Why it is not Wise to Give the Ballot to Women. a voter she could depend only on her own party, the woman's vote often being divided against itself. Let us move slowly, and not consider the vote as the only infallible means to all wished-for ends, the only panacea for all evils. It is urged that to refuse women the ballot is to render her liable to taxation without representation, and this is proclaimed as a gross injustice. The term " taxation with out representation " has been misunderstood. Taxes are the involuntary contributions levied and collected by the government for the protection, benefit and advancement of the entire community. They are levied alike on voter and non-voter, citizen and alien, children and adults, men and women; in short, there is no relation, in fact or theory, between taxation and the voting power. As the bill of rights has it, " Each individual has a right to be protected in the enjoyment of his life, liberty and property. He is obliged consequently to contribute his share to the expense of this protection." Now that is the reason why every property owner, man, woman, infant or alien is obliged to pay taxes, because he or she is protected in his or her life, liberty and property. Every woman, every minor gets this protec tion, and the enjoyment of taxes when put out in roads, sewers, libraries and schools, in just as full a measure as men. The com parison that Mr. Edwards made, in the Green Bag of May, 1895, of dumping the tea into Boston Harbor with giving the suf frage to women, is a little far-fetched. American interests were different from those of England and were not represented in her legislature, but the interests of American men and women are essentially the same, the family is represented. In the United States it is impossible to compare suffrage in the western and eastern states, the difference being so great. In Wyoming there are only one-half as many women as men, and not one man or woman to the square mile, while in Massachusetts
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there are fifty thousand more women than men, and many men and women to each square mile. Also there are in the far west no large cities such as we have in the east. Mr. Gardiner, a prominent scientific and business man of Kansas, spoke of an election in Leavenworth in the following manner: "One party put up a man of questionable reputation as mayor, the other party nomi nated a man of spotless character. Soon the latter's friends found that the other party were enlisting all the negro women of the city to their cause by sympathy and bribes. We then saw that all would be lost if we could not arouse our wives and sisters to their duty as enfranchised women to vote for the pure election. Soon they became interested and began canvassing around amongst their neighbors. Constantly they increased in numbers and enthusiasm, until finally people who had been friends and neighbors for years would not speak, and the whole history of each candidate, with that of their ancestors and followers, was dis cussed in every household, even before its youngest members. Women had caught the fever of politics, and it raged high and furiously. And, as a climax, on election day we saw our wives and daughters driv ing through the city, picking up women of the lowest possible class and morality, and then walking with their arms around them to the polls to see that they voted rightly. Every means of intimidation, bribery and cajolery which had been used by men was employed unhesitatingly by women on elec tion day, and yet when the votes were counted the result was no different than if they had remained quietly at home without the ballot." In England, for some time past, the franchise has in a small way been given to single women who pay rates and taxes, and in '94 it was extended to married women who pay rates and taxes in their own names, and the franchise was enlarged; but no conclusions can as yet be drawn from so recent a grant of the voting power. The
