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Maryland State Archives Maryland Suffrage News Collection MSA SC 3286 msa_sc3286_scm7805-0045 Enlarge and print image (1M) |
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Maryland State Archives Maryland Suffrage News Collection MSA SC 3286 msa_sc3286_scm7805-0045 Enlarge and print image (1M) |
| 310 MARYLAND SUFFRAGE NEWS [December 26, KJ14. ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM EQUAL SUFFRAGE STATES Some Result! of California's Recent Election. THIS article is written especially for the "amis." Without argument we grant the difficulty of making an "ami" think; nevertheless, we are going to try, so we invite our friends, the "antis," throughout the coun- try to consider the California election of November 3. We urge them to look upon the excellent laws that on that day assumed a place upon the statute-books of California and to consider the part that the women of California played in placing them there. Let us take just a few: "The Torrens Land Law" that will end the title guarantee monopoly and relieve the people of the State from the extortions of the title companies; the "Red Light Abatement and Injunc- tion Act" that will enable the citizens to rid the cities of commercialized vice; the "Blue Sky Law" that sounds the knell of dishonest investment companies. For the present these three will answer for our argument. First in moral importance we shall, of course, place the "Red Light In- junction and Abatement Act." This proposed law has, to the eyes of the vultures that prey on girls, so sinister an aspect that they recalled E. E. Grant, author of the law in the California Senate, and put in his place one Eddie I. Wolfe, for years the notorious representative of race-track gambling and allied interests in Sacramento. Senator Grant was retired to private life by the Nineteenth Senatorial District for his services to decency. Meantime the red light abatement act has been held up by referendum, largely through forged signatures se- cured in San Francisco. The recall of Grant acted like an electric shock to the women of Cali- fornia. They clenched their teeth and went forth to clean up the State. Clubwomen, members of the W. C. T. U., leaders of thought, mothers of families, one and all, laid aside their regular work and gave time and talents to educating the public in the virtues of the proposed law. The women secured statistics, armed themselves with facts in regard to social vice, answered every argument advanced against the measure, and spoke so eloquently and with such good effect that the red light abatement and injunction act carried at the polls, to the glory of the State and the honor of decency. The best men worked side by side with the women in this fight, and to- gether they defeated the armies of human vultures who fought the law with money and sinister appeals to fear and lust. The Torrens land law is another measure that was carried by the woman's vote and influence. For twenty years the men of California have tried to secure this law only to be assured before each election by banking interests that any man who worked for it would be ruined. This threat fell on deaf ears in 1914, for the women who worked for the pas- sage of the Torrens land law were not in any business that the bankers could hurt. They had time to spare, honesty and an earnest wish to see advanced legislation triumph in the State, so they spoke in favor of the law to such good effect that it also won a place on the statute-books. The "Blue Sky Law," No. 5 on the ballot, is also indebted to the women for its victory over prejudice and misrepresentation. The dishon- est investment companies sought to confuse the voters by putting on the ballot Amendment No. <) under the head "Regulating Investment Compa- nies." The "Blue Sky Law" appeared as "Investment Companies Act." But the volunteer women orators explained so skillfully the viciousness of No. 9 and the virtues of No. 5 that an easy victory resulted for the people at the polls. A significant and cheering feature of the California campaign also was the keen and intelligent interest shown by the women in all the forty-eight amendments submitted at the polls. They were in no way discouraged by the task set them, but applied themselves with royal good will to under- standing the issues involved. Civic clubs, parent-teacher circles, improve- ment associations, W. C. T. U. and sewing circles, they one and all invited speakers to talk to them on the issues of the campaign, while they took notes and spent their evenings repeating the arguments for and against to husbands whose business kept them from the study they would have en- joyed with their wives. It was not alone the clubwomen nor the women of wealth who took up these measures; it was women of all classes and every financial condition. Tk» V*«s#>», nf Fftnnnmv }¦*'• Never Cheaper ElMwhfn lne voice or economy |iM>unii'iaiw>»cheapestHm Run Right To READ'S Howard end Lezingtoa Streets ; 4 Item with but • .ingle j 503 N. Cejr Street liberty end Leiington StreeU j ibouahl-to «•¦ jroa best | 423 S. Broadway IMPORTANT NOTICE. The Brietow-Mondell Amendment will be voted on in the House of Representatives on December 29. Every suffragist in Maryland should write TODAY and urge the Maryland Congressmen to vote favorably on the amendment. And it is to the great credit of the intelligence of the California electorate as well as the consciences of the voters that the recommendations of the Central Labor Council of Los Angeles, with but two or three exceptions, agreed perfectly with those made by the clubwomen. Two humane measures on the ballot, the eight-hour law and the dry amendment, were defeated only because they were unwisely and too dras- tically drawn. That California will eventually have a universal eight-hour law, that at no distant day she will put the seal of her disapproval on the liquor traffic, no one who can read the signs of the times can doubt. The women will help put both these laws through. To an unprejudiced mind there can be no doubt that the women of California have proved their value as voting citizens and have vindicated their right to the ballot in no uncertain fashion. No decent and patriotic man would be without their aid and sympathy in the fight for civic right- eousness. Willie like* lo hear about historical heroes. He it very critical, aod when he think* he hai discovered any error* of judgment on their part he never hesiiales lo espress hinuclf. Recently, when hit mother had read him "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." he raid almost contemptuously: "Wasn't Paul foolith not lo teltphonoi" In years lo come, when Equal Suffrage is an established thing everywhere, some one else in reviewing our struggle will doubtless say: "Weren't women foolish not lo come together as one. and demand the ballot as the quickeal and surest way to accomplish their aims)" Send literature and get your friends interested, and so hasten the day when we will come together as one. Do you know that a CHILD OF SIXTEEN ia permitted to work TEN hours a day In Maryland, while for a MAN the law aaya EIGHT hours a day? Do you know thai il is against the law to keep a house for immoral purposes: and yet another law reads: "No telegraph, telephone or messenger company shall require or permit any minor person in its employ to call for or deliver any telegram or other messages al or to any nc-usf of ill-repute * a a" thereby acknowledging the existence of such houses— against the law, though they be? ISN'T IT QUEER? AREN'T YOU INTERESTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT> We have copies of CHILD LABOR LAWS OF MARYLAND (Price, 5 cents; postpaid, 6 cents) You'll hod them interfiling and instructive. If you're not dtad to tht arc-rid, you will sooner or later lake an interest ia VOTES FOR WOMEN Mrs. Chas. J. Keller. Chairman Literature Committee. 222 West Monument Street. Mra. M. K QUINN importer Gowns and Evening. Wraps, Tallor-Made Suits 1220 N. CHARLES STREET a a P. Phone. MI. Vernon 3555 Albert Sigmund & Son INC. 102-104 N. Charles St. /mporfers FURS AND MILLINERY CLEAN MILK Pikesville Dairy Branch THE CITY DAIRY COMPANY 1601-13 Argyle Avenue. Telephone, Madison 2222. Telephone. Homewood 216S. Theodore G. Bunnecke Practical Plumber and Gas Fitter ::: Sewerave Work and Drainage a Specialty. Jobbing Prompter Attended To. 2002 ST. PAUL ST. BALT1M0M, HI. HELP THE CAUSE___Mention the Maryland Suffrage Nawa Whan Patreaialsuj Our Advertiser.. |