Gov. Frank Steunenberg said in 1900:
In a general sense there can be no doubt that the participation of women in our public affairs has had a most elevating influence. All parties see the necessity of nominating the best individuals. The natural aim of women is toward the highest good of the community, and the best social conditions. Instead of seeking extremes of reform, as had been predicted, they are interested in stable and conservative administration, for the benefit of the homes and the children, and they avoid radical and excessive reforms. In short, the objections which in theory have been urged against woman's participation in public affairs have been overcome by the actual application of the system in Idaho.
The suggestion may be made that this activity of women in public affairs has operated to draw them away from their homes and from the usual domestic avocations, a suggestion which our experience amply disproves. In Idaho women are to-day the same loving wives, kind mothers and capable home-managers that they always have been. Nor has there been the least belittling of the sex in the eyes of the men, nor any falling off in that tenderness and respect which men universally accord to women. There is not the slightest interruption of family ties. Whether husband and wife vote together or oppositely excites no interest and no animosity, although naturally families are apt to have the same party affiliations. The system has not operated to take women from their homes, nor has it tended to make them in any way masculine.[235]
In the presidential election of 1900 women showed the liveliest interest. The universal testimony was that never in the history of the State had there been such order about the polling-places. Four-fifths of the ballots were cast by 1 o'clock. The women did as effective work as the men in getting out the voters.
The total population of Idaho is 161,762, and is composed, in round numbers, of 58 per cent. of males and 42 per cent. of females. The total vote of the men was 55,096; of the women, 19,660. In the counties representing the agricultural, manufacturing and general business of the State the women's vote averaged 41 per cent. of the total ballot. In the counties devoted exclusively to mining, where there are very few women, they cast only 24 per cent. This brought the average of the women's vote in the entire State down to 35½ per cent. of the total.
In Boise 1,982 men and 1,561 women registered; total, 3,543. The vote cast was 3,281. Allowing for the usual failures on the part of the men, these figures show that over 40 per cent. of the vote of this city must have been cast by women.[236]
Legislative Action and Laws: The placing of the ballot in the hands of women has had the effect of bringing about two changes of the highest importance. The session of the Legislature held immediately after the adoption of the suffrage amendment passed an act prohibiting gambling. Prior to that time it had been licensed in the State, and its establishments were openly conducted in practically all communities. Against this evil the sentiment of the women was solidly arrayed, and it could not be ignored. Before they voted, a bill altering the law would have been ignominiously pigeon-holed, but the ballot in their hands wrought a change under which a measure abolishing gambling was enacted. This was found defective, and gambling continued until the next legislative session. The gambling interests organized a lobby to prevent the enactment of a valid law against their business, but they failed, the law was passed, and gambling has since been suppressed in nearly all communities. The sentiment which obtained the law secures its enforcement—men do not dare run counter to the wishes of women, when the latter have in their hands the power to make or unmake politicians.
The present session of the Legislature (1900) passed a bill exempting women from jury service. Gov. Frank W. Hunt returned it with his veto, in which he said that this was in response to the protests of the women themselves, who objected to being deprived of this right. There was some talk in the Legislature of passing it over his veto, but this was finally abandoned. The women took the ground that while the ostensible object was to relieve them of an onerous duty, the real one was to protect the gamblers and other law-breakers to whom women jurors show no favor.
It is to be regretted that Governor Hunt could not have been influenced by the protests of women on another point. The law of Idaho provides that while a wife may hold property in her own name, the husband shall have control of it. The present Legislature passed an act giving married women control of their separate property. This was vetoed by the Governor, who said:
Our statutes as they now exist provide complete adjustment of the property relations between man and wife, placing them upon equal terms, excepting that the husband has the management and control of his wife's property during marriage, unless it should be taken from him on complaint of the wife for causes set forth in Sec. 2,499.
As the law stands the wife can secure control over her own property only by going into court, showing that her husband is mismanaging it, and obtaining a decree taking it away from him.