o f .< 29 5 1 fi> fe*^ : " r - o •— p u> r < I p i ' i OUT WEST AUGUST 19 14 The Clash in Nevada A History of Woman s Fight For Enfranchisement THE NEVADA /UFFRAGE FIGHT Articles by Jane Addams Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman Sara Bard Field Mrs Carrie Chapman Catt Inez Haynes Gillmore Mrs. Mary Roberts Coolidge Gail Laughlin Mary Austin and Anne Martin Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Reprint from Out West August, 1914 tncroh Lihmw Xo c Ihc Awakening of Women By Sara Bard Field 1— [ail to your waking * ■ From your age-long sleep, O Princesses of Life. Revolt divine Breaks the dark spell. Intoxicating wine Of freedom have you drunk. It has burned deep Within your veins. Long has man sought to keep You slave or idol, Toy or concubine. Behold your Messianic Star ashine! And you have followed Tho' the way was steep. Take conscious place In Evolution's plan. Your brothers thought Alone to raise this sphere Past Hope or Dream. They could not find the light With you in shadow. Side by side with man Lift up the earth, Your Mother-eyes fixed clear Upon the child who Beckons you from Night. •0 °i ANNE MARTIN President Nevada Equal Franchise Society Reno, Nevada 51 The CLASH IN NEVADA-A H;,to ry y Woman s Fight For Enfranchisement □ □ □ □ By Sara Bard Field □ HALL Money or Spiritual Power win in Nevada next November? Is that state an autocracy, dic- tated to by one man who gains height merely from his stand upon heaped-up gold bags, or is it a democracy which registers the heart-beat of its people and acts in accordance therewith? These questions are the essence of the movement for Equal Suffrage in Nevada — the last state of the Pacific Coast group in which women are not yet en- franchised. You may say that such questions are the essence of the political equality movement everywhere and not peculiar to this locality alone. True, but be- cause concretions are always plainer than abstractions, and the individual more discernible than the mass, Nevada's fight, summed up as it is in a smaller population, widely scattered over desert silences and mountain solitudes, with fewer heroic women to do battle against what is practically one man's influence with its ramifications, is more clearly and simply outlined. In the East, both suffragists and anti- suffragists are drawn up in massed battle line. They resort to intricate political schemes and stratagems. Big Business and organized Vice roar their opposition in cannon thunder. The smoke of the crowded industrial centers obscures the vision. Noise and confusion attend the conflict. Righteously wearied of Fabian policy, the determined suffragists resort to spectacular evidence of their strength. One is entirely certain what the women want, but it is not always clear what power is opposing — -what issues are at stake. In Nevada there is no confusion. Everyone knows not only what the women want, but why there is opposition and who represents it. The movement here has more the simplicity of a duel than the complexity of a battle. Righteous- ness arid Riches, Justice and Special Privilege meet in a hand-to-hand fight in the intense, clarifying light of the wide desert. The history of the suffrage movement in Nevada is as amazing as it is young. In February, 1912, the Equal Franchise organization was only a local Reno com- mittee of five, with but fourteen paid-up members and no count}' organizations. It was not even dignified by the name of a State society. At that time, while the present head of the movement was away, an annual meeting was called by Mrs. Mack, of Reno, vice-president of the organization since Mrs. Stanislawsky, the president, had resigned on her re- moval to California. It was necessary to elect a new president and to perfect a State organization for immediate and thorough work. The few women who met to perform this task put the movement on a firm foundation by electing as president the one woman in the State who had the necessary qualifications for the office — efficiency, tact and leisure. Others there were who had one or two of these re- quirements, but all three were, at this time, imperatively needed. Anne Henrietta Martin, known to women of action on two sides of the At- lantic, accepted a Herculean task, in the performance of which there was end- less labor, with little to lighten it but the knowledge of doing human service and the hope of ultimate success; little of reward save that of her own con- science speaking its approval; little of praise and much of criticism. I am tempted to leave the description of Miss Martin for the close of this article. I am a firm believer in the Cana of Galilee method of serving re- freshments- — saving a good wine for the last. Yet it is the hostess opening the door of her home who claims the atten- 52 U U T W EST MRS. S. W. BELFORD Secretary of the Nevada Equal Franchise So- ciety, former Secretary of the Denver Woman's Club. tion of her guests before they notice the furnishings and eat the banquet. Surely no one would dispute the fact that Miss Martin ushered in the active era of suf- frage in Nevada and that her quietly commanding figure is the first feature of the movement on which our eyes naturally rest. She is a native daughter of Nevada. Born in Empire City in 1875, she re- ceived all the impressions of childhood and the education of that period and later girlhood in the State. Her father, the late W. O. H. Martin, as president of the Washoe County Bank, held a place of influence in the community. Her mother, who was Louise Stadt- muller, is still living with her daughter in the quiet dignity of the old homestead on Mill Street in Reno, surrounded by her memories and a glorious assemblage of books. One can easily see that she has bequeathed to her daughter, Anne, the unflinching hatred of injustice and the firmness of purpose to translate this hatred into wise action. Miss Martin's scholastic life reveals her as easily acquiiing those honors which, even in dream-outline, were but a century ago, considered highly unfit for women. She received a degree of B. A. from the University of Nevada, and a like degree, with later an M. A., from Leland Stanford, Jr. Here, too, the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority captured her as a democratic member. Returning to Reno, she gave her first public service to her State by becoming in 1897, Professor of History in the State University and, later, lecturer there in the History of Art. Like the beloved Jane Addams, it was in England that Miss Martin registered her first definite impressions of what must be her life work. Miss Addams, witnessing the hideous results of poverty on the East Side of London, dedicates herself to the study of the cause of poverty and its present amelioration. Miss Martin, coming into active touch with the injustice of the English Govern- ment toward women, and watching with intelligent eyes the heroism of those who, at inestimable sacrifice, were trying to SARA BARD FIELD (EHRGOTT) Organiser and Speaker for Oregon College Equal Suffrage League, campaign 1911-12. Journalist and magazine writer. OUT WEST 53 remake conditions, gives herself to the emancipation of her sex. Like the young Samuel, she asks of her conscience, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Back from the secret vault of self from which the question had been hurled, came the echoing answer, "Do!" "But where shall I do?" she asked. In time she became convinced that her field of work was in her own land, even in that very corner thereof which had given her birth. Perhaps it is because of the baptism of fire from the English movement that Miss Martin is called "militant." Per- haps it is because, during her residence in London, she paid for her principles with her temporary liberty and was arrested for participation in a demonstra- tion. Certain it is that her enemies have used this word "militant" to create the impression of a huge and dominant creature who has clothed femininity in masculine garb and denied her sex by every conceivable imitation of man and his methods. Even down in the southern extremity of the State I heard the whisper of that formidable word — "militant." GAIL LAUGHLIN San Francisco, Cal. Famous woman lawyer, who has already helped and spoken in Nevada for Equal Suffrage. MRS. FLORENCE HUMPHREY CHURCH Former President of the Washoe County Equal Suffrage League. Personally, I love power in women. But I like it to be woman's power, not man's power. "Not like in like, but like in difference" — that is a bit out of our creed, is it not? It was not pleasing to contemplate a woman whose militancy would be exprest in a "strident voice," a "manly gait," and a blind indifference to the flowering of woman in a splendid devotion to the things that pertain to motherhood. Imagine, then, my relief when I stood face to face with Miss Martin, the "militant." That is where I want to place your thought at this moment — face to face with her. The anti-suffragist's caricature of a suffragist is a tall, thin aenemic woman in whom belief in the cause is synony- mous with loss of physical and spiritual charm. Let us warn the cartoonist from seeking Miss Martin for a study. The full development of her cultured mind has been accompanied with a like development of body. Tennis, moun- tain-climbing, riding, golf — all have claimed her enthusiastic adherence. Twice she was tennis champion for Leland 54 OUT WEST MISS BIRD M. WILSON First Vice-President of Nevada Equal Fran- chise Society, author of ' W omen Under Nevada Laws" a distinguished lawyer, and the only woman stock-broker in Nevada. President of Esmeralda County Equal Suffrage League. Goldfield, Nevada Stanford University, and twice for her own State. Health breathes from her cheeks; from her disassociation with any suggestion of leanness; from her inde- pendent carriage as well as from her clear thinking and energetic leadership. Her voice is gentle; not used to make sound, but to convey thought. Her eyes are gray, quiet and grave, without being forbidding, and they, like her entire face, contain a suggestion of the wide solitudes of her own desert land. She is optimistic, not easily dis- couraged; tolerant and understanding; capable of that rare discriminating and impersonal love for humanity which accepts its mixture of goodness and badness without deifying the one or de- nouncing the other. When women criti- cize unjustly she says, "They do not understand.'' If they take mistaken ac- tion toward her and the cause, she says, "It comes from lack of training in co- operation. They have lived such indi- vidual lives." When they argue over unimportant details, she smilingly as- serts, "Their whole existence has been one of dealing in minute things. This is their training ground in the world's work." Such gentle understanding is nicely balanced by her stern sense of justice. On a question of such import she is un- compromising. When the directors of a Nevada bank denied the Suffrage Society the privilege of renting rooms in their building, on the ground that they wished no women in the place, Miss Martin calmly told them she could no longer do business with men who indorsed sex distinction, and would withdraw her account from the bank. Her mother, equally indignant, notified the bank of the same determination. Another woman depositor of means sent a like message. The directors capitulated. Likewise, in all Nevada companies, where Miss Martin has investments, she has always used her influence with the directors to obtain higher pay for women workers at the cost of lower dividends to the stockholders. In one company the directors informed her that the girls worked very cheaply, as they boarded at home. Miss Martin told them frankly that this was the beginning of "unequal pay for equal work," and of prostitution, and begged them to raise the wages re- gardless of the conditions under which the girl employes worked. And yet I am sure she has never in- mrs. a. J. Mccarty Hawthorne, Nevada President of Mineral County Equal Suffrage League OUT WEST 55 ventoried her spiritual stock or her physical attractions or taken thought of public opinion. She knows quite simply that she is in the world to work; that she is human; that she will make mistaken and successful moves. She goes about the accomplishment of her task "uncaring praise or blame," and like Mary Lyon, fearing only that she "may not know all her duty or may fail to do it." Such is the woman who, in 1912, be- came leader of the suffrage movement in Nevada. What were the conditions faced by this new president and her loyal supporters? The constitution of Nevada required that the suffrage amendment be passed twice by the legislature before it could come before the male electorate. Thanks to the splendid work of the former president, Mrs. Stanislawsky, and her helpers, the constitutional amendment had, in 1911, successfully passed its first legislative hearing. But legislators bear a likeness to the wind which "bloweth where it listeth." There was no proving a second passage by the first unless a campaign of education and persuasion of the incoming law-makers was inaugur- ated. The women must show their strength. MARY AUSTIN Mrs. Austin is author of "Land of Little Rain' and " The Woman oj Genius." MRS. M. S. BONNIFIELD Winnemucca, Nevada President of Humboldt County Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Bonni field is widow of Supreme Judge Bonnifield. Out of the eighty thousand people who form the population of Nevada, just half are men. Divide that number again and you have the official number of those who can qualify as voters. These twenty thousand are scattered over some hun- dred and twelve thousand square miles of turbulent country, an area a fourth larger than Great Britain, and making one voter to every five square miles. In that little span of days that lay be- tween the election of the State Executive Committee in 1912, and the legislative session in 1913, the whole State, with its sixteen counties, must be organized to serve as irrigation canals through which streams of information could be let loose to water the land into suffrage bloom. Fortunately the Executive Committee, which met to perform this task, were a band of brainy and capable women. Those who know Nevada will gage the strength of the work by a perusal of such names as Mrs. John Orr, Mrs. D. B. Boyd, Mrs. Alice Chism, Mrs. F. 0. Norton, Mrs. Jennie Logan, Mrs. Grace E. Bridges, Mrs. Charles Gulling, Mrs. 56 OUT WEST MRS RUDOLPH ZADOW Eureka, Nevada President Eureka County Equal League. Suffrage O. H. Mack, all of Reno; with Mrs. J. E. Bray, of 'Carson, . and Miss Bird M. Wilson, of Goldfield. Little hives of activity, under the di- rection of these women, were built all over the State. County organizations, like lusty babies of approved eugenic parentage, were born to service. Women of literary ability, like Miss Martin and Miss Bird M. Wilson, contributed telling articles from able pens. Miss Martin collaborated with Mary Austin, of fiction fame, wrote a pamphlet entitled "Suf- frage and Government," as well as a long list of articles for the daily papers. Miss Wilson, Nevada's distinguished woman-lawyer, wrote a clear, concise article, "Woman Under Nevada Laws," which was a resume of woman's legal status in the State. Doubtless this ar- ticle, published in two editions of twenty thousand, has done more to enlighten the people as to the injustice of local legislation for women than any abstract essay on the subject. The women began to understand why a struggle for the vote was necessary aside from the abstract principle of human justice. They discovered they could hold no office except that of superintendent of public schools and school trustee. Even these positions were never open to them except in theory, for, as Miss Wilson pointed out, the politi- cians must fill eveiy office with a voter to further their own schemes. Why waste a perfectly good vote on a voteless woman? Efficiency? Public welfare? How absurd! The women also learned that marriage imposed upon them their husbands' citizenship. If he be a foreigner, she also becomes one; that it takes away the con- trol of her earnings and does not even give hei in place the control of her children.* No matter what may be the proportion of her earnings after marriage, or how arduously she may have labored to acquire them, she mr,y not will any of the money or property away, thus pro- tecting her children from the poverty- breeding effects of any alcoholic or gambling tendencies of her husband. Many other things of like import these MRS. W. II. BRAY - Sparks, Nevada President Sparks Equal Suffrage League. An equal guardianship law was passed by the Nevada legislature of 1913. OUT WEST 57 Nevada women learned about themselves. The education bore fruit. All constructive action springs from mental concept. As the women learned, they acted. As they acted they gained strength. As they gained strength they had to be considered by those who sat in the seats of the mighty. The legisla- tors learned the direction of the tide of opinion. The women had sent to every candidate to the legislature a personal letter pledging them to support the suf- frage measure, with the result that they knew before election that four-fifths of the law-making body was with them. In February, 1913, a call was sent out for the first annual suffrage meeting to be held in Reno. There were a number of technical constitutional points to be settled and, still more important, there was the desire to know the exact status of the work and to kindle enthusiasm by mass contact. Accordingly some thirty-nine delegates met to hear the amazing report that suffrage had, in one year, grown from the germ of a State committee, with fourteen paid-up members, to a State MISS MABEL VERNON of Delaware Organiser sent to aid in Nevada campaign by Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. MRS. SADIE D. HURST Reno, Nevada President Washoe County Equal Suffrage League. society with five hundred paid-up mem- beroj eleven county and three auxiliary organizations; that the legislative com- mittee, headed by Miss Felice Cohn, had done its work to the end that suffrage had passed the legislature the second time by a bulky majority, and that the treasury, which one year ago was empty save for the headquarter's rental money, paid by Mrs. Arthur Hodges, of New York, now contained several hundred dollars from subscriptions and sacrificial savings of the women of the State. The movement, clad in the name of a State society, with all constitutional questions settled, faced a clear field for an even greater year of labor. The president, in a report which combined the work of the State Press Committee, of which she had been chairman, with her own, showed that over a hundred columns of suffrage material had been specially written and published in the Reno papers that year, and that by means of the weekly press service 3,500 typewritten bulletins had been sent out separately to the fifty newspapers of the State. Papers which had once held suffrage up to ridicule were 58 OUT WEST INEZ HAYNES GILLMORE San Francisco, Cal. now publishing news of the movement. Like a lone star of doubtful brilliancy in a receding firmament, but one paper heroically clung to its anti-suffrage pes- simism. Miss Wilson's pamphlet, "Wo- man Under. Nevada Laws," had done its educational work in every county. In tracing the development of the State organization, the president showed the wise evolutionary stages thru which the work had passed, beginning with an advisory board of men from even- county, which led to the formation of committees of women in eleven counties, with five others in the process of organization, these in time becoming full-fledged suf- frage branches, with growing member- ships. She showed that this success was due to the principle of co-operation in the State, and the recognition on the part of the women that in unity lay success, as well as in the psychic effect of recent suffrage victories in other states. She mentioned especially the effective work of Miss Wilson and the women of Lincoln County, notably Mrs. Alex Or, Mrs. Lizzie Buttler, Mrs. Joseph Ronnow, and Mrs. W. P. Murray, in forming branch societies with the largest membership in proportion to the population. Smiling skies, you will say. Had there been no thunder claps? Had this young society sprung to growth without the weathering of struggle and the toughen- ing of opposition? Had it been all sweet- ness and calm in their own midst? Im- possible! The test of power is in time of storm. I am not at all sure I would want to report a honey-comb condition. I feel like a recent writer who com- plained that the public would not allow him to tell the truth about men and women. They wanted them all succu- lently sweet and uncompromisingly he- roic. The truth is, we are all like the immortal little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. We are good to the point of admitting a "very" before the word, and, let us confess it, we are bad to the limit of horridness. Organiza- tions which are composed of composite people are composite likewise. Like all men's organizations, the Nevada organi- zation had its difficulties. Sometimes they arose from their own midst. But on the whole the spirit of unanimity had MRS. H. C. TAYLOR Fallon, Nevada President Churchill County Equal Suffrage League. OUT WES T 59 been more than one would expect in a locality where the word "solidarity" had not yet entered into the woman's vo- cabulary. If there have been the in- evitable misunderstandings, these are more than compensated for by the surer bonds that the women have hastened to form. If now and again a note of dis- satisfaction has been sounded, more often harmonies have been produced — sweeter, Wagner would tell us, because of the contrasting discord. Perhaps it required troubles to develop such sturdy support as was given the president and the Executive Committee by a woman like Mrs. Hugh Brown, of Tonopah, who is, by the way, the Inez Milholland of Nevada, so lovely she is to look at. At the time of the gathering of this convention it was hoped that the busi- ness of the State would necessitate a special election at which time the suf- frage amendment could also be voted upon, without the long wait for the regular election in 1914. The leaders of the movement in the East had strongly advised a whirlwind campaign of six months as the most effective means of MRS. R. D. EICHELBERGER Reno, Nevada State Treasurer of the Nevada Equal Franchise Society MRS. J. E. BRAY Carson, Nevada President of Ormsby County Equal Suffrage League; wife of Nevada Stale Superintendent of Public Instruction. impressing the voters, and had promised some nationally-known speakers, among them Dr. Anna Shaw and Jane Addams, to aid Nevada women. The special election, however, was never called. To those who know the distances of travel in the State, and the lack of funds with which to carry on the campaign, it seems wise that another year of seed- sowing should have befallen this young- society. The last word of the president at the 1913 convention had been "education," and slow is the work of educating the masses. Thus another twelve months filled with labor rolled around. Again Reno's earnest women opened their doors for their equally earnest guests to the 1914 convention. Listen to the story of proportions. , The Suffrage Convention now learned that they possest a membership of a ; thousand after but two years' work — as . many in proportion to population as '. New York State, with its four million women and its years upon years of suf- frage agitation. Twenty-two county and 60 OUT WEST CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN Author of "Woman and Economics" and editor of " The Forerunner. 1 ' local organizations were dotted over the State. Proudly the counties sent in their re- ports and enthusiastically the women assembled in convention heard them read. In Esmeralda County, Miss Bird Wilson, in spite of laborious professional duties, has, as president of the county society, fired not only her own locality but all of southern Nevada with suffrage zeal. She has been aided by such women as Mrs. James H. Parks who, in spite of suffrage views, perhaps because of them, has found time in her busy life to bring up seven little motherless children; by Mrs. R. W. Cattermole, Miss Edna Hotchkiss and Mrs. Anna L. Miller, who could teach most men lessons in finan- ciering. A suffrage play in the leading opera house of Goldfield, suffrage floats which won four prizes at the Fourth of July celebration, securing Mrs. Charlotte Per- kins Gilman for a brilliant address — these are the social, spectacular and educa- tional means by which suffrage has been advertised in the community. Miss Wil- son was also instrumental in organizing Lincoln County, which, through card parties to make money, and lectures to spread information, has been a joy finan- cially and educationally to the parent organization. The Eureka branch has wisely used the lure of literary and musical program to attract women to its semi-monthly meetings. Mrs. Laura Hoegh, Miss Ef- fie Eather and Mrs. Rudolph Zadow have been the successive presidents of this lively society. Taking advantage of the dance wave over the country, they gave a Labor Day ball which fattened both their social prestige and their treasury. Miss Martin and Miss Mable Vernon, of Washington, have lectured for the society, and the successful English play, with its telling dramatic argument, "How the Vote was Won," was staged. The Lander County women are preparing to give this play in Battle Mountain. Mrs. George Webster, president of the Lyon County branch, heads a valiant band of workers. The aim there is not less than to interest every woman in the county. They know that woman's wish is father to man's fulfillment of it. On May second the society arranged a parade and a street-meeting. Several MRS. F. P. LANGAN P* President of the Storey County Equal Suffrage League, wife of District Judge Langan. OUT WES T 61 < B g i— < 2 < Q 5 o W <3 3D H s 62 OUT WEST JANE ADDAMS "Nevada, the last non-suffrage state on the white suffrage map of the West, must inevitably join the ranks of those progressive states which stand for political equality and social justice for men and women.*' — Jane Addams. hundred attended and everyone present signified his belief in suffrage. Several of the leading citizens offered their services during the campaign. With business-like exactness this enthusiastic society is ar- ranging a card catalog of the county, and every person's stand on the suffrage question. Elks County, under Mrs. E. E. Caine's guidance, reports quiet and effective work in circularizing the voters, while the membership of White Pine County, under Mrs. Minnie Comins MacDonald's leadership, is growing by leaps and bounds. Once upon a time there was a parson who, at a period of drought, announced that he would pray for rain at the next Sunday morning service. Sunday came. Not a cloud in the sky. The people thronged to church. The minister prayed fervently. But at the close of the service the sun shone with no decreased inten- sity. When the congregation were pass- ing out there was noticed a little girl, carrying an upraised umbrella. Everyone OUT WEST 63 laughed. Someone accosted her: ''Why are you carrying an open umbrella?" The child looked at the questioner with gravely reproachful eyes. "Didn't the minister pray for rain?" she asked. Mineral County's suffrage branch, with Mrs. Ada McCarthy as president, makes me think of this story. They have or- ganized to win suffrage. They are pray- ing the men to grant it. Meanwhile, sure of the deluge of votes, they have opened their suffrage umbrellas — they are studying civil government. Such faith is sure of its reward. Beside this preparation for that which they know is assured, they boast of having sold more suffrage calendars than any other organ- ization, and register to their credit a successful suffrage demonstration on May second. Miners came down from the hills and farmers came from the valleys for one of the biggest "get-together" oc- casions in Mineral County. Mrs. M. S. Bonnifield as president of Humboldt County, with her helpers, Mrs. A. W. Card, Mrs. Mark Walser, of Lovelock, and Dr. Nellie Hascall, of Fallon, have led their branches into winning fields. It is difficult to realize the immense difficulties under which many of these women labor — Mrs. H. C. Taylor, president of Churchill County, has to drive miles from her ranch to Fallon to attend suffrage meetings. They live in isolated places. They have little recourse to the ready supplies of the city. They labor in silence, without the stim- ulus and encouragement that comes from work in the rich and highly culti- vated Eastern fields of suffrage work. May they reap in gladness. Washoe County has the largest popu- lation of the State. It is not surprising that here the suffrage membership runs into the hundreds. Mrs. J. E. Church, Miss Mary Henry, Mrs. Sadie Hurst, Mrs. S. W. Belford and Mrs. Maud Gassaway have proved an active force in founding new societies at Sparks, Verdi and Wadsworth, while the Reno society, with its access to State head- quarters, is alive with activity. The whole county has been circularized, social teas and semi-monthly meetings held, a self-denial week observed, at which time a large sum was raised for the work and a woman's independence day celebrated. Will such a day ever be synonymous with Mother's Day in a national celebration? Washoe County points proudly to its energetic Sparks branch, where Mrs. W. H. Bray is president. Judge Pollock, of the Justice Court ,has courteously allowed his office to be used as headquarters. By all sorts of womanly device a hundred and fifty dollars was raised for the work, public meetings held with prominent speakers to address them, study classes started and prizes offered for the best suffrage essays. Beginning with nine members, the society now numbers over fifty, and enrolls, on its advisory board, ministers, lawyers and business men. Mrs. Lyman . Clark, Jr., and Mrs. F. P. Langan, of historic Virginia City (the seat of the Comstock lode), successive presidents of Storey County, have built up an excellent suffrage sentiment there. Woman's Independence Day, on May 2, was marked by the blowing of the whis- tles in the hoisting works of all the great mines of the district. Whistles which for forty years have called the miners underground to delve nearly a billion dollars from the depths, on May 2 heralded the approach of freedom for Nevada women. Another most encouraging feature of the Nevada campaign is the complete circularization of the voters of the State with suffrage literature by the county organizations, and from State head- quarters. Mrs. R. D. Eichelberger, the State treasurer, has been tireless in con- ducting this work, assisted by Miss Alexandrine La Tourette, of the State University, Mrs. S. W. Belford, former secretary of the Denver Woman's Club and now State suffrage secretary in Nevada, Mrs. P. L. Flanigan, Mrs. Alf Doten and Miss Minnie Flanigan. Other encouraging features are a com- prehensive canvass of Reno, in progress under the energetic direction of Mrs. Charles E. Boswell and Mrs. John Franzman, and the strongly pro-suffrage sentiment of the large street crowds in Reno every Saturday night who listen to Miss Mabel Vernon's forceful suffrage speeches. Mrs. W. H. Hood, second vice-presi- dent of the State society, thru her ex- perience and influence as the chairman of 64 OUT WEST civics in the State Federation of Woman's Clubs, has been a factor in securing the unanimous endorsement of equal suf- frage by the federation at its last con- vention. The advisory board of the Nevada Equal Franchise Society surely stands for victory, for on it we find the leaders of every political party in the State. Governor Oddie, United States Senators Francis G. Newlands and Key Pittman, Lieutenant Governor Ross, Supreme Judge Norcross, Federal Judge Farring- ton, District Judge Coleman, Congress- man Roberts, State School Superinten- dant J. E. Bray, the leading Republicans, Democrats, Progressives and Socialists of Nevada, bankers, lawyers, editors, judges, clergymen, university professors, mer- chants, leaders from every county, have pledged their support to the movement and are on the advisory board of the State society. Has the seething and boiling of the suffrage cauldron, with such lively in- gredients as these official reports and state-wide work contained, no Macbeth prophecy of woman's succession to the throne of her rights? The steady eye of those fixed upon Nevada's suffrage campaign has already marked victory lising just above the horizon. Nor do they reckon from empty guesses. They know that this untiring work of the women has resulted in the endorsement of suffrage by the State-wide conference of labor held in Reno in February, 1913, representing six thousand members, and by every individual labor organization, in Nevada that has voted on the question. They know that labor's voice is the loud- est in the State. When labor backs a movement one can be sure of two things — that the movement is right and that it will win. They know, too, that the splendid indorsement given to suffrage by the legislative vote is the index of opinion in the State. They know that Nevada will not give her women less honor than the states round about her. Thus a nation watches a spiritual fight where but a few years ago they witnessed the clash of federal troops against striking miners — striking in a just cause. Nevada, which has given of her gold and her silver to enrich the coffers of man, is about to give of her justice and honor to broaden the life of woman. In the pursuit of this end she is gaining no less of recognition than in the days when the gold fever burned hot in her veins and she was sought by fortune-hunters from all over the globe. The amount of advertising that the suffrage campaign has brought to the State outdoes the record of any publicity committee in existence. It has brought world-wide recognition, for the ink of Miss Martin's tireless pen has run out across the Atlantic and into European papers. Her articles have been published in Votes for Women, The Suffragette and the London Standard — all English per- iodicals — as well as in many American papers through her syndicated work. Such important Eastern papers as the Philadelphia North American, New York World, Evening Post and Sun, Chicago Tribune and Record- Herald, Indianapolis News, Lexington Herald and La Fol- lette's Magazine have published personal interviews with Miss Martin — articles dealing with Nevada's resources — min- eral, agricultural, irrigational and edu- cational. In January, 1914, Miss Martin also gave fifteen addresses before large representative Eastern audiences. People ignorant of the fact that Nevada had contributed ought to her country but a refuge for Eastern divorcees, gamblers and prize-fighters, applauded the speak- er's revelations of this State's service to the nation. She told them how this "Battle Born State" had saved the country after the Civil War from finan- cial ruin by its mine production of nearly a billion dollars, which restored national credit. On one occasion as many as five thousand people listened to this story. Likewise there has been sent East by the Nevad? Suffrage Society more than forty photographs of Nevada — her in- dustrial and mineral aspects — which have been used at the immense suffrage rallies in large Eastern centers — New York, Boston and other cities of like importance. It remained for suffrage, eagle-like, to lift Nevada on its wings from the plains of ignorance wherein she dwelt in the minds of men. It took woman's hand to turn the national search-light upon her, and woman's lips to speak, trumpet-like, the truth concerning her. If this pub- licity should usher in an era of good times OUT WEST 65 for the State, it could truly be said, "Suffrage and Prosperity have kissed one another." Four months yet remain before election. During that time Nevada will be host to speakers of national and international fame. Dr. Aked, of California, has already been to the State. Miss Mabel Vernon, of Washington, sent out by the Congressional Union, has done all-round relief and inspirational work through her organizing and speaking. She will re- main till August. Mr. and Mrs. James Laidlaw, of New York, Dr. Stubbs, of the State University, and Dr. Aked, of San Francisco, have addressed large au- diences in the Reno opera house. Dr. Anna Shaw, Miss Jane Addams, Gail Laughlin, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, will, most probably, be able to visit Ne- vada sometime during the campaign. Charlotte Anita Whitney, president of the California College Equal Suffrage League, second vice-president of the National Suffrage Organization, has promised Nevada women a month. It was due to her efforts that the College League in the State University was formed with Miss Clara Smith as presi- dent. Miss Whitney was also an im- mense factor in the Oregon campaign. Inez Haynes Gilmore, who is, if possible, more fascinating than the children of her pen, will bring her charm and her culture to the State for a few addresses. Maud Yonger, loved by San Francisco labor to a man, is plso booked for the State as is General Rosalie Jones, of hiking fame, and Colonel Ida Craft, Helen Todd, who has captured every Eastern audience — even the learned Har- vard one; Margaret Foley, silver-voiced orator of Massachusetts who did most of all women to get suffrage through the first Massachusetts legislature; and Sara Bard Field Ehrgott, Oregon organizer and speaker. These women come without thought of remuneration save the tide of gladness which rushed into the soul with the out- giving of self. Eastern and Western women join hands in financial aid to this campaign. Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. Arthur Hodges, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, all honoiary presidents, have sent funds. The National has contributed a thousand dollars, Cali- fornia three hundred, Boston Equal Suffrage League for Good Government two hundred. Most of the rest has been the contribution of Nevada's men and women. It is true that they still need funds. They are sure they will not be wanting. A battle — a clash — do you call this humble record of woman's sendee in a great cause? Yes, a battle. Can you not visualize it? Can you not see these county organizations like valiant cohorts doing whatever their hands find to do, whether it be baking cookies or writing thoughtful articles for a magazine, man- aging parades or distributing leaflets, but sure, whatever the task may be, that they are coming up to the help of the Lord? Can you not hear the tramp of their purpose and feel the determined massing of their strength in a struggle none the less heroic because it lacks the martial beat of drums and the spectacular flutter of banners? Can you not see their knap-sacks filled with dreams on which they feed as they march to vic- tory? Behold a peaceful battle, gen- erated and officered by wise leadership, waged in love and financed by sacrifice. But a battle, for the enemy has declared war! No wonder Monopoly, feeling the lances from such foes, trembles and fears. No wonder Selfishness and Ignorance, twin spirits of darkness, beholding the powers of Unselfishness and Truth, gird on the mightiest of their swords — the sword of Money — and threatens the people with its strength. Behold the blade is dulled! A time is coming when the God of Gold, mighty tho he be, shall lie prostrate beneath the heel of the God of Good. That will be the day when the workers of the world enter into their heritage. Not yet has that day dawned for the earth — nor for Nevada. A suffrage victory will not kill the God of Gold in that State. He will only be wounded on the desert plains. The women will hurl the lance. A great lesson is about to be taught in this Western land. It is the lesson that no one man's power, combined with vested and evil interests, shall longer stop the mouth of the prophet and halt the 66 OUT WEST march of justice; that pride of money special privilege acquired from wealth, goeth before destruction and that he who must take heed lest he fall before the thinketh he standeth sure and safe upon people's rights and the riches of the wealth acquired from the people and spirit. Suffrage and Government By Mary Austin and Anne Martin X N the beginning of the woman suffrage movement the objection most obstinate- ly, and in most cases honestly, enter- tained against it was one derived from the idea of government as an extraneous force. The stick wielded by the strong kept men in older. This was an idea which rooted very far back in racial history, in the time when combat was the chief business of life; and those who used it forgot, or never knew, that women were originally exempted from fighting, not on account of incompetence, but because of their importance to the tribe. That primitive women can fight as ferociously and successfully as any female animal when occasion arises, is a fact that is surprisingly forced upon us even yet, when the outposts of civilization come in contact with the wild tribes. But man's objection to seeing them risk their most precious quality, their potential maternity, in a light, is so wide- spread that it amounts to a taboo. For women to be obliged to use force means racial disaster. So long then as government in the popular esti- mate meant the use of force, this was a valid ob- jection to women having any voice in it. But the rapid sweep of democracy in the past two centuries has brought us around to a new view of government as an affair of social consent. The more general this consent the less the com- pulsion needed to bring it into effect. All the newest devices of popular government, the initiative, referendum and recall, are means of making this social consent more direct and immediate. This new conception of government as social consent cuts two ways in favor of woman suf- frage. By resting the right to participation in government on the ability to consent, rather than on fighting capacity, it disposes forever of the ancient argument that women ought not to vote because it is not desirable that they should go to battle. What women are asking for is the right to consent to the laws under which they live. Wherever the ballot, which is the official means of such consent, is denied them, women are still in respect to their social rights under the regime of force, and society goes limping along with one member rejoicing in the freedom of democracy and the other still swathed in the restraints of feudalism. But the experiment of democracy has proved more than anything else the fallacy of that other anti-suffrage bogie, the idea of government as a function. Government is a means of get- ting the business of society done expeditiously. The vote is merely the approved instrument for registering social consent. So long as govern- ment is regarded simply as the administration of the affairs of the people, there can logically be no governing class or sex. The people as a whole can have no affairs to which all the people are no equal. The ballot, either written or oral, is the most ancient means of expediting business. It is present in the pow-wow of the aboriginal tribes and the folk-moot of the ancient Saxons. It is present today in large bodies, composed ex- clusively of women, who meet in convention, conduct important financial operations and make laws for the control of widely-separated organi- zations. Women vote. The only question be- fore the public today is whether they shall be permitted to vote in the matters that most im- mediately concern them. It is the use of the ballot in the less important issues of society that has taught women its value' as an instrument in the field of human achieve- ment. In nothing do they show their fitness for it so much as in the quickness with which they have grasped the use of it as the outgrowth of the human instinct for expedience and efficiency. For centuries men have been regarding partici- pation in public business as a kind of divine right, a privilege of wealth or birth or sex, and in as many years women have seized upon it as a means of getting something done, a new broom with which to make a cleaner sweep of their business. The chief business of women is mothering. This includes the co-related and equally im- OUT WEST 67 portant activities of reproduction and conserva- tion. It means not only bearing children, but looking after their food and clothing and hous- ing, their bodily safety and the welfare of im- pressionable minds. The woman of today who wishes to do her business well, finds herself in a serious predicament. For today the greater part of all the activities upon which the successful bringing up of a family depends are carried on outside the home. In order, in the disfranchised states, to exercise any control over the food, the education, and the industrial conditions which env'ron her children, the mother must attend a vast number of public meetings, town council, board and com- mittee meetings, armed with the ancient and ineffectual instrument of "indirect influence." The very word "indirect" is a confession of in- efficiency. The business of women is of such importance to the state as to demand the most direct and immediate means. It is only with the ballot that woman can stay at home to nurse one child and yet follow the other to school, to the shop, the factory, the place of amusement. With this white-winged messenger of her mothering thought she can to some degree overshadow and protect him. The Ballot for Women Means Freedom for Men But it is not only to enable her to do her work in the world that man must restore to woman her natural control of those departments of life which make for stable conditions. It is in order that he may do his own work more efficiently. True maleness is the exercise of initiative, ex- ploration, experimentation, the breaking of new lands, the extension of the frontiers of thought. Man under modern conditions has so overloaded himself with women's work of conservation that he can scarcely do his own. By attempting to constitute himself the sole center of woman's activities he has overleaped his capacity. Much of the modern industrial revolt is all un- consciously a reaction against the excessive burdening of man with the whole business of society. Man is an individualist; his instinct is to com- pete rather than to co-operate. Woman is es- sentially social, the center of the family group. It is her instinct to make things comfortable, the natural outreach of the mothering impulse. And a good half of the business of government is just that; it is neither a duty nor a privilege but an efficacious way of making us all comfortable together. Government and Policing If the recent discovery of democracy, that government does not necessarily imply fighting, is a reason for giving women a part in it, a much greater one exists in the fact that government does still incidentally involve the chances of war. The old idea implied a state of society in which war was inevitably and always imminent. The original exclusion of women from council was due to the fact that ancient councils were seldom about anything else but fighting. The real question is not whether women can fight or not, but whether their interests are affected by the fighting which men do. The strong opposition to the vote of women in some quarters comes from their known genius for pacification. The work of women, the con- tinuance of the race, is so seriously affected by war that it isn't considered safe to let them hold a deciding voice upon the question of a particu- lar war. The fact that women are excluded from voting on declarations of war because of the likelihood of their voting against it is one of the best reasons why war should not be. That which destroys the labor of one-half of society cannot be good for the whole of it. It is this resistance of man to any curtailing of his ancient habit of combat which has ani- mated much of the objection to women inter- fering in the small private wars of theft, arson, assault and rape which men declare on one another and on women. Ic has been said that women oughc not to vote because they could not be police. Women having already become police in Denmark, in Norway and Sweden, in Canada, in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles. San Francisco, Tacoma, Seattle and half a dozen other American cities, it is discovered that a large part of police duty is concerned with pre- vention rather than punishment, and with the conservation of social forces and the stoppage of social waste. And this sort of policing is seen very easily to derive nothing from force, and not to depend upon it. It is based primarily on our social consent to the introduction of the mother element in all departments of life. The woman policeman would be as great an absurdity as the anti-suffragist of a generation ago believed her, if it were not for this general consent to the propriety of women going where- ever children must go, and going clothed with authority. It is the latest and best evidence that men are moving concertedly to release to women the opportunity to do their work in the world and the means of doing it efficaciously. The Witness of the West While society needs the operation of the con- servative mother-thought in all its departments, 68 OUT WEST there has been especial demand for it in the West because of the unduly high percentage of male population. It is notable that the answer of the men of the West to this social need has been the ballot in the hands of the women. That Western men have been more responsive to women's demand for the right to perform their work for society is no doubt due to an instinctive desire on man's part to give back to woman her proper share in a society which more nearly confoims to a primitive division of labor than do the older and more artificial Eastern communities. Men in the West have been so much occupied with the natural male activities of breaking new ground, organizing new enter- prises, general exploration and experimentation, that women have regained much of their original social importance to the community. The granting of woman suffrage in the Western states is part of the subconscious response of men to a great social need. There are left only three Western or Rocky Mountain states which have not enacted equal suffrage laws: Montana, Nevada and New Mexico; of these states Nevada is the only one which has no form whatever of suffrage for women, Montana having tax-paying and school suffrage and New Mexico having school suffrage. Nevada appears on the white map of the Western states as a big black spot entirely surrounded by the white suffrage states — California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Arizona, with Washington, Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas contiguous, and Montana and New Mexico colored grey, indi- cating the partial suffrage in operation there. The territory of Alaska recently granted woman suffrage, one of the chief reasons being the desire on the part of the men to bring in more women, as the male population is greatly preponderant there. Excessive Male Populations Favor Woman Suffrage The fact that the woman suffrage amendment has passed the two successive sessions of 1911 and 1913 of the Nevada legislature by large majorities, and has likewise been submitted in Montana and in North and South Dakota, in- dicates that the men there are alive, like the men of Alaska, to the need for more women. Nevada, of all states of the Union, has not only the largest male population in proportion to women, but has the largest male transient population, which can vote by conforming to a six months' residence qualification. Nevada, then, is the state where woman's influence is least effective because she is in so great a minor- ity, is most largely dominated by "man-made" law, a state which is most nearly the expression of man's mind, a male society. We find the law-making power of the whole people concentrated, not only in the hands of men, but to some extent in the hands of a male transient population, which simply cannot have the permanent interests of the State at heart; at the same time the conserving powers of women, who constitute a more stable element in the State's population, are ineffective for the good of the community. Can these conditions be good for any commonwealth? The answer is that Nevada, too, is preparing to enfranchise her women. In the total population of the State there are 52,551 males to 29,324 females, or 179.2 males to 100 females, according to the census of 1910. The following table shows sex distribution in the eleven states having the highest percentages of male population: According to the Census of 1910* — Nevada has, to every 100 females.. 179. 2 males Wyoming << 168.8 u Montana u 152.1 " Arizona it ' 138.2 " Washington M 136.3 a Oregon It 133.2 a Idaho a 132.5 u California M 125.5 a North Dakota U 122.4 a South Dakota U 1 118.9 a Colorado (( < 116.9 a It is significant that, these eleven states, with the exception of Nevada, Montana and North and South Dakota, have woman suffrage. Each with its large male population has felt the de- sirability of increasing woman's direct influence by enfranchisement, or by taking the necessary steps, as have Montana, Nevada and the two Dakotas. These figures show that states where male population is excessive have felt the need and value of women sooner than others; that communities where men are most and women are fewest have been the first to recognize woman's social value, have been quick to register this knowledge and make effective her power for social good by full enfranchisement. These figures show also that Nevada, of all states of the Union, needs woman's help the most. In 1900 the Wyoming ratio was the highest, 169 to 100, while Nevada was second at 153 to 100, * New Mexico is the twelfth highest, with a proportion of 115 males to every ^100 females. OUT WEST 69 instead of 179.2 as it is now, showing that male influence has increased in Nevada over 26 per cent in che last ten years.* Male Transient Population a Nevada Problem Of the population 15 years of age and over, 51.3 per cent of Nevada males are single and 21 per cent of the females, indicating in connec- tion with other figures a largely unmarried male transient population. Over 15 years of age the percentage of married is 41.4 for males and 67.1 for females, showing that women having family and home interests in the State thru marriage are over 25 per cent in excess of men having the same interests. (The statistics for widowed persons, etc., are not given. ) As a result of exclusive male domination in a state developing under conditions of frontier life, we find that the percentage of adult and juvenile crime and de- linquency, of resorts licensed for immoral pur- poses or for the sale of liquor, is unduly high. Moreover, Nevada's uncertain political and legislative history, shaped as it has been time after time by selfish and corrupt influences easily dominant thru the indifferent or pur- chasable portion of the "floating vote," is a sufficient answer to the question whether ex- clusive male control has been good for the com- munity. The large floating vote is an acknowl- edged problem in Nevada's political and social life, it is the chief factor in the unstable character of the State's legislative history. This transient vote is by no means all mercenary: a part of it is composed of intelligent and incorruptible men, but the irresponsible element has too often held the balance of power; and it is desirable for every community to have its destinies controlled by the class which best understands its needs and will vote for its permanent interests — the home-keeping men and women. At the close of a former legislature fourteen members leffr the State, having no permanent residence nor interests in Nevada. Legislation has too fre- quently shown that the majority of legislators have not the vital home interests of the people at heart. When a former special session was called its members had scattered so far in the intervening year that they had to be summoned, not only from several other states of the Union, but from countries as remote as Alaska, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. Contests frequently waged in the past to use Nevada for licensing evils repudiated by her neighbors will be im- possible when the unstable vote is overcome by increasing the power of the stable population, of which women compose a large proportion.* The West Recognizes Women's Constructive Powers Bucmft Lib* Women will do for Nevada, Montana and the Dakotas what they have already done and are doing for Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona and Kansas, for Alaska and Illinois. They have always promptly enacted humanitarian and conservation laws since they were first of all enfranchised in Wyoming in 1869. A most significant historical fact is that the first law ever introduced into a legislative body by a woman legislator, in the history of the world, was the law raising the age of protection for girls in Colorado to eighteen years. Laws equalizing the personal and property rights of men and women ; to protect children and give them better schools, juvenile courts, state homes or farms for girls and dependent or deliquent children; humane and sanitary laws; mother's pensions; the minimum wage scale; systems to decrease economic and social waste by the enlightened administration of prisons; laws to abolish re- stricted districts; the prompt recall of a judge who did not protect injured girls are all embodi- ments in the enfranchised states of women's ideals of service for the people. Women using the vote are merely carrying on their natural functions of conservation of health and life and are, therefore, an invaluable constructive and complementary force in the world's work. The men of Nevada, like those of Alaska and the free states of the West, are beginning to realize the necessity of making the State more desirable as a dwelling place for women, and are taking the preliminary step by providing the opportunity for their full enfranchisement at the general election of November, 1914. The enfranchisement of Nevada's women will com- plete a solid block of Western states which have given women back their work. As conditions now are, with Nevada absolutely surrounded by woman suffrage states, no woman can leave its boundaries without being thereby potentially enfranchised, no woman can enter it from any neighboring state without being thereby dis- franchised. The tendency of this condition is to draw the best class of woman settlers away * The figures given refer to total population. Over 21 years of age there are 220 men to each 100 women in Nevada, 40,026 men and 18,140 women, census of 1910. * It is estimated that 50 per cent of the male vote is transient, whi\e only 20 per cent of the women vote would he. 70 OUT WEST from Nevada to the woman suffrage states by which it is surrounded. Until woman suffrage is established a premium is actually placed on the emigration of Nevada's women to the bor- dering free states. Similar conditions prevail in Montana, North and South Dakota, where woman suffrage is also to be voted on in November, 1914, and in New Mexico. The men of these states are, like Nevada men, yielding instinctively to what is the modern, no less than primitive, necessity of all communities: the free opportunity for women to do cheir special work, to use their mothering, their conservative powers for the good of the home, the town, the state. Wake Up, Nevada! By Carrie Chapman Cait President of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and Chairman of the New York State Suffrage Committee ©OTH East and West today there is cause for rejoicing among those who work for the enfranchisement of women, a measure destined to make men and women stand helpmates and equals in the eyes of the govern- ments of the world. In the last few weeks we have seen the woman- hood of Denmark practically fully enfranchised. In Sweden we see a suffrage bill held up tem- porarily by the will of an hereditary Upper House, while the delegates of the people in the Lower House are fighting for the freedom of their women. Recently, representative women from 26 countries in all parts of the world, meeting at Rome, voted unanimously for woman suffrage, while the great State of Mis- souri, with its population of 3,293,335, by initiative petition was swung into line with five other campaign states of 1914. When we look at the progress made by woman suffrage, we see it is the hardy northern races of Europe, the no less sturdy pioneeis of our own great West, the sons and daughters of England, who have built up the common- wealths of Australia and New Zealand — these are the races who have given to women a voice in the government of their states. Today Nevada stands alone among her neighbors, a black spot on the suffrage map of the West. Is she going to redeem herself? With her youth and spirit, is she going to help to set the pace for the congested areas of the East, or is she to be numbered among the le- actionaiies? As a Western woman, the daughter of a man who wrestled with fate in the Cali- fornia gold fields in 1851, I cannot believe the men of any Western state so lacking in the pioneer spirit as to refuse to give their women a square deal Nevada cannot lag behind and alone among her neighbors refuse to give citizen- rights to her women. The latest census shows that in the State of Nevada for every 100 women there are 220 men. With so over- whelming a majority, even the most timorous of men can hardly fear to en- franchise women. There is no case known, and there never will be any issue on which women have been unanimous; but even were they so, in the State of Nevada how little have the men to fear with their great majority. It has been reported among the large news- papers of the East that efforts are being made to convince the miners of Nevada that if women are enfranchised, the saloons will all be closed That such a result should be considered possible shows a gross over-estimation of the powers of the minority to dictate laws to the majority, even if women were of one mind on this subject. The principle of the government of our states is that it should represent the average of opinion of all the people — men and women. Are the men of Nevada less willing to trust that average opinion than any other men of the West? Among the members of an older community where corroding influences are at work and where corruption is entrenched, and the powers of the corporations strangle freedom, there is al- ways some portion of the public subject to ap- prehension, fearful of every change proposed, that something dreadful will happen. These influences should not be at work in our young and vigorous country, and yet women in many countries have more political rights than the women of America, while those of the State of Nevada are denied any political power by their mates — their men. It is out of the ballot-box that the average opinion is crystallized. When women are en- OUT WEST 71 franchisee!, political leaders are obliged to put on the ticket such men as the average women — the mothers — can afford to vote for. Everyone knows that this leads to the selection of a better type of man- — a man of more insight and larger public spirit — than when men alone select the representatives of the people. Today women may pray, but at the ballot box there stands a political divinity who denies the woman's prayer. We are the mothers of men and our first thought is for our children. With the vote we women will demand legislation for children's protection. It is the motherhood that is calling today. Thru the centuries the world has agreed that a woman's best duty is in mak- ing a home, and that the man should help and protect her there. Woman suffrage means that under modern conditions the world, outside the home needs that motherhood to help the man solve his problem. ■ Women ask for their recog- nition as human beings with opinions not only because it is a right, but because it is a duty, the highest duty which exists today. It must be remembered that there is not a single argument which is advanced against giving woman suffrage that has not at some time been advanced against giving men the ballot. In their great struggle in the East against corrupt influences, the women need the support of a solid West. Nevada can help the men and women of the East best by showing the spirit of the West, the love of freedom, the love of justice, true equality between the sexes. Wake up, Nevada! \Vhy Nevada Should Give Women the Vote By Dr. Anna Howard Shaw President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association XHAVE just returned from the most successful demonstration for suffrage ever known in tha International Council of Women, held in Rome, at which time delegates from twenty-eight nations, represent- ing over seven millions of organized women, passed, without a dissenting vote, a resolution calling upon all the nations of the world, in which a representative government exists, to grant equal political privileges to women with men citizens. With this enthusiastic endorsement of woman suffrage by twenty-eight of the foremost nations of the world, my thoughts naturally turned with great longing to the States in our own country, in which campaigns are now pending, and the black spot of Nevada, surrounded by the white states, where women are politically free, so impressed itself upon my mind that I tried to think of the reason for its backward condition. The more I thought about it, the more every- thing favored the hope and expectation that it would no longer be the one Western common- wealth which failed to appreciate what it owed to the pioneer women and their daughters for their sacrifices and devotion to the State, when it was a comparatively unknown and unsettled territory. If ever any people earned their freedom, the women who trekked across the plain and en- dured the hardships and privations which they met, from the rigors of the winters and the heat of the summer, the attacks from wild beasts and wilder men, who bravely overcame the difficul- ties of the first years of privation in a new country, the women of Nevada certainly have earned their freedom, for which they have paid a great price. When we compare the comfortable homes, the evidences of prosperity of the present com- monwealth with what it was a little more than twenty years ago, when Susan B. Anthony and I made our tour together thru the State, we naturally ask what share the women have had in its development. For the sake of the women who have suffered and who gave the best of their lives to found the commonwealth of Nevada, men should no longer be deaf to the appeals of their daughters for freedom. Then there is another side to this question beside that of fair play and justice, from which the advantage of favorable action in Nevada at this time is most expedient. It was expressed in a remark made by the Speaker of the Lower House of Congress, at a hearing granted to the National Congressional Committee, under the direction of Mrs. Medill McCormick, at which Jane Addams, Mrs. Desha Breckinridge and Dr. Shaw spoke, when presenting the resolutions 72 OUT WEST passed by more than 100,000 women on May 2 demanding Congressional action in enfranchis- ing the women of the country. Speaker Clark, in response, said, "Woman suffrage is as sure to come in this country as is the sun to rise tomor- row morning. It may be two, three or five years, but it is coming speedily." Speaker Clark simply voiced the opinion of every in- telligent man whose eyes are open to see, or whose ears can hear the evidences of the speedy triumph of justice in this country. In the face of this fact, which even the most obstinate opponent to woman suffrage admits, why delay its coming? Why use the time and money of the earnest women of the country in a long drawn-out endeavor to secure that which is just and is as inevitable as the rising of to- morrow's sun, when this time and money and patriotism might be devoted to building up the commonwealth and making it noted for its progress and just laws, which more than any- thing else will win it settlers and build up homes from one end of the State to the other? It is better, if you cannot be in the fore-front of the struggle for freedom, not to lag behind so far that you will have to be drafted into its service. While Nevada cannot claim the credit of leading the Far West, for it is already sur- rounded on every side by states which have recognized the principle which underlies our national life, that "governments derive their just powers fiom the consent of the governed." But it has an opportunity to wipe the only black spot of disfranchisement of one-half of its people from the Western map, and leave it stainless. This is the point which the men of Nevada will be called upon to decide on Novem- ber 3d next. There is, however, another consideration, and that is a purely political one, which the national political parties will have to deal with in 1916. The states in which women already vote control 84 votes in the Electoral College, which will elect the President in 1916. In a closely contested campaign, 84 out of 529, which is the full vote of the Electoral College, is a balance of power. But, when we add to these 84 votes the votes of the states in which campaigns are now pending, and in which the vote will be cast in 1914, we will add 34 more votes in the Elec- toral College. This will give to the West the practical control of the Presidential election, which is a consideration from a political stand- point. But, if we add to this 150 more votes of the states where the subject of woman suf- frage will be voted upon in 1915, that will give to the states in which woman suffrage prevails 277 votes in the Electoral College, or 12 more than is necessary to elect the next President of the United States. With such a prospect before them, who could doubt that every political paity will place a suffrage plank in its platform in 1916? Nevada cannot afford to be the only Far Western state to wait for the country to force the issue upon it. Such a young and growing and prosperous state should be one of the leaders of thought and progress in democracy, and the women of the East, as well as the progressive men of the East, are looking to Nevada to jus- tify their faith in her sense of fair play and jus- tice. There is nothing that would bring Nevada and its interest so prominently to the notice of- the world as the granting of suffrage in 1914, and the women of the nation, believing in the men of the West and in their sense of fair play, cannot for a moment doubt but Nevada will stand shoulder to shoulder with the surrounding states which have given freedom to their women. Raising the Level of Suffrage in California, Or What Have They Done With It? By Mary Roberts Coolidge, Ph. D. Author of "Chinese Immigration," "Why Women Are So," etc., Vice- President of the California Civic League y^( HE most important thing that the women ^^^ of California have done has been to raise the level of suffrage itself. And they are doing it in a very natural, in- conspicuous and dignified way. In 1911, when they first had the opportunity to vote, women registered as a matter of conscience, rather than to support one party or another, as men usually do. As a class they have shown them- selves essentially non-partisan and far more interested in causes than in particular candi- dates or parties. Their feminine intuitions OUT WEST 73 make them keenly alive to the dangers of ma- chine politics and they are more and more the despair of those politicians who insist upon lin- ing up the voters and herding them ignorantly to the polls. California women, all over the State during the last two years, have been quietly studying the political issues upon which they have to vote. They have invited the State and local candidates to present themselves and their measures before thousands of club gatherings, and have taken their calibre. They are sur- prisingly acute in f eeling the untrustworthiness of those who try to hypnotize the voters with loud oratory and who dodge straight answers to their questionings. The non-partisan forum offered by women's clubs and civic leagues is already improving the tone of political campaigns. Women de- spise personal attacks and the wordy buncombe which is the usual stock of the second-iate politician; and they are suspicious of his sweep- ing pre-election promises. Nor will the femi- nine voters support men whose private record is crooked or indecent — an attitude which is compelling the party managers to put up better candidates. It is a significant fact that the women demand clear issues. They vote up to their registration often when they perfectly understand the issue; but rather than be befogged into voting wrong, when the issue is not clear, they stay away from the polls entirely. This is the explanation of many contradictory figures that have been published by the friends and foes of suffrage with regard to the behavior of California women at the polls. In their first encounter with the State Legis- lature in 1913, they showed remarkably good sense in the way in which they brought their political power to bear. Instead of demanding impossible things, the larger bodies of women — the W. C. T. U., the Federated Clubs, the California Civic League and the Juvenile Pro- tective Association — got behind a few measures important to the welfare of women and children and let alone the thousands of other bills whose supporters clamored to secure the "woman vote." They sent a delegate council to the legislative session, but did no lobbying whatever. Every legislator had already heard from the women of his home district what bills they expected him to support, and the council watched him closely to see whether he was fulfilling his duty as their i epresentative. If he tried to shrink he immediately heard from the women at home. As a result the three measures endorsed by more than 50,000 women, i. e. Equal Guardian- ship of Children, a Detention Home for Girls, carrying an appropriation of $200,000, and the (Iowa) Red Light Abatement Law were passed by large majorities in both houses — the latter in spite of tremendous opposition on tha part of the liquor and vice interests. The women who vote in California are chiefly the solid, earnest, domestic middle-class. They vote conscientiously and intelligently and are not easily fooled. They do not wish to hold office, but they, demand that candidates shall be decent and shall have some experience to fit them for the offices they seek. And they can- not be held to any party unless the men and the issues of that party suit their ideas of clean, representative government. They have raised and they will continue to raise the whole level of voting citizenship. Why Nevada Should Win Its Suffrage Campaign in November By Charlotte Perkins Cilman If Nevada repudiates equal suffrage, it there- by condemns the five free Western states which border it, and the four other free Western states, its further neighbors, as well as the great mass of Middle Western states which have granted partial suffrage to their women. It would so put itself on record with the bulk of the Southern and Eastern states — the least progressive of the whole country — instead of standing for a "Solid West" of courage, liberty and justice — the land that is not afraid of its women. Nevada should show the world that it is not ruled by the desires of its desultory transient bachelor residents, and those who cater to such desires; but by the real citizenship, the men who call Nevada "home," who live there, work there, marry and raise families there, building up the country. 74 OUT WEST There are those who wish to keep Nevada "wide open" — a national resort for all the popular vices, but there are others who do not wish their State to be the possible "tenderloin" of the West; the not impossible "red-light dis- trict" for our whole country. Those who value permanent, legitimate prosperity more than transient illegitimate popularity; those who wish to move at the head of the procession instead of sitting still in the rear, will vote for equal suffrage in Nevada. Nevada Owes Enfranchisement to Its Women By lne{ Haynes Gillmore FIRST, I wish to repeat what has been said many limes, and whai. must be said many times again, that the feminist movement, of which the demand for the ballot is but a small part, is not a movement to destroy the home or even to desert it. It is quite the opposite indeed, a movement to en- large the home, to extend its walls until they cover the town, the county, the state, the country, the world. Woman has come finally to realize that she can no longer stay in her own home, safe, guarded, happy, care-free and con- tinue to be a moral person and a good citizen if outside the home, the powers of evil prey on the homeless and the helpless. She realizes now that it is part of her business in life to help make the world a place in which children can grow to a healthy, able, useful citizenship. Her greatest single weapon in this struggle is the ballot. That is why she is asking for it. For women to five in a world, in which social consent is registered bj r means of the ballot, and to be without that ballot, is like owning a locked house to which she has no key. For woman to enter the economic struggle without the ballot is like going into battle with- out a gun. For woman to submit to government at the hands of one sex or one class and yet pay the taxes and obey the laws imposed on her by that sex or class is like trying to run a household of servants whom she is expected to pay but over whom she has no powers of discipline. For a government to keep one whole sex dis- enfranchised is economically as sensible a pro- ceeding as for a department store voluntarily to release one-half its employes from the neces- sity of work and yet keep them on in the estab- lishment — idle. In the few months that I have spent in Cali- fornia I have had ample opportunity to see what the use of the ballot does for women. I have found myself all along comparing the women of California with the women of my native state — Massachusetts. As women, the women of California are, of course, no abler or better than the women of Massachusetts; as citizens they are infinitely superior. For, in Massachusetts (where women cannot vote, except on school questions) women express themselves (except as women's clubs and charitable enterprises offer them a limited field of action ) only in conversa- tion, in writing and in public speaking. In California, women express themselves in all these ways and, in addition, in action. I am in a state of perpetual surprize at the degree of their acumen, their sympathy, their enthus- iasm, their initiative, their courage, their in- tegrity, their noble social conviction and their high social vision. It has become a bromidiom to say of the newly-enfranchised woman that her psychology has not been dulled to the ac- ceptance of red tape and slow process of the law, that in consequence for her to see a flaw in the social system is to want to remedy it imme- diately. She is always attempting the impos- sible and always accomplishing it — simply be- cause she believes that it can be done. I should say that one great proof of the success of equal suffrage in California lies in the character of its women citizens. I am equally imprest by the degree to which the men citizens of California co-operate with its women citizens— how much they trust them and lean upon them. It seems to me that when- ever the political leaders meditate a peculiarity difficult feat in social propoganda, they turn instinctively to the women to accomplish it. It is as though the men had relinquished a big share of a heavy political burden — and re- linquished it with a sigh of relief. Another great proof of the success of equal suffrage in California lies in the character of its men- citizens. More than any state in the Union, perhaps, Nevada owes enfranchisement to its women. Conversely, perhaps, more than any women in OUT WEST 75 the country, Nevada women owe it to their state to acquire the franchise. First and fore- most, Nevada, because of its small population, is still laboring to outgrow pioneer conditions, needs all the work its men-citizens can give in the way of exploration and development, of breaking ground and building. And it needs all the service its women-citizens can give in the way of conservation — to make living con- ditions so attractive that the outsider and the transient is constantly turning into a permanent resident. That is one of the peculiar functions of women as citizens. Surrounded as it is on all sides by states which have given the franchise to their women, Nevada has the effect in com- parison, of falling short in enterprise, in pro- gress, in all that wonderful generosity of spirit which we call Western. If it continues to re- fuse this boon to its women, Nevada must inevitably become a kind of segregated area — in the midst of a happy, prosperous and pro- gressive West — of dissatisfaction, inertness, supineness and social powerless»ess on the part of its women-citizens. This will react dis- advantageously on the women, and on — Nevada. Equal Suffrage and Nevada Prosperity By Gail Laugblin OOES it pay? That is the test which some persons grara? apply to everything. Not, "Is it just? tixSusa Is it right? Will it advance human liberty? Will it promote social and civic right- eousness? Will it add to the sum of human happiness?" but, "Will it pay in dollars and cents — will it pay in material prosperity?" And that is the test which, with some persons, the proposal for equal suffrage must meet after it has met and successfully stood every test based on right and justice. But this last test, too, the cause of equal suffrage can stand, provided the test be the material prosperity of the whole State and not the selfish aggrandizement of the few who would exploit the many. During the decade 1900 to 1910, women voted in only four states — Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. All of these states are near neighbors of Nevada and all are similar to Nevada in climate, topography and in natural characteristics generally. The traveler cannot tell, from appearances, when he passes from Idaho or Utah into Nevada. Yet, according to the United States census, the population of Colorado increased by 259,324 during the ten years from 1900 to 1910; the population of Idaho by 163,822; the population of Utah by 96,602; the population of Wyoming by 53,434, and the population of Nevada by only 39,540. In other words, in those ten years over 62 times as many persons went to Colorado to live as went to Nevada; over 4 times as many went to Idaho; more than 2 1-3 times as many went to Utah, and 11-3 times as many went to Wyoming. Wyoming is the only state in which women voted during the whole of any of the other ten year periods covered by the United States census, and there women have been voting since 1869. In 1910, the population of Wyom- ing was more than 16 times as great as in 1870. In Nevada the population was less than twice as great in 1910 as it was in 1870. According to the census figures, the capital invested in manufacturing increased, from 1899 to 1909, by over 104 millions of dollars in Colorado; by over 30 millions in Idaho; by over 39 millions in Utah,- and by only something over 8 millions in Nevada. In this respect, Wyom- ing fell behind Nevada, the increase being a little over 4 millions, a difference which was more than made up, however, by the increase in other lines. During the ten years from 1900 to 1910, as the census shows, the value of farms and farm property increased by 330 millions of dollars in Colorado; by 238 millions in Idaho; by 75 millions in Utah; by 99 millions in Wyoming and by only 31 millions in Nevada. Equal suffrage, we know, is the evangel of a higher and nobler liberty. It seems also to be the advance agent of prosperty. There are good reasons why this should be so. To the equal suffrage states come women who prize liberty, and with them come men who believe in a square deal. Thither, also, come intelli- gently conscientious parents, desirous of settling in a community where the welfare of the home and the child receives the serious concern of the state. Such welfare is especially promoted in the states where women vote. With increased 76 OUT WEST population come development of natural re- sources and the establishment of manufactures, for, whether or not trade follows the flag, it does follow population. Centuries of history have proven that, so far as the interests of the whole people are concerned, justice is always the highest expediency. Equal suffrage presents no exception to the rule, and material prosperity, as well as higher ethical standards, follows upon its heels. Feminism By Mary Austin FEMINISM is the inherent hope of women to be esteemed for something over and above their femininity. As it expresses itself modernly it is a determination to be valued rather than desired; to be allowed to meet the purely human problems of life human- ly, untaunted by the fact of womanhood and unhampered by any conventional reading of it. As a movement, Feminism allies itself to the new feeling for efficiency in all departments of living. It has its rise very naturally in the ache of human faculties deprived of their natural exer- cise, and has been fostered by the withdrawal of constructive activity from the home. If I were to say that the Feminist movement is the stir women make running to catch up with their proper occupations, I should say the most characteristic thing, if not the whoh thing about it. For women are by nature makers, and the cord that binds them to their ancient creative activities is drawing them, often against their inclination, into all the places where things are made. If there were nothing more behind it than this inevitable industrial shift out of the little house into the big houses where things are spun and preserved and distributed, there would still be a movement calling for consider- able re-adjustment and re-shaping of social ideals. But there is more behind it than that; there is a general clarification of ideals of womanhood and a new appreciation of its more precious personal phases in terms of social service. Far from constituting a denial of tenderness and charm and spiritual diplomacy, the new femin- ism actively resists the waste of these attributes in ill-paid, drudging labors, and the cheapening of their quality in the attempt to make them do duty for every possible human exigency. The "advanced" woman is willing to be provocative in the interest of her racial instincts, but she objects to the enforced use of provocativeness as a means of obtaining her just wage, or a better system of city sewage. She would rest her claim to be heard on matters of social utility, on her knowledge of fact and fitness rather than on what she can contrive to have any man think of her. This demand for reality in their social rela- tions is not undertaken by women without full realization of what it may lead to in the way of corresponding changes in the traditional at- titudes of men. Unquestionably the movement derives something from the instinctive feminine response to the predicament men have got them- selves into by attempting to assume the whole material universe. It is, on the part of both sexes, a movement for release, not only from the unequal distribution of labors and functions, but from the strained, traditional "masculine" and "feminine" attitudes. The raspings and antagonisms of the situation are the growing pains of the discovery between men and women of reality, in each by the other. I have said that the trend of the movement is toward social efficiency. This is particularly true of the struggle for woman suffrage. It is the outcome of a new conception of government as a means of accelerating the business of living together, in which the ballot becomes the handiest instrument. The discovery made by men in the last century that without it they could render social judgment either not at all or very clumsily, has been made by women in this. Until this means of functioning freely in society is accorded them, we shall never know the real nature of the feminine problem, or whether there is any. Nevada Suffrage Campaign Edition NEVADA NEXT! Map of United States Showing Woman's Suffrage Conditions. White States — Full Suffrage Shaded States-Partial Suffrage Dark States — No Suffrage Votes For Nevada Women, November 3, 1914 I . W/