Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1909 — Economic and Political Liberty For Women as Well as Men. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Economic and Political Liberty For Women as Well as Men.

By BRAND WHITLOCK.

Author, Mayor of Toledo. O.

i>944*4444'’ BELIEVE in democracy, in brotherhood, id huJI ■ J 1J inanity. I believe that the voice of the people comes <! I <> as near being the VOICE OF GOD as any voice « • that speaks in these days. o ’’ DEMOCRACY MEANS THAT EVERY PERSON IN the land SHOULD HAVE HIB VOTE. WE IN AMERICA HAVE NOT DEMOCRACY. WE HAVE, AFTER CENTURIES OF STRIVING, ACHIEVED POLITICAL LIBERTY FOR MEN. I HOPE TO SEE THE DAY WHEN WE WILL HAVE POLITICAL LIBERTY FOR WOMEN. MORE THAN THAT, I HOPE TO SEE THE TIME WHEN THERE SHALL BE ECONOMIC LIBERTY FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN.

V There are certain rights which are elemental. The right to vote is one of these. Men vote because they are men. Women should vote because THEY ARE WOMEN. Not wealth nor education nor birth nor sex should interfere with the exercise of this right. I am not unaware of the opposition of many women to the extension of the ballot to their sisters. These are the women who do not know the world, who do not come in contact, as most women do, with the hard realities of the economic world and the struggle for existence. These are the WOMEN WHO LIVE OUT OF CHECK BOOKS, who oppose progress. Then, too, there is another class of women not taking their part in the fight, a class which perhaps exists because of the life these other women live, a class so ground down under the wheel of daily economic strife that it has NO TIME NOR ENERGY HEFT to devote to the fight for its rights. Complaint is made that women would VOTE AS THEIR HUSBANDS OR BROTHERS' VOTED without thinking for themselves. The men who tell us this, are usually the kind who don’t know what their political principles are until the committee on resolutions has reported. WE ARE TOLD THAT WOMEN INFLUENCE THE VOTES OF MEN. NO ONE IS EVER INFLUENCED BY THE VOTE OF A PERSON ECONOMICALLY DEPENDENT ON HIM. THAT 18 WHY IT IS SO NECESSARY THAT TO HAVE TRUE DEMOCRACY WOMEN MUST BE ECONOMICALLY AS WELL AS POLITICALLY FREE.