The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-25
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Women and the Ballot

lative reforms which the vet. :.
ables them to demand and oh,s;a
The league, however, is bv :.
means made up entirely Of the MI.
inal suffragists. Many Of the mrs.
ent leaders were among the "an,is,
during the old suffrage fight Thas.
former ANTS, as we'll as the sns
fragists themselves. agree ,h.,
women now having votes. the nav,
important thing is to educate thar.
to vote intelligently and thus Gov
found the former male "antis" nh
held. openly or not, that women aO
not know enough to vote. w
Being Educated in Polite.
In being educated" in politics !,
may be said that hundreds of thou
sands of American women are h.S
ing splendid time. 1t has alvav.
cen assumed for them that ,heS
knew by instinct how to cook and
bring up children but lacked tho
instinct for politics that ia mans
birthright. The women themselves
are perfectly willing TO accent all
these assumptions. In their own
hearts they knew that they had N
learn cooking and the care OF tho
children: and so it is restful not IN
be expected to know politics bv in
stinct, but to he the object of male
concern that they be properly edu.
Gated. The process of civic educa.
ton they are finding pleasant II
gives them club life and undomes.
tic interests and activities, and thew
are basking in the enjoyment of il
Equal suffrage has now been in
effect long enough to make valid
certain congratulations. No milleu.
mum has resulted; none was e.-
pected by the intelligent leaders of
the equal suffrage movement. The
country in its politics wags along
about the same as ever. In propor-
tons, the ignorant vote is as large
as ever, the intelligent as small.
Only the number of ballots have in
| creased.
But one rather unexpected dis
| covery has been made, one attri-
butte of women as voters brought to
light which, with plenty of excep-
tons to prove the rule. distin-
guishes them from men. The attri-
| butte is this: women are distrustful
Of political orators and oratory. Tho
good fast talker in politics who
once had the voters flocking after
him is now wearing a dazed and
puzzled expression; the spellbind-
er seems to have mislaid his form
ula-
The plain fact Is, as shown BY two
years of experience, gentle woman
as voter is just plain hard-boiled.
Men voters are always seeking
! Moses in politics: the women de-
mand to see what he has written on
his tablets of stone. This attitude
, is plainly an inheritance Of their
domestic life. 1t goes right back
to the dressgoods counter in the
department store. The gentlemanly
clerk there gives his customer an
argument that would convince .
men of every 20. But 9 women Of
every ten listen with a thoughtful
frown, meanwhile pinching and
examining the goods, and then as a
matter of course visit all the other
dress-goods departments in town
before purchasing.
! In politics they act the same way.
They have not been dazzled by DEM
,agogues or misled by magnetic
tpresences. as some statesmen fear
ed they would be. On the contrary,
they have deliberately "shopped"
for tickets and candidates. This
they have done by means Of formal
printed questions submitted to all
candidates for various jobs and in
mass meetings of women which the
candidates were invited TO attend.
One other innovation of the wo-
men voters has been welcomed by
conscientious office-holders. The
} women voters are adopting prae-
tice of holding mass meetings about
| six months after new office holders
get their jobs and inviting the in
cumbents to come and give an ac'
, count of their stewardship. A man
trying to do real public service oft
, en- finds this his only opportunity
: to bring his problems TO the atten'
: ton of his constituents.