 | University of Virginia record October 1, 1914 |  |
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. J. THOMAS HEFLIN,
In the House of Representatives.
Extract.
Mr. Heflin. Mr. Speaker, upon the request of Mrs. George B.
Puller, of Washington, I wish to print in the Record the following
article on woman suffrage, by Miss Mary B. Smith:
Woman Suffrage.
(By Miss Mary B. Smith.)
I desire to present some facts as to the pernicious effects of woman
suffrage in States where it now exists. There have been many theories
upon this subject presented by the suffragists. It is my purpose
to present facts and figures showing that woman suffrage, where
it has been tried, not only does not better conditions but tends to
have actually the reverse effect from a practical standpoint. Senator
Thomas, of Colorado, has said that he concedes that woman
suffrage has not, and maintains that it will not, change conditions.
I agree with the distinguished Senator up to a certain point, but I
believe that I can show positively that woman suffrage will, in
many instances, change conditions for the worse.
The Los Angeles Times of June 5, 1913, gives the total vote as
84,055; nearly 100,000 under registration. The Times further says
that, in spite of the excellent organization of Mrs. John S. Myers
and her corps of assistants, the women did not turn out in any
large numbers, and of those who did a considerable percentage appeared
to favor the election of Rose. As there were 222,877 men and
women over 21 years of age in Los Angeles (census of 1910), only
38.2 per cent of the men and women of voting age voted. The Los
Angeles Express, June 4, 1913, had an editorial on the disgrace of
electing Rose. At an election in Chicago, April 7, 1914, with the
strenuous efforts of the suffragists to get out the female vote, only
158,686 women voted. Chicago had in 1910, 626,629 women over
21 years of age (letter from Director of Census February 28, 1914).
About 25 per cent of the women of Chicago over 21 years of age
voted. More than double that number of men did vote at the same
election. Complaint has been made that it is not just to tax women
women, so if women had the ballot the women who pay taxes would
not be as fairly and justly treated as they now are, for then nine-tenths
of the women who vote the tax would pay no taxes, while
now nine-tenths of the taxes paid are paid by the men who vote the
taxation. No injustice is possible when the taxes are laid by the
voters who pay nine-tenths of the amount.
So many of our people are being misled on the liquor question
subject. In no State in which women have voted on the question
has State-wide prohibition even been adopted. Nine States where
men alone vote have State-wide prohibition. November 5, 1912,
Colorado voted on State-wide prohibition; 75,877 votes were cast for
the measure and 116,774 against. (See p. 159, Abstract of Votes,
compiled from official returns by James B. Pearce, secretary of state,
Denver, Colo.) If 58 per cent of the women over 21 years of age
in Colorado had voted for prohibition, the measure would have become
a law by 6,012 majority without a single male vote being cast
for prohibition, there being 213,425 women over 21 years of age in
Colorado. (P. 118, Abstract of Census, 1910.)
Wyoming legalized gambling for about 40 years after women had
the ballot, and had neither State-wide prohibition nor local-option
laws.
About six years prior to the adoption of woman suffrage in California
Los Angeles voted on local option, and the measure was defeated
nearly 2 to 1. About a month after women had the ballot
in Los Angeles the question was again voted on and the saloons
won by nearly 3 to 1.
At an election in California April 13, 1914, out of 13 cities and
towns voting on the liquor question, 9 voted "wet" and 4 small towns
"dry." Hanford, population 4,829, and Merced, population 3,102,
both of which had been dry, returned to the wet column. See Los
Angeles Times, April 14, 1914. Only 1 small county—Lake County—
in California is dry, and 10 counties out of 62 in Colorado are dry.
In Colorado Springs, Colo., where the sale of liquor was prohibited
for many years, women voted on the question about two years ago,
and liquor selling was legalized. Colorado Springs had 819 more
women than men over 21 years of age in 1910. (Letter of Director
of Census, Feb. 28, 1914.)
On pages 202 and 203, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, you will find that in the 6 States that had woman
suffrage January 1, 1912—California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho,
Utah, and Washington—there were 26,295 liquor dealers paying license
to the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913.
From page 24, Abstract of United States Census, 1910, you will find
the 6 suffrage States above mentioned had a population of 5,163,473,
1 liquor dealer for every 196 people of the 6 States. For the remaining
42 States and District of Columbia there were 226,247 liquor
dealers paying license for the same period. The 42 States and District
of Columbia had a population of 86,808,793, or 1 liquor dealer
for every 383 people, or about one-half the number of dealers per
capita than the woman suffrage States require, and then we are told
by the suffragists that they are not favorable to the liquor interests.
Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona only adopted woman suffrage
November 5, 1912. Kansas has been a prohibition State for more
than 25 years.
At local-option elections in Illinois April 7, 1914, about eleven
hundred saloons out of 3,000, where elections were held, were abolished,
dry counties out of the 100 counties in Illinois.
Kentucky, where men alone vote, has 99 dry counties out of 120
in the State, and Missouri has 65 no-license counties out of 114 in
that State.
Iowa has 77 dry counties out of 99 counties in the State; and in
Minnesota, at election April 7, 1914, two-thirds of the counties where
local-option elections were held voted dry; and towns that had licensed
saloons for 60 years voted dry by men's votes.
Eight out of twelve counties in Michigan that voted on the liquor
question April 6, 1914, voted dry, including Lansing, the capital of the
State, by men's votes; while Springfield, the capital of Illinois, where
there are 205 more women than men over 21 years of age, voted to
retain the saloons.
California, where women have voted for more than two and one-half
years, legalizes prize fighting and is one of the few States that
has no pure-milk law.
The suffragists tell us on all occasions that if women had the ballot
much better laws for the education and welfare of the child and
youth of our country will be enacted. Let me cite a few instances
to disprove such a theory:
At Berkeley, Cal., April 12, 1913, for the issuance of bonds for playgrounds,
only about 1,500 of the 8,000 women of the city voted. The
mayor, who has been a zealous worker for woman suffrage reprimands
the women for their negligence of this particular issue, which
of all others should interest them. In a newspaper article he asks
"Where were the mothers?" Berkeley has 1,301 more women than
men over 21 years of age. (Letter, Feb. 28, 1914, Director of United
States Census.)
At Pasadena, Cal., where there are 2,688 more women than men
of voting age, the playgrounds that were the pride of Pasadena, and
were established before women had the ballot, were discontinued last
July on account of the failure of voters to vote money for the purchase
of the grounds. (See Los Angeles Times. July 27, 1913.) No
other playgrounds have been purchased or been provided for the
children.
At an election November 12, 1913, Pasadena, Cal., failed to vote
bonds to repair leaky roofs and make sanitary repairs on schoolhouses,
to complete new schoolhouses under construction, and to
make it possible to provide schools for the entire school year. The
superintendent of schools said the school year would have to be
cut a month or two, and some schools will have to close when rains
begin. (See Los Angeles Times. Nov. 13, 1913.)
It happened to rain November 12 in Pasadena, and some thought
the bonds might have carried had the vote been taken on a fair day
when the ladies could more conveniently get to the polls; so it was
decided to have another election to vote for bonds in a less amount
than was voted on November 12. So on January 16, 1914—a fair
day—another election was held and the bonds again defeated. So
the voters of Pasadena have decided at two elections that the repair
of leaky roofs and sanitary improvements, and so forth, of
schoolhouses, as well playgrounds for the children, are to be indefinitely
postponed. A letter dated January 12, 1914. from the
Director of the United States Census, states there were, in 1910,
9,262 males and 11,950 females over 21 years of age. The total vote
for and against the bonds was 4,832. Only 22.7 per cent of the voters
to the polls at election of January 16.
We are told that the men of the country can not be trusted to
make laws for the women and children; yet an average of four-fifths
of the earnings of the men, over and above the necessities of the
family, is spent on the women and children.
The suffragists continually tell us that if women had the ballot
wars and internal strife would be a thing of the past, yet Colorado,
which has had woman suffrage for a generation, is in the throes of
civil war and has been for many months. The State has become
so weakened in its fabric that it can not keep order and protect life
and property within its borders, but has been compelled through the
State authorities to call upon the President of the United States to
send Government troops to administer affairs and bring order out
of chaos. This is another proof of the failure of woman suffrage in
the model suffrage State of Colorado, and refutes beyond any possibility
of controversy the suffragists' claims.
If women could ever vote as generally as men, there would be
little or no change in our laws, for even if a wife once in a while
voted in opposition to her husband and canceled his vote—in which
event the family would have no voice in the laws at all—the final
result of the whole vote would rarely be changed, and we would
have the absurd spectacle of having two people doing what one
alone could accomplish as well and save all the effort expended in
the study of politics by women and the enormous expense of doubling
the election cost.
| University of Virginia record October 1, 1914 | |