Judge, 1912-12-21 · page 16 of 24
Judge — December 21, 1912 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Judge* magazine presents three pro-suffrage arguments dressed as everyday voices, countering anti-suffrage claims common in early 20th-century America. **"Ma Flickinger on Suffrage"** features a working-class woman arguing that factory workers like Mary Lee need voting power to improve dangerous conditions. The piece mocks anti-suffragettes' claim that women belong only at home—"how about the women that don't have no homes?" **"An Open Confession"** humorously depicts a man converted to suffrage by his wife's ultimatum: respectable men support women's voting rights. His chest swells with "Chesterfieldian inflation" at her approval. **"Soliloquy of a Mere Man"** and **"The Modest Hen"** (the cartoon showing a woman balancing a heavy ballot box on a rooster's back) use domestic management as proof women can handle politics. The hen laying eggs while the rooster crows suggests women do practical work while men take credit. The satire targets anti-suffrage arguments as hypocritical and irrational, using working-class and middle-class perspectives to argue women's competence and rights.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE-WODGS Ma Flickinger on Suffrage. By BESSIE R. HOOVER. I NEVER wanted to vote till Mary Lee, who works in a factory, told me she was losin’ her health ’cause she had to stand ata machine that was too high for her—and she can’t do nothin’ about it. As long as Jane Addams wants to vote, it 'ud be kinder ridiculous for an ignorant woman like me to be agin it. Willie Briggs'’s ma, who is a well- to-du widow, told me that the polls An Open Confession. I think that one reason why I’m for the suffrage is that Iam afraid of my wife. She came home one evening all excitement, and she laid down the law in this wise: ‘All the disreputable men are against the suffrage. I should have serious doubts of a man who voted against it!” And she gave me such a search- couldn't be any worse place to go to than the town hall where she has to pay her taxes. Widows and middle- aged unmarried ladies is generally in favor of equal suffrage, I notice, and there's a reason. "Cause a woman's never felt the need of it is no reason she’s never needed the vote. Sometimes the clingin’ vine ain't got nothin’ more interestin’ to cling to than a broomstick ora washtub. Every sensible body agrees with the antis that woman’s place is the home; but how about the women that don’t have no homes? 'Tain’t always convictions that make women join the antis; some- times it’s pure contrariness. Lots of men that won't let their selves be decorated with a button is goin’ to vote for equal suffrage. If it was as fashionable to throw hatchets and things over here as it is in England, I wouldn’t mind seein’ folks hit who say, ‘‘Equal suffrage is bound to come,”’ yet won’t do nothin’ for the cause but laugh at it. The Modest Hen. It’s the rooster does the crowin’, Wears the plumes and yaller legs, Wants to boss the whole creation; But the hen, she lays the eggs. SHE WILL RESTORE THE BALANCE. ing look that I trembled in my shoes and forthwith replied, ‘‘I don’t blame you, darling. Every thinking man wants his wife to go with him to the polls. Iam sure I do!"? And my chest took on a perfectly Chester- fieldian inflation. She gave me a good, genuine kiss for that speech, and since that day, as for us and our house, we are for equal suffrage. United we stand, but divided—I trembled to think of it. Confidentially, I have grown to believe what I professed, and if any- body can put up an argument now that will convince me that my wife shouldn't vote, I should like to know what it is! The acid-in-letter-box method of English agitators makes no converts, WA OMG IH Soliloquy of a Mere Man. Some of the fellows down at the club are against suffrage for women. They say the women will be too in- dependent for ans thing—will want to run everything both at home and abroad. Well, s’pose they do? My wife's byen running our house for the past ten years, and she never went bank- tupt yet. She always has something saved up, too, for a Christmas treat for the kiddies. She's just as likely to be able to run city affairs if she gets a chance. Housecleaning is a woman's long suit, and she could indulge her whim to some purpose in politics. The fellows say, “What's the use? Women will vote just like their husbands do, anyhow. There'll be twice as many ballots and no results.”” Well, of course, it was the single chaps that said that! They say women will get mannish. That's an- other Mistake, with a big M. The strongest suffra- gette Lever knew was a girl from Colorado. She could tell you all about the results of suffrage in her own State, knew more about the proposed amendments to the Ohio constitution than any man I knew, and actually understood the tariff; but, by Jove! she had the prettiest clothes I’ve seen in an age, did her hair in a perfectly fetching way, and had the daintiest, prettiest little hands imaginable. And once when I yelled ‘‘Mouse!"’ just to try out her masculine tendencies, she screamed bloody murder and jumped clear up on the table and we saw her slippers! They must have been twos and a halfon the AA last. Mannish, nothing! She was a woman from the word go! Lids Keck Wigeinn For an all-around militant suffra- gette commend us to Miss J. Addams. comicbooks.com