CHAPTER V

THE RIGHT OF WOMEN TO THE BALLOT

It is now generally accepted that that legislation has proved wholly beneficent which has, during the past half century, afforded to women and girls their present wide-spread opportunity for education. Indeed, we are so accustomed to it that we realize with difficulty the fact that such provision on so large a scale is new to human experience. As a result of this far-reaching movement there is present in the community an element of distinctive intelligence available for social and civic usefulness such as never before existed. That we are far from getting the full benefit of the virtue and intelligence stored up in the community; that the leisure and culture which have come to home-keeping women might be utilized on a far larger scale than we have yet attained; that an ethical gain has been made whenever the new intelligence of women has become available in the body politic; and, finally, that other important gains may reasonably be expected in proportion as its availability is extended by conferring the franchise upon women, it is the object of this chapter to indicate.

It has been urged by opponents of the enfranchisement of women, that there are other methods by which this intelligence may be utilized without

active participation in political life, and this is not denied. Indeed, men who are faithful in the performance of their duty as voting citizens carry on, in addition thereto, many lines of social and civic activity. They do not, however, appear to believe that they would be more valuable in the performance of these voluntarily assumed tasks if relieved of their political duties. It is not members of philanthropic and civic committees who absent themselves from the polls; on the contrary. Why, then, should not women follow both lines of activity and prove even more effective in their philanthropic and educational work, by reason of their added powers as voting citizens?

Does anyone believe that the efforts of the Public Education Association of New York would have been less effective during the past ten years, if they had been reënforced by the presence in the electorate of the mothers, the teachers, and the other interested women, including the members of the Association itself?

The fear lest the votes of ignorant women may outweigh those of the intelligent could be met by the imposition of an educational requirement such as is already in force in Massachusetts. The utterly unreasonable fear that the votes of the depraved may outnumber those of the righteous scarcely needs mention. The balance of virtue and depravity among women compares at least fairly with that of the present electorate.

Women's Opportunities on Public Boards and Commissions.-Naturally, the first tentative step in

the direction of securing for the community the benefit of the newly attained intelligence embodied in educated women, took the form of appointment of women upon public bodies having to do with women and children. In this connection, however, there must be noticed the curious phenomenon that some women, whose valuable services entitle them to a respectful hearing, have expressed the opinion that, in such positions, women may be of greater value by reason of their non-political position, which gives assurance of disinterestedness not thought attainable by voting citizens. It seems to indicate a not unnatural loss of the sense of proportion that these faithful servants of the community, deeply impressed with the great need for work such as they have been doing, should forget that their number is so insignificant as to weigh but lightly in comparison with the disadvantage arising from the loss out of the voting mass of the accumulated intelligence of the vast body of women, including all the teachers. Indeed, these alleged, exceptional cases of advantage arising from the non-political position of women serving in public capacities must be regarded as fully offset by those other cases in which able women, also serving on boards, have found themselves shelved by being placed on committees and sub-committees whose work was unimportant; and far more than offset by the exceedingly small number of women serving at all in such capacities compared with the great numbers who are qualified by nature and education for this work.

In general, the statement is true that in states in

which women do not vote, they are not appointed to salaried positions on public boards and commissions, unless it is expressly provided in the statute creating the public body that a certain proportion of the members shall be women. Where the word may is used, there is a strong tendency towards the gradual replacement of non-voting women by voting men. And in many cases this involves a distinct loss to the dependent persons in whose interests such public bodies exist. Nor is this disparity confined to salaried positions. It is also most unusual to find an equal number of men and women on unpaid boards and commissions, even when the duties required are such as women are preëminently fitted for, and where the number of available women of intelligence is very large, as in New York and Massachusetts.

The precarious nature of the opportunity for public service open to women, where they have not been admitted to the electorate, is well illustrated by an episode in the recent history of Illinois. During his term of office, 1893-1897, Governor Altgeld appointed fifteen women to state boards of education, health, charities, factory inspection and the management of penal and reformatory institutions, among them women of such well-known philanthropic activity as Miss Julia C. Lathrop, Mrs. Alzina Stevens, and Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson. All these appointees served the state faithfully and several with distinction. The succeeding governor, however, continued the appointment of only two of the fifteen, replacing the remainder with men, who were voters.

A more recent example of the same precarious opportunity for service is afforded by the experience of the women members of the London School Board. From 1870 to 1902, women both voted for the members of the board and were eligible for election to it, several women having served long and usefully. But in 1902, Parliament legislated the School Board out of existence and, in 1903, relegated its duties to the County Council, for election to which women are not eligible. In this case a twofold right, that of voting for the members of the School Board and of serving upon it, was legislated out of existence after having been exercised for more than thirty years. Parliament, which used its powers to this end, is, of course, wholly independent of women, since they possess only the municipal franchise and the right of voting for members of the School Board. Obviously those minor forms of the franchise, and the right of serving on boards for public purposes, are held by an insecure tenure until the full power, the Parliamentary franchise, confirms their possession.

Despite the unstable nature of their opportunities, however, women have begun to work out interesting and suggestive changes in certain branches of the local governments. Thus, in connection with the police department, which was formerly regarded as utterly alien to them, women now serve as police matrons and probation officers, regularly recognized as officers of the court. Women attendance agents connected with the schools prevent many children from needing the attention of the men officers, and