Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-07
THE GANG RELUCTANTLY
ASSESSES WOMEN VOTERS
Necessity Has Forced II to Risk Defeat
In the Mayoralty Election In Order
70 Saw the Council

Home Journal, held the balance OF power IN
the primary election and won the nomina-
tion to the govcrnorship for him.
The women who voted for his nomination
cannot vote for his election unless they are
registered.
Mr.. Pinchot has issued an appeal to all
voters to go to the polling places today and
get their names on the voting lists. Every
woman who supported him in the spring is
expected to heed the appeal, and thousands
who were not then qualified to vote are ex-
pected to qualify this fall on one of the
three days Of registration.
They cannot qualify, however, unless
their names are first on the assessors lists.
The machine organization has not made
any special effort TO get the names Of
women on the assessors lists in the past.
II has been In doubt about the way the
women would vote and it has hesitated to
add to the number Of qualified electors
large unknown quantity.
But necessity confronts the local ma
chine this year which is forcing it to stir
the assessors to activity.
Representation in the City Council is ap-
portioned among the senatorial districts in
proportion to the number of assessed voters.
The unit Of representation, according to the
Charter, is &C. 900 voters. But the Charter
expressly provides that if at any time the
women of the Commonwealth shall receive
the right to vote this unit shall be increased
TO 10000 assessed voters.
The reapportionment Is to be made on
the basis Of the number of assessed voters
on the lists on August 1, 1923. The revi-
sion of the lists must begin prior to the fall
registration this year.
Therefore, if there is to be a Council OF
twenty one members hereafter. it is impern-
tive that the number of assessed voters shall
be double that of 1910, when the present
apportionment was made. The machine
does not wish to lose any Of its members in
the Council through a failure to get the
names of enough women on the lists. Its
agents are now at work canvassing the city.
Many women seem to have mistaken
idea about their rights in the premises. If
they have been residents of the city and or
the voting division for the required length
of time it is the duty of the assessors to list
them whether they will or not. 1t does not
make any difference whether they favor
women suffrage. or whether they wish to
escape from the obligations Of citizenship.
They have no discretion" The mere fact
that they are at least twcnty-one years old
and have lived in the division long enough
to vote makes it obligatory upon the assess
ors 10 list them as voters. They are part
of the potential voting citizens on which the
basis of representation in the City Council
is computed.
They may decide whether they will regis
ter and qualify themselves to vote. But
that is all.
The reluctance of women to vote is likely
to become gradually less as the years go
by. More Of them will so TO the polls this
year than last and next year the number Is
likely TO be still larger. The women leaders
are engaged in a campaign of education in
tended to inC!te the women to do their civic
duty.
The machine leaders, under all the cir
cumstances, have found themselves between
the devil and the deep sea. II they neglect
to get the names Of the women on the as
SCISSORS lists they are liable to lose some OF
their Councimen, rs the size of the Council
devil TO pay.
If they get the names Of all the women on
the lists. they do not know how many OF
them will register or how they will vote
after they are registered, and they will be
on the deep and trackless sea of uncertainty
about the outcome of the mayoralty election
next year
They have chosen to sail on this un-
charted sea and take their chances.
The situation is encouraging 70 those who
are hoping for the continuance in this city
Of the cleanup which was begun in the
State by the nomination of Pinchot for the
povernorship. The women favored Pinchot
because of the things 10 which he was
pledged They are more deeply interested
in city than in State affairs because the
City Government comes more closely home
70 them. If what they call city housekeep-
ing is bad, they suffer every week.
They know that clean streets and the
regular collection of ashes and garbage and
rubbish are dependent on the presence in
the City Hall of officials who are devoted to
the public service rather than to the scrv-
ice of a political machine. They know that
the intrusting Of these duties to political
contractors, as was the custom before the
election of Mayor Moore, results in filthy
streets and neglected garbage pals on the
curb. They know that the city is saving
81 ,O0O, 900 year under the present plan,
and 81 600, 900 seems to them to be a lot Of
money worth saving. They would rather
have It devoted to needed public works thas
20 into the pockets Of political contractors
as profits on their contracts.
The women are likely to hold the balance
of power next year between the machine
and the independents, and to decide who
will be the next Mayor. II the independ-
ents can rise to the occasion and unite on a
capable man the reforms which have been
begun under Mayor Moore will be con-
tinued and enlarged under his successor, be =