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Show THE WOMAN AND THE BALLOT. Here is an extract from a pamphlet recently issued by the Illinois Association of Women. In view of the seriousness of the agitation on behalf of womanhood suffrage in London and Nev; York,' the address of the Illinois Association of 'Women takes on additional interest: "In the States where woman suffrage prevails, how many important offices have ever been held by women? In Colorado, during the first years after fhe ballot was obtained, a few womeu were elected to the Legislature, but Louise Lee Hardin, then editor cf the Business Woman's Magazine at Denver, said editorially that every year after women wo-men were allowed to vote fewer places were allotted allot-ted to them on party tickets, till at last there was not a woman in either house of the legislature. A well knov-n woman of Utah adds to this testimony that thf nomination of a woman to an elective office is now considered by all parties as an ele ment of weakness. It is no louger considered es-sentiid es-sentiid to recognize or cater to the woman vote at any convention byany political party. 'Woman,' says Mrs. Hardin, and it must be remembered that she is a thorough suffragist, and voted more than ence in the earnest faith that the ballot in the hands of women would be an elevating influence, influ-ence, 'have only followed where men led. It is true that they have caused the passage of some petty measures, but it was only as a little sop to keep them in line for something which men had promised a great corporation that they would put through."' On this continent the movement for electoral equality is hardly perceptible. We have, for many years, been told from pulpit, hustings and platforms plat-forms of the millennium that would follow the extension ex-tension of the franchise to women. In Colo rado, where women vote and sit in the legislature, they recently defeated a strong effort on' behalf of moral reformers and temperance agitators to make Colorado a "dry" state. Prohibition was also an issue in the local election in Denver city lately and the "wets" won out. It is possible, of oourse, that the level-headed women of Denver took a practical prac-tical view of the situation and supported a high license that can be enforced in preference to an impracticable prohibition ordinance impossible of enforcement. Thus the Colorado women make it rather diffi- fcult for their sisters elsewhere to belong both to ?the W. C. T. U. (Women's Christian Temperance Union) and to an-organization like the W.' E. S. (Women's Enfranchisement Society) to secure, the curse or the blessing of the ballot to their sex.. The fair inference from the Colorado vote' seems to bo that women, like men, will separate into opposing op-posing camps, and thus neutralize the influence of the sex as a whole. If the women of Colorado and of 'our own state had hclel together and continued to cast a solid vote, they, would have forced the politicians to make a serious bid for their support. Many offices of-fices would have been allotted to them; and they would have held the balance of power between Republicans Re-publicans and Democrats. Now they are humored by the "bosses" with little sops, and are then delivered de-livered in blocks to the highest bidders among the corporations. It is probable that a realization of such a condition of affairs makes the great ma jority of women indifferent to the movement for fe-jnnle suffrage. The fact is thoughtful and observant men and women have long ago reacheel the conclusion that manhood suffrage is "bad medicine"; that too many rather than too few vote; that there is too much "dfad wood" and rubbish deposited in the ballot boxes now; that real reform can only come when thousands are disfranchised who are unfit for the responsibilities of citizenship. |