Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
BY EMMA BUGBEE.

the franchise is approaching
L and with it the inevitable cues
ton as to the success of this
great experiment in government
What have the women accomplished
in their 10 years of voting? What
Offices have they held and what influ-
ences have they welded on the politi-
cal history of their times? What has
become of the famous and picturesque
leaders in the long fight? And what is
the future likely to hold for the woman
in politics?
The women themselves were natu-
rally the first to take note of their ami
versary and to plan series of celebra-
tionS, surveys, reckonings and fore
casts-not to mention few alibis. Al
though the actual date of the signing
OF the Federal woman suffrage amend
ment was August 26, 1920 the celebra-
ton began on March 26. with meetings
in New York and Washington, at
which suffrage leaders reviewed the
events Of the 10 years. In Louisville,
KY, on April %, the National League
of Women Voters will use the anniver-
sarv as the theme of their biennial con-
Vention.
Public speakers and writer's on ma
tional affairs have begun to call atten-
ton to the anniversary, with comments
commendatory or caustic, according to
their experience. Officeholde-s are in
variably gallant in their public state
mentS, but the man in the street some
times gives vent to such thrustS as
Women have done nothing to improve
politics and Where Is that millennium
you promiSed?"
Benefits Non sensational.
To these the suffragists invariably re-
ply that they never promised the mil
lenium: that they demanded the benefit
to be derived from their voting fran
chise as right, and that the chief was
that which must flow inevitably in a
democracy from the participation of
all the people instead of half the people
In the affairs of government. This ben
eft manifestS itself In ways that are
conversational and difficult to ap-
praise in statistics or headlines, but
definitely recognizable.
The suffragists point out, moreover.
that If the millennium had not mate
rtalized, neither has the pandemonium
anticipated by their opponents. Those
direful prophesies of infants left vail
ing at home and of husbands going
supperless while their wives passed I'M
limited hours at political gatherings,
those frenzies over the danger that
woman would lose her feminine charm
and her angelic innocence-all those
bugaboos in the ZOOS of anti-suffragist
Spellbinders have starved to death. The
divorces traceable to woman suffrage
are so unusual as to constitute news,
and If children are neglected in Amer
lean homes, the blame is still laid
chiefly at the door of the motion pic
lures, bridge, automobiles or the in
creasing desire of woman to earn an
income outside the home. Babies now
go to the polls in perambulators or
their mother makes the same arrange
ments for their care in her absence
that she does in going to church, to
market or to nurse sick friend.
Suffrag SITS today marvel at the
amount of sympathy that was wasted
on the poor neglected babies in those
long-forgotten speeches, as indeed they
marvel at the universal calm which pre-
walls In the whole field where~once the
battle ragged so furiously. Woman suf-
frage, opposed so long and so obsti-
mics and accepted by the people as a
whole with a complacence which
amuses the women, while affording
them their best proof that it was nat
ural and inevitable and logical and
just.
No Record of Number Voting.
When it comes to appraising con-
cretely the accomplishments of the first
ton that arises is how many women
vote?"
Unfortunately for those who like their
facts and figures 1t will never be pos
sible to answer that question, for no
records have been compiled. As one
aspect of the complacence referred to
above. once the suffrage was granted
women the authorities made no effort
to differentiate the women'S votes from
the mems. 1t would have been possible.
by some such device as giving women
colored ballots, to count those cast by
the new voters, but no one thought the
information would be worth the trouble
1t would still be possible to check up
from the books of the election clerks
Just how many women have voted, but
again it is not worth the trouble.
The only statistics available are those
of the registration in certain commune
ties In New York City, for example,
we know that the percentage of woman
voters has varied from 80 per cent in
1922 to IS per cent in 1928, when the
contest between Gov. Smith and Secre-
tary Hoover. brought out an unprece-
denied number of woman voters. In
that year the total registration for New
York City was 2,028,505, of which l.
225,3 1863 were men and $685. were
women Last Fall 1,002,537 men reg
istered and 550,396 women.
The percentages of votes for the en-
tire period since women were enfran-
chised here Cthis happened in 1917,
three years before the ratification Of
the Federal woman suffrage amend
ment), is as follows:
In 1918, 40 per cent; 1920, SO per
cent; 1922, 33 per cent; 1924, 36.2 per
cent; 1926, "a per cent; 1928, 66 per
cent. and 1929, 81 per cent.
OF course, no one knows whether the
women voted in the same proportion
for Gov Smith and Mr.. Hoover that
the men did. The only clew to this
ASPECT of the situation lies in the en-
rollment figure, where the Democratic
women were 460,524, as against 804s899
men, while the Republican women were
282,482, as against 319,237 men. The
activity of the woman voters during that
presidential election was one OF the most
remarkable aspects, and there is no
doubt that they contributed largely to
the election of President Hoover.
Record in Office Holding.
Nv far the easiest and most obvious
gauge of the accomplishments OF women
in politics, though by no means the most
important, is the number of women in
public office. What offices have been
held bv women in the 10 years since
their enfranchisement? What sort OF
women have been elected? What have
their records been?
Two women have been governors OF
States, Mrs. Nellie Tayloe Ross OF
wyoming and Mrs Miriam A. Ferguson
of Texas. Neither was elected for a
second term and the present year sees
no woman in a governors chair. Mrs;
Ross. however, continued her political
career by working valiantly for the
election of Albert E. Smith in 1928 ano
was rewarded. with the post OF vice
chairrnan of the DEMOCRATIC national