Popular misgovernment in the United States

by Alfred Byron Cruikshank

It is manifestly not a question of the capacity of some, but of all women, for unless the quality of the entire female electorate is politically superior to that of the entire male electorate the former should not be introduced into our political system. Nor is it a matter of comparison of any other than civic or political quality; it is immaterial whether women are morally superior to men, or better church goers or more sentimental; the question is whether they are politically as capable; that is whether they are as capable of selecting the directors of the state, or of directing her themselves, and of shaping her policies as the men are. But of the answer to this there can be no possible uncertainty; no one doubts male superiority in these capacities; to deny it in the face of the well-known characteristics of the human male, as well as the notorious advantages that men have over women in point of business and political training and experience, is to defy common sense. Government is an institution established for a kind of work which is essentially masculine. It is designed not only for the prosecution of great business enterprises in peace, but of foreign wars great and small, for national defense, and for that diplomacy which is armed and threatening. Political capacity requires mental power, courage, firmness of character, determination, physical strength, military capability, business training and experience and ability to rule. These are essentially masculine qualities; and while few men have them all highly developed, yet those attributes or some of them are moderately present in most men and to a considerable extent in some men in every community; whereas most women are almost or quite destitute of all of them. Sensible women fully recognize their difference from men in respect to those qualities, and for that reason they especially value them, and seek for them in selecting their husbands, lovers, lawyers and physicians. It is apparently conceded even by the female suffragists, that most public offices should be filled by men rather than by women, on account of this masculine superiority in political efficiency. Now, it cannot surely be expected that women who are notoriously lacking in firmness, courage, determination and good judgment, will as voters be as expert as men in weighing these qualities, in appreciating their extent, or in discovering their presence or absence in the various male candidates for office presented for a choice.

Not only are the majority of women destitute of capacity to take a personal part in government themselves, but they have no taste for politics, nor desire to become proficient therein; they usually dislike to read or to seriously discuss political matters of any kind. One would like to be able to say, that none of them care to take part in the vile intrigues or acts of violence, which are the unfortunate incidents of certain low political work, but this cannot truthfully be said, in view of the ballot box stuffing in Colorado, the picketing of the White House, the insults to and assaults upon high officials here and in England and the numerous petty crimes committed there by militant suffragettes or their hirelings. But for high or abstract politics, the study of political questions, statesmanship, political history and political economy, women have very little taste, if any. It is the general opinion that the great majority, probably three-fourths of the women of the United States do not desire the vote at all, never have desired it, and have no idea what to do with it. The suffragette leaders are not politicians nor political students, but agitators; being impelled to that vocation not by a taste for politics but by a love of money and notoriety. The only recorded case of a census of women’s opinion on female suffrage which has come to the writer’s attention was in or about 1908, when a Mr. Bray, a member of the legislature from some city of Wisconsin, took a ballot of the women in his district, about eight thousand in number, for his private instruction upon this subject; with the result that not a single ward, city or village returned a majority for suffrage. In a certain working people’s ward, the vote was from three to seven against the franchise to one in its favor. Most teachers, older scholars, librarians, nurses and dressmakers voted “Yes.” A large majority of bookkeepers, stenographers, clerks, factory girls and hotel employees voted “No.” Of the whole eight thousand women, fully two-thirds voted “No” on the question. That is to say, two-thirds of the women agreed that not only they themselves but also the other one-third were unfit to be voters. The fact that the other third considered themselves competent is of little consequence; probably they excel the others in nothing more than self-conceit, and that supremest ignorance which is unaware of its own want of knowledge; but even if this third were eager to vote and would make a good use of the franchise, that fact would not justify the admission to the electorate of the other two thirds, who by their own admission are certain to misuse it. A sensible man will not eat an entire apple of which two thirds is rotten or unripe, and whoever does so is likely to pay the penalty.

In the United States or the communities of the United States where women at present vote, it is presumable and the best evidence obtainable shows that most of those who really expect advantage from the suffrage are political adventuresses, socialists and female cranks; the remainder exercise the vote without any real understanding of what they are doing; some because they are paid or coerced, others reluctantly and only from a mistaken sense of duty, or upon the advice or direction of some husband, father, brother, lover, clergyman or friend; or in gratification of some spite, passion, fad or caprice which has possessed them for the time being. Most of them, even those who pretend to intelligence, are less fit to vote than the grimy day laborer, whose daily talk in the beer saloon is largely of the practical politics of the district.

Some suffragettes, while acknowledging the existence of this notorious political indifference and ignorance of women, say that it is but temporary, and will disappear with time; that with the incentive of the vote women will by degrees acquire a taste for politics. This is the same hollow “harper” argument herein already punctured, that was used to justify the giving the ballot to the Southern freedmen in 1866 with disastrous results. It offers a very poor outlook for the state; presenting at best a dim hope that the quality of the female vote may aspire some centuries later to equal that which we have already obtained in the male vote. Meantime the country must suffer while the women practise and learn; and after all the result will only be to bring us up to our present standard and that some generations hence.

But in fact there is no such hope; the women will never learn politics because they will never study it; the incentives offered do not appeal to women with sufficient force to induce them in the mass to enter into politics; their indifference thereto is incurable; it amounts in many cases to positive aversion, and proceeds from causes which are likely to continue to operate for an indefinite period, and which are sufficiently permanent in their nature to justify a strong apprehension that if woman suffrage prevails the national fabric may sometime be endangered thereby. Foremost among these causes is the compelling power of Nature herself, who gave the woman an organism, instincts, and ambitions of her very own; who ordained that she should be something better and more precious than a cheap echo and imitation of man, and that she should have her own pleasures, her own tastes, her own loves and hates, her own life, and a capacity for higher existence than grovelling in the muck of universal suffrage politics. One of these natural instincts requires, and always will require, healthy minded women to make it their first object to please men. Now, the female politician is odious to most men, and the display of masculine qualities by a woman is apt to provoke them to something like disgust. This, the female suffragette leaders fail to realize; they themselves are rather peculiar than typical; some of them are eccentrics who imagine themselves superior when they are merely odd, and are or pretend to be devoid of that instinctive desire for male admiration and to be charming, which is the inspiration of the best in woman. But they will never be followed by the mass of loving and practical women into the dreary abode where they pass their cold and shrill existences. Already the women voters in States where woman suffrage is established are deserting these female agitators; they are being deposed from leadership, and male politicians are rapidly taking command, and replacing them by their own lieutenants, usually women who avoided the suffrage agitation; often the wives and sisters of these politicians. So that it is already coming to pass that female politics, instead of representing woman’s political independence, will strengthen male bossism; thus affording one more instance of the operation of Nature’s fiat that certain jobs are exclusively for men, and that one of them is the job of governing the world and every part thereof.

Not only is it true that women as a class have no natural liking for politics, but they will never become acquainted with it for want of proper opportunity. Such opportunity is in the nature of things confined to the men of the nation, and comes from mixing with other men, and with the transactions and business of other men day after day. A slight acquaintance with it may be acquired by reading, or instruction, but not nearly as much as by the constant, never-ending intercourse of men of affairs with each other, on the mart, and in the business places of the city and country. Our standards of life are such, that women, even if their natural tastes did not disincline them to it, are necessarily excluded from that intercommunion with business men; therefore, the information and experience thus obtained by men are not within the reach of women, even of those employed by men in stores and offices, most of whom are further debarred therefrom by their being in subordinate employments. Nor are women, even so-called business women, as a class, engaged in the acquisition of property; even when employed in business or a profession, their proficiency being inferior to that of men, they do not often earn sufficient to enable them to make substantial accumulations; and they seldom make a life career of any employment in which they are engaged. Of the comparatively small number of women employed in mercantile pursuits or in the business part of manufacturing, the practical knowledge possessed by most of them, of the effects of legislation in government administration, of the tariff for instance, taxation, corporate law, banking law, etc., is so small as to be negligible.

Passing, because it speaks for itself, the case of the millions of negresses to whom it is proposed to give the ballot, and considering that of the white women only, we find that to the vast majority of farmer’s wives, female servants, factory girls, dressmakers, sewing women, waitresses, shop girls and the like, the very word “politics” conveys no exact or correct meaning; by far the most of them are not only lacking in acquaintance with the subjects of political economy, finance, constitutional law, foreign trade relations and treaties with foreign nations, but they are unable even to correctly define the names of those subjects. Then coming to a better read class of women, such as teachers, stenographers, bookkeepers, cashiers, typewriters, etc., while many of them would be able to give the definitions alluded to, their knowledge would scarcely go farther. Very few of them ever read the newspaper political articles; still fewer have ever read or heard discussed a work of any sort on politics or political questions. Why, indeed, should they read works which deal exclusively with matters belonging to masculine life? In fact most women belonging to the classes above mentioned, except such factory girls as are socialists, have refrained from taking part in the suffrage agitation and from any demand for the ballot. Most good women who believe in woman suffrage, hope to become instructed in politics through reading books, newspapers and magazines; and it is noticeable that the female suffragists constantly talk and write as though intelligence enough to read were sufficient qualification for a voter; they assume that one can learn how to vote by merely reading the newspapers; completely ignoring the qualities and training which will enable the voter to properly understand and weigh the newspaper statements, and to discard newspaper lies. Mere general intelligence is not a sufficient endowment for a voter; otherwise an entire stranger in the community could cast a wise vote at its elections; he needs as well that good judgment and firmness, that knowledge of actual life, of business needs and conditions, of local circumstances, and of the motives and reputation of public men, which women can never hope to acquire in the same degree as men. No subject can be mastered merely by reading, and politics least of all; and it is of all branches of knowledge the one which women are least fitted to acquire. For politics is concerned with the doings of men in their pursuit of money and fame; and in modern times especially with their business doings. The pursuit of money and fame are essentially masculine vocations; it is impossible for women even to attempt to compete with men in those undertakings, nor to understand their conditions, nor with rare exceptions do women ever really wish to do so. As a branch of knowledge politics includes such subjects as history, finance, economics, foreign trade relations, war, legal principles, constitutional law, naval affairs, the study of men and of their prejudices and capabilities. Few men have time or inclination to study these matters in the abstract sufficiently to enable them to properly estimate important political measures. But this defect in men’s education is corrected to a very considerable extent, by daily practical experience. Business men are experts in innumerable activities of which their women are absolutely ignorant, and they are thus made capable of understanding the language of many of those subjects. They have besides, the inestimable advantage of actual contact with men and groups of men, in their daily business life, who are more or less interested in these matters; of hearing their opinions directly or at second hand; with the further advantage of experience direct or indirect in the results or effects of political action. All this is part of the atmosphere and circumstance of a man’s business life. An appreciable portion of this information is constantly being spread and distributed by business men, and find its way from them into the minds of the farmers, mechanics and other men similarly interested. The result is, and has been, to set up among active and thrifty men a current of practical information concerning public matters, and to create a taste for politics, and for the subjects cognate to politics, which is practically universal among men, and is almost utterly lacking in women, who not only do not possess it, but do not realize its existence. Many a village boy of fifteen has more curiosity about politics, and more real knowledge thereof than any women in the community.

Having thus it is hoped without too much prolixity, presented our argument against female suffrage, let us take up one by one and reply to the principal points made by its friends in its favor in their publications and other public utterances.

A. The “Nagging” or “Henpeck” scheme. This is a theory or explanation of the intended operation of woman suffrage, offered by many suffragists, who apparently realize some of the manifest dangers and absurdities likely to attend upon female legislation and administration. They deprecate any idea of abolishing man’s supremacy in government, or of subverting his time-honored institutions; they insist that female suffrage does not mean the introduction into politics of a new political power, nor even a modification of the present masculine régime; it is no more than a convenient method of placing at the disposal of the governing males a source of female wisdom of which they have heretofore been deprived. The female politicians are merely to recommend and urge such measures, mostly in family and sociological matters, as the governing males may happen to overlook; it being assumed, no one knows why, that woman’s knowledge of these subjects is intuitive, inborn, at any rate superior to man’s. Under this plan, the men are of course to be free to reject the advice of the new women; otherwise they would be in the position of an East Indian rajah to whom the British government has assigned an “adviser,” and who if he should refuse to profit by his “advice” would be quickly brought to book by the British military power. The theory then is, that the male officials are not to be exactly subject to the female bosses or leaders who may become their monitors; but it is understood, of course, that they are likely to listen respectfully to counselors, who though they may roar, look you, as gently as a sucking dove, will be backed by an earnest and somewhat excitable and vociferous petticoated constituency. No doubt in order to get what they want, these ladies will soon find means of persuasion, of which the least urgent will consist of the process known to some unfortunate husbands as “nagging,” and to the derisive neighbors as “henpecking.” So, though the general superiority of the male governmental faculty is conceded, the male governing officials are not to be allowed to go on quite as they have been doing; the women will be there to “advise.” In plain words the proposition is to henpeck the public officials and other politicians into giving offices to the female bosslets, and into the adoption of their ladylike fads and frills. The picture in “Pinafore” of a high political dignitary on his official rounds with a squawking company of women at his heels, is to become actually embodied in American political life.

This suggestion of pressure upon government by harmless nagging and henpecking is certainly shallow and unpractical, and is probably insincere. If this is all that was intended, it was worse than folly to force the general suffrage upon millions of reluctant women. Those women who wished to nag and agitate were always at perfect liberty to do so. They were always free to talk; and if they wanted to be clad with formal authority to represent these few matters in which they claim a special interest, that too could have been provided for; representative women could have been elected or appointed to advisory boards or committees, commissioned to present their views to the public officials in an authoritative manner; leaving the latter to act in their discretion. But no; the suffragettes demanded, and are demanding, nothing less than a full and equal share with men in actual government, with equal responsibility for the results. The talk about women merely acting as advisers or proposers is sham and nonsense. Under the new régime, the female spirit is to take possession equally with the male, of every part of the body politic, with the obvious result of dislodging half of the masculine element in our governmental system. A vote cast by a woman is not a mere suggestion; it is an act of government; once deposited in the urn, it counts equal to and effective with a man’s vote. And each woman’s vote must either cancel or confirm the vote of some man. There is no logical or practical escape from this situation. Woman suffrage can have no actual effect except such as involves a defeat of masculine government; a nullification to some extent of what men are doing or have done. If it is to operate in mere confirmation of the rules or decrees of man, it is unnecessary, and will be ineffectual; its only possible effect must be in contravention of man’s political control. It is either this or nothing. As for womanly counsel, whatever of that was effective under a male suffrage polity, will with woman suffrage established, necessarily be replaced by female political coercion and intrigue. When men are in supreme power, a deputation of benevolent ladies urging some remedial measure or charitable modification, is sure to receive consideration from public officials; but what politician will be foolish enough to give ear to non-political ladies offering mere womanly counsel on any subject, when his female constituents are thundering at his door with contrary demands, which they have the power to enforce by political methods? The effect of woman suffrage is thus to completely destroy the political influence of all ladies who are not political workers, and to replace it by the domination, meddling and intrigue of female politicians, who will speedily learn from the men to invent reforms with jobs attached, to swap political support for graft, and to market moral issues.