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Editorial and City Cite Section of fiearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, Way 23, W.
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was a pleasant day in Holland.
The water was smooth, the
weather was warm, the man
who owned the boat was com
fortable. His pipe drew well;
he had eaten plenty; he ad
mired the scenery and the
world as it is.
The women were harnessed as you see them
here. Tad did not follow the sketch closely in
this drawing; he has the women standing up
straight as they pull the boat with the muscles
of their necks.
As seen on the towpath they were bent almost
double, pushing with their legs and carrying the
load with the muscles of neck, back and thighs.
They were perspiring, and there was a look of
distress on their faces entirely absent from that
of the man who owned the boat and rode on the
load as they pulled.
' * « *
The original of this cartoon by Tad is a valu
able, striking big pen-and-ink drawing. We ars
going to have it neatly framed and present it to
some anti-suffrage association. It ought to suit
exactly. The anti - suffragists believe that
woman’s place is the kitchen. This Dutchman,
F tting the fresh air, believes that woman’s place
the home, except when it is the towpath.
Tens of thousands of men worse than this
owner of a little canal boat in Holland, think that
woman’s place is the kitchen or the factory, the
cannery, the cotton mill.
The anti-suffrage-clinging-vine lady, this gen
tleman of Holland, those who make money by
child labor and those who get their fortunes by
grinding women up in the mills, all agree upon
one thing.
THEY ARE AGAINST VOTES FOR WOMEN.
Every anti-suffrage association ought to have
this cartoon framed beside a picture of a woman
chained to a cooking stove. And, underneath,
they ought to have these words prettily written
on a sign ornamented with daisies and forget-
me-nots: “Why change conditions which are
perfect?”
« « *
The owner of this boat, dear anti-suffrage
ladies, believes with you that women have all
they need, and that they may safely trust “to
the chivalry of men.”
When you anti-suffrage women dress your
selves neatly, powder the tips of your noses and
go to your meetings you supply the whiskey
sellers and the rotten politicians with ammuni
tion to fight against votes for women.
For one anti-suffrage lady, with nine kinds of
jewelry and nine kinds of perfume to make her
a nuisance, there are ten women—wives, daugh
ters and mothers of workingmen.
Don’t you realize that when you give the vote
to women YOU GIVE AT LEAST TEN TIMES
AS MANY VOTES TO THE WORKING CLASS
AS TO ANY OTHER CLASS?
And don’t you think there is room for inf-
pro vement among the working class even yet?
It is true that the President of the United
States no longer complains that he can’t hire a
first-class man for less than one hundred dollars
a year. But even if we have got beyond that stage,
don't you think there is room for improvement?
And don't you think that you and your wife and youf
•nother and your daughters SHOULD VOTE TOGETHER
TO MAKE THINGS BETTER?
Don’t you think that the woman who runs out into
the street to keep her child from being crushed ought
to be able to vote as regards the control of streets?
Don't you think the woman who scrapes together the
money to pay the rent, WHICH PAYS THE TAXES,
ought to vote to decide what should be done with the
taxes?
The big trusts that raise prices for food of every
kind—WHERE DO THEY GET THEIR MONEY?
From the women.
It would be a good idea to give the women, out cf
whose allowance must be paid the bills of the Coal
Trust, Beef Trust, Sugar Trust, Gas Trust, the right to
vote on the privileges of those trusts.
Working MEN are just one-half of the working class.
Their condition has been better since they, THE MEN,
were allowed to vote, to protect their own Interests.
Would not their condition be twice as good IF THE
OTHER HALF OF THE WORKING CLASS, the
women, were also allowed to vote to protect their In
terests and the Interests of their sons?
Is this a "class" argument? Not at all.
Increase of the prosperity of the MASS means In
crease of the prosperity of the fortunate individual.
When workingmen in America made thirty cents >
day, and only one of them averaged one dollar a day the
year round, there were not the rich men that you se$
now.
As the working class has advanced In prosperity,
thanks to the vote, THE SO-CALLED UPPER CLASSES,
THE RICHER AND MORE FORTUNATE, HAVE AD
VANCED IN PROSPERITY.
Increase the voters, add to the Intelligence of the
voters by including women, make this country really ■
republic by freeing one-half of the population from a
condition of slavery, and you will benefit every class.
If you lived in Holland, if your wife and sister wars
hitched to this boat, wouldn't you give them the right
to vote If the vote would help to cut the rope and put
a mule in their place?
Don't you know that In the United States there are
millions of women no better off than these. AND WORSE
OFF? And don't you think that workers ought to have
the Intelligence to let women use for their protection
the same weapons that workmen have used to proteot
themselves—THE BALLOT?
This is a scene in Holland. It’s real, not imaginary.
The old gentleman, fat and happy, was sketched by a traveler, as the women
pulled him and his boat along. Tad, our artist, develops the sketch.
It will not surprise you to hear that this gentleman of Holland believes that
women should not go to the polls and vote. The place for woman in his opinion
is THE TOW PATH. He is not so different from a great many American gentle
men who think that woman’s place is THE HOME.
You are treating the women of America worse
than the women of Holland are treated by this
canal boat owner.
You may say that we do not harness women
to canal boats in th« United States. That is true,
for gasoline and mules are cheaper than women
over here.
But we harness women to sewing machines run
by electricity at a speed that wears out the
women’s nerves. '
We harness women to machines in box facto
ries that wear them out before they are twenty.
That is worse than pulling a canal boat. For the
woman who pulls a canal boat at least works
slowly, and in the fresh air; in spite of the hard
work she gets fat and may live to be old.
We fasten little girls over here to machinery in
cotton mills, ruin their bodies with nervous ex
haustion and curse the generation of which they
are to be the mothers.
You anti-suffrage women are the delight of
judges who declare that it is unconstitutional to
protect a working woman against man’s brutal
covetousness. You are the protectors of the
legislators who devise and support laws to make
women and their children work double hours
because profit demands it.
You anti-suffragists are the best friends of the
manufacturers of whiskey. Those manufacturers
count upon you to keep the vote from women.
And although many of you don’t know it, it is
the whiskey manufacturer and the whiskey
dealer who most willingly supply money for your
anti-suffrage campaigns.
And some of the admirable “home-sweet-home,
trust - to - dear - man’s - chivalry, don ’t-go-out-of-
your-sphere” speeches that you listen to are
made by anti-suffrage ladies, PAID FOR THEIR
TROUBLE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, BY
THE WHISKEY DISTILLERS AND THEIR
AGENTS.
Fortunately, some of the States in our country
have given women the vote. And in every State
where women vote their demand for their rights
has been justified by the actions of women
already voting.
But many States, including the biggest, still
feel as does this Dutchman in his canal boat.
New York State, for instance,' still classes
women, the mothers of voters, with Indians,
idiots and children, unfit to vote.
This year in New York an effort will be made
to do justice to women, and give them their share
in government.
Among all the speakers who will argue against
giving the vote to women there is none who can
give a better argument than this Dutch canal
boat owner gives for the condition of affairs
which he represents. He says’ “Everything is
all right. What are you bothering about? These
women are happy; they like to pull the boat; it's
good for them, strengthens their necks. And it
is particularly good for me. I need rest to think
just how and where I will sell this load, and I
need the cool air on my intelligent, fevered brow.
Give these women the vote and they would sulk,
and Christian civilization would go to smash.”
# * « •
Opponents of women suffrage in the United
States, although they may not realize it, talk in
the same way. They think that women harnessed
to cooking stoves, sewing machines, canning fac
tory machines, cotton mill machines and scrub
bing brushes, should be happy and contented,
not encouraged to go out of their sphere.
They ask, “What would happen to the world
if women became discontented, and had a chance
to prove it?”
The owner of this canal boat in Holland feels
toward the women pulling the boat about as the
owner of a canal boat in the State of New York
feels toward the mules pulling his boat. He
thinks the mules are doing what they ought to
do. And so they are—THE MULES. But women
have been treated like mules about long enough
in Holland, AND IN THE UNITED STATES.
Workingmen especially ought to realize that
giving the votes to womeu will mean protecting
the interests of all workers.
The only hope of those who work is in the
power of numbers.
To the workingman who ignorantly trails
along behind the highly perfumed anti-suffrage
lady and thinks women ought not to vote we say
this:
Where would YOU be if working MEN
couldn’t vote? There was a time in the United
States, as you know, when the workingman was
not allowed to vote. And that day existed long
after the Declaration of Independence.
The worker once had to own a certain amount
of property in the United States before he could
vote. And at that time THERE WAS JUST
ONE MECHANIC IN THE UNITED STATES
EARNING A DOLLAR A DAY, ALL THE
YEAR AROUND. His case was so remarkable
that a great historian pointed it out as intensely
Interesting.
And in that day, when the ordinary working
man was not allowed to vote, when his “betters”
gave the same arguments against male WORK
ERS voting that you give now against women
voting, do you know what one of the Presidents
of the United States said?
He said that the country was going to smash,
because he could no longer hire a steady, reliable
workman for less than one hundred dollars a
year—about thirty cents a day.
Workers realized fortunately that they needed
the vote for themselves, and they GOT it here,
in England and elsewhere.
Why haven't they brains enough to know that
what they need for themselves they need for their
wives and daughters?
For one prosperous man there are ten workers.
FROM LIFE
PRETTY PICTURE, ISN’T IT?
Copyright, 1910, by tho Star Company. <.»r«at Britain Right* Reaorrofl.