Senator Joseph W.

Bailey's testimony to the House Committee on Woman Suffrage

January 7, 1918

I am opposed to women voting anywhere except in _______________________________________

their own societies; I would let them vote there but
nowhere else in this country. . . . No free government _______________________________________
should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no
free government should extend suffrage to any class _______________________________________
not entitled to it. For the ultimate success or failure of
any free government will depend upon the average
intelligence and patriotism of the electorate. I hope to _______________________________________
show that as a matter of political justice and political
safety women should not be allowed to vote. . . . The _______________________________________
two most important personal duties of citizenship are
military service and sheriff's service, neither of which _______________________________________
is a woman capable of performing. . . . If an outlaw is
to be arrested are you going to order a woman to get _______________________________________
a gun and come with you? If you did she would sit
down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until _______________________________________
her husband hunts you up and makes you apologize
for insulting his wife. . . . A woman who is able to
_______________________________________
perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to be a mother
because no woman who bears arms ought to bear
children. . . . We agree, I think, that the women of this _______________________________________
country will never go into our armies as soldiers or
be required to serve on the sheriff's posse comitatus. _______________________________________
That being true I hardly think they have the right to
make the laws under which you and I must perform _______________________________________
those services. . . .
_______________________________________
The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service,
and while women are physically capable of _______________________________________
performing that service there are reasons, natural,
moral, and domestic, which render them wholly unfit
_______________________________________
for it. . . . We go to the courthouse for stern,
unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to
better administer justice? They will not. Nobody is _______________________________________
qualified to decide any case until they have heard all
the testimony of both sides but the average woman _______________________________________
would make up her mind before the plaintiff had
concluded his testimony. . . . Who will care for the _______________________________________
children in the mother's absence?
_______________________________________
Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What
time will a woman have to prepare herself for these _______________________________________
new duties of citizenship? Will she take it from her
home and husband or from her church and children or
_______________________________________
from her charities and social pleasures? She must
take it from one or all of them and will she make
herself or the world better by doing so? . . . _______________________________________

We must have two sexes and if the women insist on _______________________________________

becoming men I suppose the men must refine
themselves into women. . . . _______________________________________
Excerpts from Why Women Should Vote (EDITED)
Written by Alice Stone Blackwell, 1915

1. Because it is fair and right that those who must _______________________________________

obey the laws should have a voice in making them,
and that those who must pay taxes should have a vote _______________________________________
as to the size of the tax and the way it shall be spent.
2. Because the moral, educational, and humane _______________________________________
legislation desired by women would be got more
easily if women had votes.
3. Because laws unjust to women would be amended _______________________________________
more quickly.
4. Because disfranchisement helps to keep wages _______________________________________
down. "The lack of direct political influence
constitutes a powerful reason why women's wages _______________________________________
have been kept at a minimum."
5. Because equal suffrage would increase the _______________________________________
proportion of educated voters. The high schools of
every state in the Union are graduating more girls _______________________________________
than boys--often twice or three times as many.
7. Because it would increase the moral and law-
_______________________________________
abiding vote very much, while increasing the vicious
and criminal vote very little.
8. Because it leads to fair treatment of women in the _______________________________________
public service. In Massachusetts the average pay of a
female teacher is about one-third that of a male _______________________________________
teacher, and in almost all the States it is unequal.
9. Because legislation for the protection of children _______________________________________
would be secured more easily.
10. Because it is the quietest, easiest, most dignified _______________________________________
and least conspicuous way of influencing public
affairs. It takes much less expenditure of time, labor _______________________________________
and personal presence to go up to the ballot box, drop
in a slip of paper, and then come away, than to
persuade a multitude of miscellaneous voters to vote _______________________________________
right.
11. Because it would make women more _______________________________________
broadminded. Professor Edward H,. Griggs says:
"The ballot is an educator, and women will become _______________________________________
more practical and more wise in using it."
12. Because woman's ballot will make it hard for the _______________________________________
notoriously bad candidates to be nominated or
elected. In the equal suffrage states, both parties have _______________________________________
to put men of respectable character or lose the
women's vote.
_______________________________________
14. Because it would help those women who need
help the most. Theodore Roosevelt recommended
woman suffrage in his message to the New York _______________________________________
Legislature. On being asked why, he reported to have
answered that many women have a very hard time, _______________________________________
working women especially, and if the ballot would
help them, even a little, he was a willing to see it _______________________________________
tried.