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What eight million women want

Chapter 10 VOTES FOR WOMEN

Word Count: 5139    |    Released on: 30/11/2017

first displayed little interest in the subject. Although many of the club women were strong suffragists, there were many others, notably women from the Southern States, who were violently opposed

ard politics. The unions, fearing that the labor leaders would use the men for their own politic

eir state and national federation meetings would result in their movement becoming p

orning session was given up to the suffrage organizations. Several remarkable speeches in favor of the suffrage were made, and there is no doubt that a very deep impression was made, even upon those wome

was a discussion of the right of women to the ballot. Women floated through the corridors of the hotel talking suffrage. The

he visiting suffragists and had calculated a maximu

it of three hundred and seventy-five, was occupied. Outside were women offering ten dollars a plate and clamoring for the privilege of merely listening to t

olent and philanthropic. That they were performing community service, citizens' service, they did not remotely dream. There is nothing surprising in their na?veté. It is a fact that in this country, al

urgeon on the back seat. A woman lawyer, architect, editor, manufacturer, excites no particular notice. In the Western States men are beginning to elect women county treasurers, county

of American men women d

timental kind of delusion that the American man was only too anxious to give them everything that their hearts desired. When they got out into the world of

y a very modest little bill and it protected only a fraction of the pitiful army of cotton-mill children, but still it was worth having. The women worked hard

that the women of my State wanted this bill passed I would vote for it; but, sir, I have ever

known women in Georgia. The orator stammered, turned red, felt for his handkerchief, mopped his brow, and cont

learned that they cannot have everything they want merely by asking for it. Also they have learned, or a large number of t

the New York Court of Appeals that the law prohibiting night work of women was unconstitutional, nearly one thousand women book-binders in New York City made a public announcement that they would thencefort

s convinced that the magistrates and the police treated them with more contempt than they did the voting men, but they perceived the need of securing better labor laws for themselves. The conviction

houses the offices of the Equality League of Self Supporting Women, of which Harriot Stanton Blatch is founder and president. This society, which is entirely made up of trade a

mbered, the Teachers' Federation is a trade union and is allied to the Central Labor Union. Teachers, almost everywhere denied equal pay with m

of the Union of Street and Elevated Railway Employees. Later she organized on a larger scale the Women's Political Equality Union, with membership open to men and women alike. The interest shown in the union by workingmen, many of whom had never before given the matter a moment's thought, was, from the first, extraordinary. During the first winter of the society's existence, union after union called for Wo

all, Mrs. Pankhurst, leader of the militant English Suffragists, aroused tremendous enthusiasm from one end of the country to the other. Never, until these women appeared, telling, with rare eloquence, their stories of struggle,

began to view their cause in the light of a political movement. They began to adopt political methods. Instead of private meetings where suffrage was discu

announced their intention of having a parade. Most of the women being wage earners they planned to have their parade on a Sunday. Whe

ral procession," said the

following Sunday a huge crowd of men, a sprinkling of women, a generous number of plain clothes men, and New York's famous "camera squad" assembled in Union Square, where all incendiary things happen. The dauntless se

e you to go over there with us." She and the others walked calmly out of the square, and the crowd followed. They turned into Fifth Avenue, an

indignation of many

an attendant policeman, "I thought you had o

e policeman, serenely; "them fo

urrence. At first there was some rioting, or, rather, some display of rowdyism on the part of the spectators a

ter city into an association exactly along the lines of a regular political party. At the head of the party as president is Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the Internation

resident of the New York State Consumers' League, is chairman of the assembly district in which she lives. Mrs. Melvil Dewey, whose husband is head of a department at Columbia University, is chairman of her own district. Other chairmen are Helen H

ove towards forcing the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly to report on the bill to give women votes by constitutional amen

the progressive suffrage movement,

otherwise follow the example of many another city council in bending before the god of greed, the women of Salt Lake send the word around. When the council meets the women are in the room. They don't say anything. They don't have to say anything. They can vote

sses that ever cursed a community, the women, under the leadership of Mrs. Elizabeth Gerberding, performed this new kind of picket duty. The courtroom where the trial was held was, by order of the boss's attorney, packed with hired

o attend with her. These women went daily to the courtroom, occupying seats to the exclusion of many of the tough characters, and by their presence doing much to p

f five hundred. The league fought stoutly for the reelection of Heney as district attorney. Heney was defeated, and the le

en the right to vote. It is not very probable that the Suffragists will win in any of these States, not because the voters are opposed to suffrage, but because t

available to do the work thoroughly. In the four States where the question is at present before the vot

ossibly Nebraska, where conditions seem uncommonly favorable, and concentrating the entire strength of the national organization, every dollar of money in the national treasury, all the speakers and organizers, all the literature, in a mighty

sh vote, or a German vote, or a Catholic vote, or a Hebrew vote is to be dreaded, say the men, how much more of a menace would a woman vote be. I heard a man, a delegate from an anti-suffrage association, solemnly warn the New York St

n vote is not an unthinkable co

ised in the United States. Women vote on equal terms with men, in four States. They have voted in Wyoming since 1869; in Colorado

the women show little interest in voting, in the four so-called suffrage

by,-the Kaiser's "Kirche, Küche, und Kinder" over again. They vote with enthusiasm on all questions which relate to domestic interests, that is, which directly relate to them and their children. Aside from th

that has been aroused all over the United States within the past two years hav

ado State Federation of Clubs has held regular meetings during the sessions of the State Legislature, and it has been a regular custom to submit to that committee for approval all bills relating to wome

te was more or less powerless. So, about a year ago they formed in Denver an association of women which they called the Public Service League. Nothing quite like it ever existed before. It is a political but non-partisan association of women, pledged to work for the civic betterment of Denver, pledged to fight the corrupt politicians, determined that the city government shall be well a

regard the Public Service League in mingled dread and detestation. Equally as a matter of fact politicians of a better class are anxious to enlist the good will of the League. Last summer a Denver election involved a question of granting a twenty years' franchise to a street railw

candidate for Election Commissioner Miss Ellis Meredith, one of the best known, best loved women in the State. As journalist and author and club woman Miss Meredith

was Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker, formerly president, and still leader of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Beside her sat Mrs. Helen Grenfell, for thirteen years county and State superintendent of schools, Mrs. Helen Ring Robinson, Mrs. Martha A.B. Conine, and Miss Gail Laughlin, all women of note in their community. The

t she was influenced mainly by two things: first a desire to test the loyalty of the women voters, and second, because, while women had been

t is probable that office will be thrust upon the ablest of them. Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker has been spoken of as a possible futur

siana, and several other States women have filled the same position. The State of Kansas is a true believer in women office-holders, even though it refuses its women complete suffrage. Women can vote in Kansas only at municipal elections, but in forty counties men have elected women school superin

It is said that almost every member of the faculty of Columbia University signed the Suffrage petition presented to the Congress of 1909. Well-known professors of many Western universities

ould not vote because they cannot fight is now rarely argued. Municipal governments certainly no longer rest on physical force. The sam

has been reflected in the woman vote. Social legislation alone interests women, and so far they have confined their efforts to matters of education, child labor, pure food, sanitation, control of liquor traffic, and public morals. The organized non-voting women of this country have devoted themselves for years to precisely these objects. Without votes, without precedents, and without very much money they instituted the playground movement, and the

of society will bring them into political equality with men just as it has brought them into intellectual and industrial equality. The first

two courses; they had to support their women in idleness, or else they had to allow them to leave the home and go where their trades had gone. The first course involving the intolerable burden of doing thei

k, clean ice, proper sanitation. They cannot do that now. The City Hall governs all such matters. Again the men find themselves facing the old dilemma. They must either support their women in

men are providing for the municipal family. They are demanding their old housekeeping tasks back agai

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