Judge — February 3, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SUFFRAGE FACTS AND FANCIES Countries Where the Right to Vote Waits on the Chance to Vote ORE THAN a year and a half ago suffragedom received the glad tidings that Iceland and Denmark had given their women the right to vote. Suffrage writers wrote artic! making invidious comparisons between the men in America and men in Iceland and Den- mark. Suffrage papers got down their largest eagles, dusted them, and hoisted them to the top of the front page. Then followed a season of weather, politically speaking, in those supposedly democratic countri Men had given women the right to vote. Oh, yes, but they did not give them the chance to vote. Weeks passed and the women conned the books on political economy they had immediately bought to prepare them- selves for the political duties they sup- posed had been thrust upon them. But the thrusting failed to materialize. Months passed; same situation. Seasons passed and the right to vote was still in cold storage. Finally, after eighteen months, the chastened and subdued women of Iceland were permitted to view the promised land, the polling place. But the spirit of Hamlet still broods over Denmark and the statesmen of that country are still cogitating on votes for women as a thing “to be, or not to be,” and if so, “when,” that is the question. In ancient Athens the political formula was said to be: one man, one vote, and a perpetual referendum. But it is not so in modern Iceland and Denmark. Whatever the women of those countries do or do not do with the vote, their having it will not result in their wasting time at the polls. They won't get the chance. calm In the Field with the Suffrage Organizer S6XVOU bet I’m for votes for women,” ejaculated a record-breaking sten- ographer, as she rested on her keys to answer the question of the suffrage organizer, “and it isn’t for the reason you think, either,” she continued with a vicious twinkle in her eye. “I think women ought to vote because they are such blasted fools. “Why to hear you suffragists talk you would think that women were a lot of efficiency experts, just waiting for the vote in order to use it asa tool to reform all the wrongs of this weary and unin- telligible world, when what’s the matter with the world is just the inefliciency of women and their extravagance Take the question of silk stockings, for instance. My mother had a pair of silk stockings when she was married, and after the ceremony they were filed away in tissue paper for her children to t an occasional peek at until they wore them when they were married. Now everybody, even the little five-dollar clerk, wears silk stockings. “Take the question of nine-dollar shoes for instance. When I was a girl I had a pair of nine-dollar shoes. They are nothing new. They were always made and sold, but to find them I had to go to a special store. Now, every shoe dealer carries them in stock, and every little mill girl wears them. “Yes Siree! I’m for the vote every time. For I believe that it will bring some sense of responsibility to women who now do nothing but run around buying things they can’t afford.” by Anna Cadogan Etz Give Women the Vote so They Can Fuss Around on Their Own Job Wait Large N GOVERNMENT there is plenty of work cut out and ready for women without their needing to wink an eye at the tariff or the currency. For govern- ment is, among other things, just home- making writ large. The largest class of unemployed in this country does not consist of hoboes and down-and-outs. America has the largest leisure class of women in the world, women whose men-folk have toiled so successfully that their wives do not need to spin and must perforce invent some- thing to be busy about. The problem of unemployment begins with these women. Votes for women would utilize this waste product. Just what sort of a hurry-up job men make in running a government which includes nursery duties, as one might say, in its curriculum, is told by every report of the Child Labor Committee. For instance: In more than one state the tender arm of the law stands between a girl and the selling of newspapers until she is sixteen. But it lets her function as a bootblack at any age she pleases. There are states where the masculine- made statute reaches into shine parlors and cuts the hours of shining for boys of fifteen down to eight a day. But under the eye of the law, any little shaver can sling a bootblack’s kit over his shoulder and shine along the street as long as the sun does, and then some more. That women do devote themselves politically to caring for children, rather than running after men’s political jobs, is instanced in the election in Denver for the twelfth time of Judge Lindsey. Minus the votes of women (if you doubt it, ask him) Judge Lindsey would have remained an obscure individual. Because of the votes of women he has made Colorado a clearing house for the world on problems of delinquent childhood. ‘Twas Ever Thus Some people seem to think that a silly excuse for marrying is better than a sensible excuse for remaining single. comicbooks.com