The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC .. HAsKIN. DirecesE.
Washington, ID. O.
WoNfEN AND THE BALLOT

| c1IlZSnSnlp u lu1IB INDEPENDENT Oi ISL
marriage-the National League of
| Women Voters will take UP as its next
objective an adoption of an amend
ment to the constitution forbidding
child labor. The announcement of
| the campaign, to begin in earnest
this winter while forty-two state leg
| islatures are in session, has been made
by Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president
| of the league.
Ever since the existing child-labor
| laws were declared unconstitutional
| by the supreme court, there has been
a widespread sentiment in the country
! in favor of writing into the constitu-
ton itself a provision for the protec-
| ton of children from the exploitation
of factory owners. But tho the moral
support of the public has been pres
ent, the movement for constitutional
| amendment has lacked an organiza-
ton to crusade for it. Constitutional
amendments nowadays are put across
| by organized effort, as the members
| of the National League of Women
Voters are well aware, they them
selves having constituted the bulk OF
the non-pilitant equal suffrage or
ganization which shared in the sue
cessful crusade to give women the
ballot. With its five million members,
the league is looking forward to a
busy winter as it opens the campaign
for a child-labor amendment.
| There are five resolutions now
pending before congress, each one
providing for child labor amend
ment to be submitted to the states for
ratification. The National League of
| Women Voters has not yet endorsed
any one of these. All are being
| studied, and eventually the league will
either get behind one of them. or
have a new one drawn and introduced
! in congress as a resolution. Mean
while a campaign will be started thru
| out the United states in favor Of such
an amendment. With all but two of
| the state legislatures in session, the
attempt will be made to deIuge con-
gress with resolutions adopted by
these legislatures in favor of child
| labor amendment. In addition, the
women will work directly upon con-
gress with petitions and in committee
hearings in Washington.
The women expect to secure the
adoption of such an amendment and
| that at no remote date in the future.
| Their attitude toward the successful
| outcome of their newest campaign is
something more than one of conf
dence. 1t is complete assurance of
victory. AS enc of the general Off
| thing that the women of America
want of congress they can get"
No Other Issue More Important
The announcement that the league
would take up the campaign for a
| child labor amendment came after
Mrs, Park and other officers of the
| organization had made a thoro tour of
the country sounding out the senti-
ment of the women voters, 1t is evil
dent that the women of the country
place no national issue ahead of the
protection of factory children.
While awaiting the adoption Of a
| federal amendment, the members OF
all existing state child labor laws are
enforced. Many of the states already
| have laws forbidding the commercial
employment of children of tender
years. In states which have no Leg
islation Of the sort that the league
considers adequate, the women will
work for the adoption of additional
laws.
The League for Women Voters is
the natural oatgPowth of the suffrage
organization which for SO many years
battled for the ballot. Now, having
secured the vote, the organized wem-
en- of the country are going ahead to
secure the legislative reforms which
the vote enables them to demand and
obtain. The league, however, is by
no means made up entirely of the
original suffragists. Many of the
present leaders were among the
"anti's" during the old suffrage fight
|
suffragists themselves, agree that
women now having votes. the next
important thing is to educate them to
vote intelligently and thus eonfeund
the former male "anti's" who held
openly or not, that women do moi
know enough to vote.
Being Educated in Politics.
In being educated" in politics, II
may be said that hundreds of thou
sands of AmeFican women are having
a splendid time. 1t has always beer
assumed for them that they knew by
instinct how to cook and bring uI
Echildrep but lacked the instinct fol
politics that is mans birthright. The
; women themselves are perfectly will
ing to accept all these assumptions
In their own hearts they know thai
they had to learn cooking and the
care of the children; and SO 1t is rest
full not to be expected to know poll
tics by instinct. but to be the ebjec
of male concern that they be properly
educated. The process of civic edu.
cation they are finding pleasant. L
, gives them club life and undomestis
interests and activities, and they are
} baskipg in the enjoyment of it.
Equal suffrage has now been in eff
} feet long enough to make valid GER
tain congratulations. No millennium
has resulted; none was expected b.
; the Intelligent leaders of the equa
suffrage movement the country II
, it's politics wags along about the sans
as ever. In proportions. the ignoran
fvote is as large as ever, the intelli
gent as small. Only the numbers o.
. ballots have increased.
But one rather unexpected discoV
cry has been made, one attribute o.
women as voters brought to ligh
: which. with plenty of exceptions tt
prove the rule. distinguishes then
from men. The attribute is this
women are distrustful of political ora
tors and oratory. The good fas
; talker in politics who once had tn,
voters flocking after hints now wear
, ing a dazed and puzzled expression
the spellbinder seems to have mis-
, laid his formula
: The plain fact is. as shown by twt
I years of experience, gentle woman a
a voter is just plain hard-boiled. Mel
voters are always seeking a Moses II
: politics: the women demand to SCI
what he has written on his tablets o
, stone This attitude is plainly an in
heritanee of their domestic life.