OCR Text |
Show SAYS WOMAN SUffRAGE GOES HAND IN HAND WITH POLYGAMY At the Peoples' Fornm in I ho Masonic Mason-ic Temple in Brooklyn Sunday, Novom ber 21, Airs. Gilbert H. Jones, a noted speaker on public questions, propounded lo her largo and interested audience I lie question: "Why Do SuH'ragisIs Nol Toll of Utah Women Voters?" She said you would bear them from all platforms plat-forms talk of Colorado women voters, but not a word had she yet heard from one of thoso platforms of Utah. 'Woman 'Wo-man sutTrago has been hand in hand with polygamy- in IJtnh for years? Women Wo-men there wives of Mormons have 110 freedom, but vote at the elders tell them. Ami the women there liko the polygamous lifo! .lust, think of that.'' Mrs. .Tones said there are 200 women who are blacksmiths. "Fancy having a blacksmith for a mother-in-law? And then die made a hit and everybody every-body applauded. Tho following is an account of the meeting taken lroni U10 New York Sun: They were to have had movlntr pictures pic-tures of Home at the People's Torum Isi thf .Masonlr temple In Buoolclyn last evening:, but thf Isisuranc.o people Interfered. Inter-fered. "It wns announced, nnd so they had movlnjr words fsosn Mrs. Gilbert 13. Jones Instead. "It's tho first time I ever appeared as a substitute." said Mrs. Jones, nnd inir tones ho Id "So son y." Mrs Jones was there to lalk of "Some Fundamental Reasons Why Women Should Not Vote." and she pave some of her reasons plainly. Sho said that Bryan profited by the votes of women in the West and other things like that, until it appeared as though political things might bo said on this non-political rostrum ros-trum after all. But she declared, did Mrs. Jones, that sho bad no reason at nil for saying say-ing anything about the question eliler for suffrngf; or against suffrage except with a. vlotv to educating women ;is to what the suffrage Is, what the fr uicIiIhc means. "1 salher think that when wnm?n have the right to voto 1 shall decline to vote." she said, nnd some folks noted what they thought was a tacit admission of a lost cause. "Any woman." she added, add-ed, "or man here who has heard only one side of this question Is not no intelligent in-telligent person. When I heard a suffrage speaker say that motherhood was a detriment detri-ment to woman that was .a last straw for me. "If we give the ballot to women as we give it to men and all citizens instead in-stead of all male citizens of Hie age of -1 vote the same elements will ni.pcnr among the woinen voters as among the men voters. We ba.ve good women. Intelligent In-telligent women, Ignorant women and immoral im-moral women, and they'll all vote Just as the several classes of men vote today. to-day. "I'll not put Into my argument tonight to-night what I as a woman think." said Mrs. Jones. Then she demanded: "Why has government denied the volt? to women through all the centuries? Why has government given the vote to Ignorant siegsoes and not to intelligent women? It's so simple It's scarcely believable. be-lievable. Government is the every day practical business of keeping a civilized community In order When women run Ins-gc domestic establishments the business busi-ness management Is usually put into the bands of men, Woinen haven't oven solved that problem yet "To whom does government look for Its support and its sustaining .qualities to women? No, to men. To whom for pence and ordor to women? No. to..men. All government must have a basis In fundamental fun-damental natural force. "The men arc the every -day stock and capital of the government. It was chivalry chiv-alry and reverence nnd protection for women that led the statesmen not to bring them Into tho rank and llle of men" In sustaining the government, not prejudice. Has government ever said to men, 'You can vote only bemuse you are moral V' So. It asks but one thing, that man be loyal to the safety of the country. "If you are going , to give women the vote without responsibility, you create a privileged class and It may soon turn Into an nristocrncy. Women can nuver give such service to the state as man Never in history have they given their lives in service to the state as have men. "Think of the New York woinen who have bad fortunes thrown Into their laps without turning a linger to ens-n them having a voto on a property ciualltlcailon. such as sonic suffragists demand, while college professors without property would be deprived of the vote." Mrs. Jones warned her auditors against the false teachings of suffragists, who begged the vote for women in order to help wage-earning women, and urged her hoas-ers to go home and send a dollar instead to every women's trade union they knew of as a better way to help those wage-carneis. "Remember," said she. "that promising wage-earning women so distant a thing as the ballot Is like offering them it distant dis-tant star! Most of the 35 per cent of the so-called best wage-earners among the 6.000,000 wage-earners In the country do not' want the ballot. Some do. But even they hesitate to call -themselves suffragists: suffrag-ists: they deilaro themselves Socialists. The suffragist speakers say that all trades and professions nearly are open to women, and they cite some 200 blacksmiths ami a like number of undertakers! That, to me. Is !not progress, "Fancy having a blacksmith for a mothcs-ln-law!" . Whereat there were Impulsive hand-clappings. hand-clappings. Mrs Jones said tluit while plenty was heard of Colorado, from suffragist suf-fragist platforms, not a. word had she yet heard from one of those platforms of Uluh. "I've never heard a suffragist speaker mention Utah," she said. "Woman "Wom-an suffrngu has been hand in hand with polygamy In Ttah for years. WOMLCN THERE WIVES OF MORMONS IIAVK NO FREEDOM. BUT VOTE AS THK ELDERS TELK Til EM. Aisd they keep the vote just because there are more of them, and so the votes count. And the women there like (here she lowered her voice but intensified her delivery) the woinen there like the polygamous life! Just think of that!" And her last exclamation ex-clamation sounded like an eclio of this familiar locution of I lie mayor-elect who usd U in lUc arne .a anjj dou. of other halls only a few weeks ago. She udded : "When you hens- of women purifying politics, Just think of Utah! Now, take all this home with you. for you'll never hear suffragists mention Utah. The women wom-en suffsnglslM kept Utah to Lb-yan and they voted the return of the church properly prop-erly lo the Mormons. "You bens- from them of Colorado and how the women nnd tho kids went from door to door to secure the election of the good Judge Undsny. Well, wc elerl-d elerl-d Governor Hughes by men alone! Yet tho sulfraglsts gloiy In Colorado thai votes of women elected Judge LJiidsny. Where, I say, where were their men?" Ami when permission was given the audience to ask Mrs. Jones questions, none was so bold as to propound one, although al-though one or two persons made brief statements, as some "questioners" at these public meetings arc prone to do. |