What eight million women want by Rheta Childe Dorr
page 178 of 206 (86%)
page 178 of 206 (86%)
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give women votes by constitutional amendment. They succeeded in getting
a motion made for the discharge of the committee, sixteen legislators voting for the women. New York is the present center of the progressive suffrage movement, with Chicago not very far behind. In rather amazing fashion are women in many American communities beginning to realize that politics are as much their business as men's. In Salt Lake City when a city council undertakes to give away a valuable water franchise, or extend gamblers' privileges, or otherwise follow the example of many another city council in bending before the god of greed, the women of Salt Lake send the word around. When the council meets the women are in the room. They don't say anything. They don't have to say anything. They can vote, these women. More than once the deep-laid plans of the most powerful politicians in Salt Lake City have been completely frustrated by a silent warning from the women. The city council has not dared to pass grafting measures with a roomful of women looking on. [Illustration: HELEN HOY GREELEY] Even the non-voting woman has discovered the power which attaches to her presence, in certain circumstances. In San Francisco during the second Ruef trial, when the decent element of the city was fighting to down one of the worst bosses that ever cursed a community, the women, under the leadership of Mrs. Elizabeth Gerberding, performed this new kind of picket duty. The courtroom where the trial was held was, by order of the boss's attorney, packed with hired toughs whose duty it was to make a mockery of the prosecution. Every point against the Ruef side was received by these toughs with jeers and hootings. The district attorney |
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