Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, May 23, 1915, Image 49

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Editorial and City Cite Section of fiearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, Way 23, W. unuttEB’" i $$04 MMm 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.