The relations of man and wife "are one and inseparable" as to the good to be derived from or the evil to be suffered by laws imposed, and the addition of woman suffrage will not better their condition, but is fraught with danger and evil to both sexes and the well-being of society.
This privilege conferred will bring to every primary, caucus and election—to our jury rooms, the bench and the Legislature—the ambitious and designing women only, to engage in all the tricks, intrigues and cunning incident to corrupt political campaigns, only to lower the moral standing of their sex; it invites and creates jealousies and scandals and jeopardizes their high moral standing; hurls women out from their central orb fixed by their Creator to an external place in the order of things. Promiscuous mingling with the rude and unscrupulous element around earnest and exciting elections tends to a familiarity that breeds contempt for the fair sex deeply to be deplored.
The demand for female suffrage is largely confined to the ambitious office-seeking class, possessing an insatiable desire for the forum, and when allowed will unfit this class for all the duties of domestic life and transform them into politicians, and dangerous ones at that.
When the laws of nature shall so change the female organization as to make it possible for them to sing "bass" we shall then be quite willing for such a bill to become a law.
It is a grave mistake, an injury to both sexes and the party, to add another "ism" to our political creed.
Republican—A. H. Heber, W. R. Hopkins, F. W. Willard, J. Showalter.
Democrat—J. O. Milner, G. M. Hoover, T. C. Craig, F. M. Gable.
Populist—Robt. B. Leedy, J. L. Andrews, Wellington Doty, B. F. Morris,
Levi Dumbauld, C. W. Dickson, Geo. E. Smith of Neosho.
[277] In 1901, in Topeka, a candidate for the mayoralty, supposed to represent the liquor element, speaking on the afternoon of election day—bleak, dismal and shoe-top deep in snow and mud—said: "I will lose 1,000 votes on account of the weather as the women are out and they are opposed to me. It is impossible to keep them from voting."