact that the con-
test was so prolonged and so arduous.
1t is better for the new women voters
to have conquered the vote than to
have had it bestowed upon them
through easy acquiescence. The fight
for suffrage has giver the women an
excellent preparation for citizenship.
They are spared much of the painful
apprenticeship in the methods and or
ganization of political democracy. In
a double sense the women voters have
come into their own"
The National Woman's party will |
soon meet to determine its further ac-
Invites. The suffrage victory means
opportunity for more work and added |
responsibility, according to Mrs. Gait,
who reports the formation of the
National League of Women Voters by
the National Suffrage Association.
State branches are formed out of the
old suffrage associations in the PAN
Partizan Educational League. "A
woman can be member of it and yet
H. . 80 o~,, ,,nl.&..ot |