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Maryland State Archives Maryland Suffrage News Collection MSA SC 3286 msa_sc3286_scm7805-0011 Enlarge and print image (1M) |
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Maryland State Archives Maryland Suffrage News Collection MSA SC 3286 msa_sc3286_scm7805-0011 Enlarge and print image (1M) |
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144
MARYLAND SUFFRAGE NEWS
ONE REASON WHY
WOMEN SHOULD VOTE
H'ontiuihul from pOgt 142.)
imt; Inn lot tin- officials ol a city or
town t«i ilflilK-rati-Iv clcciilc nut ti>
carry out the law is simply tyranny,
ami lcai-
ne-s and social vice, and Ktween
the liipior trarhY and sneial vice, con-
tinue almost unchecked; and the
boy« and yirls in our schools are
sent out into life unwarned of the
dangers that lurk in immoral living,
and untrained for parenthood.
While tam -pleiidid advance-
have been made by men in the field
of industry ami in education, there
has been, on the whole, but slight
advance in the application of relig-
ion to busines-. polities, economies
or -ocial life. While humanity is
somewhat belter than it was a hun-
dred year- ago—and there may he
some who will dem this—there ha-
grown up aniong-i us a very large
elas- of people who are wholly actu-
ated bv motives of selfishness, cruel-
ty and passion.
Some means must lie found to
eliminate tin- element from control
in the community. From this clas-.
come the Ijctraycrs of girls, the
keepers of houses of vice, the men
who live upon these women, the
white slavers, the |>olilicat Ikissc-,
and the business men who stand as
the excuscrs of vice for financial
reasons.
So far men havi tailed 111 the
management of thi- chi-s of people,
all of whom are fat more dangerous
to the community than so many mad
dogs would be. The rea-on why
men fail to enforce the law.- against
social vice must be either inability
to devise a plan to reduce it through
wise measures, or else they are
themselves vicioiir.
Now, since men have made such
a failure of this matter, ami seem
to make so little progre-s, some of
us believe that it would be well to
place jjolitieal power in the hands of
women, with the hofW and faith that
the larger part of them would join
with the better and more statesman-
like men, and either enforce the
laws against s«»eial vice or make bet-
ter ones.
Although womefl should Ik* given
the vote because they are human be-
ings, and because it would he an act
of justice, still, if it be |K>ssihlc to
show cause why better results would
follow than by continuing the pres-
ent plan, the minds of many who
now oppose woman sutTrage might
he changed.
The situation has become so ter-
rible that something must be done.
We cannot longer bear to hear the
cry of the victims of man's cruel
sellishne-s, we can no longer bear to
see our splendid young men and
young women openly tempted into
the ways of sin and disease and
death through the deliberate con-
nivance and supervision of judge-,
State's attorneys, police commission-
ers and member! of grand juries.
We believe that when women vote
ihe laws will he better enforced, and
that is one of the reasons why we
are urging this reform.
O. K. j.
THE SOLUTION
The baleful confusion that surrounds the problem of the s<»ciat evil
i;- the result of three things: I'irst, the prudery that has put a tftboo on
all frank and decent discussion of tptestions of sex, leaving some of our
customs hundreds of years tiehiml our racial exjierietice in this regard;
second, the lack of educational facilities for the young with regard to the
physiology of reproduction leading to the false notion of the sexual
necessity for men, and. third, the habit we have fallen into of thinking
that the government is to 1>e forever controlled exclusively by men.
The enfranchisement of women is fundamental to the solution of the
problem, simply because go jkt cent, of the adult male population is al-
ready sexualK demoralized as a result of tmpTOptf community conditions.
Men themselves admit these tigures, and statistics with regard to venereal
disease, which show that 50 |>cr cent, of the adult male |Htpulation has
been infected with gonorrhea ami 10 per cent, with syphilis, would h-ciii
to bear them out. People think so irrational!) with regard to matters of
sex that it will Ik.' simpler for the sake of clear reasoning to traii-poM-
the mte-lion to crime in another department. Imagine for a moment a
(.ontmunity in which |