The Omaha guide., 1937-07-10
Hot and Cold on woman's Vote

Upon no question has Borah given a more convincing dis
play of reaction and a more confounding exhibition of his cha
meleonlihe v%ariabialty than upon the question Of woman stuff
rage On February q, 1910, he introduced in the Senate a reso-
luton proposing that the Constitution be amended to provide
that he right Of citizens TO vote should not be denied or abrid-
ged on account Of sex. lie did not state 9hat his Introduction Of
the resolution was only by request and without prejudice to his
personal attitude ON the questaion. He did not explain he was
not in favor of such an amendment, The wofen of Idaho, his
adopted state, then Mad suffrage. The natural implication was
that he favored the resolution. Later in October, 1913, in a
speech at Newark, New Jersy, he declared;
Il do not know Of a nobler, more effeetual, n more respect
ed and refined power in the whole arena of social forces, and a
more womanly woman, than The woman Of today who is giving
her thought and her purpose, her inyneible moral courage, in
dealing with the social problems and social reforms with which
in the future we must contend more and more~~~~~And why
Withhold from this woman engaged in SO noble an enterprise
the ms rumentality by which She can cffeetnate what her brain
and purpose have planned al outlfned2o
Yee in 1911, when the woman suffrage amendment came
before the Senate. he opposed il. Later in 1918, he apparently
reversed his position and at an interview with suffraeists prom
ised to he bound by the state platform of the Republican Party
IN Idaho. which had previously endorsed The amendment At
that interview he wrote out q statement, presumably for use by
the suffruists, rs follows. etaoi hnrdl shrd
We have talked over the Suffrage situation with Senator
Borah and our understanding from the interview that he will
carry out his platform and vote for the Suffrage Amendment
if reelected.
When the vote on the Amendment was taken in the Senate
in 1919, Bodrahs vote was 'Nay.n This vote, after his promise,
seems a specific bit of mendaeity impossible to paliate.
justification of his blow-hotbow-cold advocacy of suffrage
for women Mr.. Borah posted ON CD the doctrine of local self
government and (2)the antagonism of the South to Negro suff-
rage as exhibited in the ~south-wide notification of the 18th
Amendment. When the women suffrage amendment was being
debated in the Senate in 1914, he acknowledged his Difference
to that antagonism in the following words:
The thing which confronts me as "a practical proposition in
regard to this method is the insurmountable and impossible
barrier which stands between the women and suffrage so long
as the Negro vote in this country is as it is. There are Is States
in the Union that will never ratify this amendment so long as
the Fifteenth Amendment is in the Constitution.
After this prophecy, characteristcany bad, he continued:
We had just as well be candid and fair about this PROPOSE
tion~~-~Why should the women in this country who want to
vote take upon their shoulders the race question in their fight
for enfranchisementi
Again when the Amendment was before the Senate in 1919,
he curtesed low to the Souths hostility to Negro suffrage:
Let me ask my friends upon this side of the Chamber, when
guaranty is written into thu Constitution, which gives to from
two and one-half to three million Negro women the right 10
vote in the South and gives you the power to see that the pro-
vision is carried out, do the men on this side of the Chamber
fthe Repubicans-TEd) propose to see that this is dons9 Do
you propose to put the South under Federal control as to cleo
tionsg If you do, you will have a great task, which you seem
lightly to contemplate
The South has her heavy burden to carry. l do not propose
to add unnecessarily to the weight of that BURDEN
To impose upon the Southern States a rule for local affairs
for which they are not prepared and which they do not want,
simply because we have the voting power to do SO is Prussanism.
CONTINUED Next Weekly