The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-02-17
WOMANS PLACE IN
POLITICS REVIEWED
During CONVENTION
History Of Feminine Influence
in National Affairs Trac.
ed BY Mrs. Smith

FOuClC0I &CLlVlCleS OF American
women from the earliest days of our
nation up to the present were re-
viewed In talk given by Mrs. Ray r.
Smith, Bismarck, on "Women's Part
in Politics." during the convention Of
the North Dakota Federation Of Nom
partisan Women's clubs here. Mrs.
Smith Is the wife Of the new deputy
state auditor.
Mrs. Smiths address follows:
To paint true delineation Of the
part which women have played in
politics, one would need to 60 back
beyond the dawn of history. In Amer
lea the woman voter has been going
to the polls for little more than q
decade, yet since the election Of
George Washington she has been q
vocal factor in presidential elections.
If she could not vote, her husbands
and sons could. II she were not per-
mitted to mark ballots she could tell
emphatically in the presence Of her
children and grandchildren Just how
they should be marked. Moreover, her
position was steadily strengthened by
the woman'S movement which even
tually was to provide her with polit-
ical weapon even more potent than
the tongue.
The deplorable thing about women's
interest in politics in the early years
was that the women who took the
greatest concern were often the Mrs.
Grundys of the country. Until very
recently women have not allowed their
party loyalty to be as strong as their
personal beliefs.
Speaks Of Colonial Days
It is safe to guess that the woman
politician of colonial days deplored
only the fact that Thomas jefferson
was q free-thinker and that she was
righteously indignant because John
Quincy Adams bought billiard table
with public money and set 1t up in the
white house.
Jackson's first campaign was the
first really exciting combat in the
history of the American presidency
and also the most scurrilous one, yet
there can be little doubt that every
voters womenfolk discussed it with
gusto.
For while women, generally speak
ing, have always lamented the fact
that men candidates call each other
ugly names over mere economic is
sues and openly charge one another
with imbecility, chicanery and knav-
cry, yet they have always accepted as
q justly moral measure the airing of
candidates past social errors and
personal missteps.
The ninteenth century reformers,
revivalists and victorians provided
these women politicians with social
and moral standards for presidential
candidates. The log cabin, country
boy type of candidate had long been
a favorite with men voters. No doubt
the men liked to feel that the man in
the white house was in reality no
better than themselves: while the
women We're convinced in some mys-
FERROUS manner that the moral atmos-
phere of farm and village was purer
than that of cities. She may not have
emphasized this requirement. But
she was interested in whether or not
the candidate was a nice man'-the
kind of man she SO earnestly ad-
mOniShed her sons to become.
War Modified Standards
While Civil war issues somewhat
modified these narrow standards, it Is
significant that during the campaign
of 1860 the women of the south based
their opposition to Lincoln on his
commences and their dislike Of his
wife quite as much on the really po-
litical and pertinent fact that he
wanted to free the Negro.
When Grant was nominated for the
presidency women below the Mason
and Dixon line proclaimed him q
drunkard and a Swearer and even
those north of this division line were
perturbed over Grants personal ha.
bits.
Later in the seventies. as the wom-
ems temperance crusade swept the
country, earnest ladies of all sections
united in q demonstration Of approval
for Rutherford B. Hayes, sending him
letters, kilograms and bouquets as q
reward for serving wineless dinners
The same narrow viewpoint was
evidenced in the Cleveland-Blaine and
in the Mckinley Bryan campaigns
when women entirely overlooked the
real issues.
In 1912 the more crusading spirits