The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1921-07-22

The country has become accus
toned to have its women voting
and the sky hasn't fallen in the
process of adjustment. The
Miami Herald sizes up the
woman voter as follows and we
presume the estimate would not
be afar afeld in other commu
mites:
1t hardly seems possible that moi
very many months ago statements
were being made up and down this
country that giving the vote tc
women would mean that the women
would not vote or that, if they did
they would be swayed not by reasons
but sentiment and hysteria.
For the women have been voting
now for some little time and the sky
is still overhead nor does water yet
run up hill And if the elections
held in Miami are any indication at
all of the elections over the country
we must come to the conclusion that,
far from being an extraordinary and
imcomprehensive element, the woman
vote has not only a stabilizing influ-
ence, but also a tendency toward
deserving ordinary political consid-
erations for those of good govern
ment only.
In the Miami elections of the last
year the women have voted eagerly.
Of course, this has been their first
year Of voting and it may be that
rxyhn,, flra hoe off
large a percentage will not make
their way to the polls. But against
this argument is the fact that the
women of Miami, as well as the
women of the United States, have
taken their citizenship pretty seri-
ously, not as a means of gaining
political power, but as a strong fac
tor in obtaining for their families
the best government possible for the
sake of their families and their COM
munities. The women have voted
much as most women sweep a room,
not as a thing which gives them any
great pleasure in the doing, but
which has to be done for everyone's
sake, and so might as we'll be gotten
over as quickly and as thoroughly as
possible.
The women in Miami have voted
not so much in accordance with party
lines as desiring the best individuals.
Not that women are not in some
cases violently partisan, because they
can be, but in local elections especial
ly they seem to have forgotten party
politics. In the street-naming cleo
ton, held recently, a greater num-
hnr. T. xtotaI he rotanffnY,
of the new system chiefly for the
reason that they hated to see the
waste of good money that would be
caused by a reversal of the old sys-
tenn. More than any other election
that has been held that one tested
the statement that women would
vote sentimentally. If the women
had had a sentimental attitudetoward
the old names they would have voted
to go back to them. But there are
very few women who can be senti-
mental in the face of a considerable
loss.
The same tendency can be observ-
ed in the attitude of the women
toward the elections to be held in
July. They are intensely interested,
but their interest is purely personal.
That is, they are not now thinking
along party lines at all. Probably |
it would be safe to say that the |
women of Miami are out solidly for |
the best government possible. And |
to attain this they may split both |
tickets to tatters; they will elect |
the men they consider best In so |
doing they may be perfectly ruthless.
But in the matter of better condi-
tons for their children and their
)wn families, women have never yet
IN the history of the world been any
hing but ruthless and they are not
lpologizing for it now.
There is no doubt but that women
IS well as men can be tricked by
'alse logic and cleverly-applied in
complete arguments. Perhaps they
ire more illogical than men. But it
5 logic which they will soon learn.
md no grocer or butcher, who has
o deal with women buyers, will tell
ou that any. amount of argument
an induce them to take a steak or
pound of potatoes which their own
ense tells them has a rotten spot.
he innate shrewdness, which is not
lways reasonable, but is generally ,
ensible is now being demonstrated. :
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