STATE OF OREGON
___________
A PAMPHLET
Containing a Copy of All Measures “Referred to the People by the
Legislative Assembly,” “Referendum Ordered by Petition of
the People,” and “Proposed by Initiative Petition,”
To be submitted to the Legal Voters of the State of Oregon
for their approval or rejection
AT THE
REGULAR GENERAL ELECTION
TO BE HELD
On the Fifth Day of November, 1912,
TOGETHER WITH THE ARGUMENTS FILED, FAVORING AND
OPPOSING CERTAIN OF SAID MEASURES
______________
COMPILED AND ISSUED BY
BEN W. OLCOTT, secretary of State
(Publication authorized under Chapter 226, Laws of 1907.)
SALEM, OREGON
WILLIS S. DUNIWAY, STATE PRINTER
1912
[2]
AN AMENDMENT
TO THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF OREGON
TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE LEGAL ELECTORS OF THE STATE OF
OREGON FOR THEIR APPROVAL OR REJECTION
AT THE
REGULAR GENERAL ELECTION
TO BE HELD
ON THE FIFTH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1912,
TO AMEND
SECTION 2 OF ARTICLE II
By initiative petition filed in the office of the Secretary of State, December
20, 1910, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter
226, General Laws of Oregon, 1907.
__________
Printed in pursuance of Section 8 of Chapter 226, Laws of 1907.
Secretary of State.
__________
The following is the form and number in which the question will be
printed on the official ballot:
________________________________________________________________
PROPOSED BY INITIATIVE PETITION
_________________________________________________________________
Equal suffrage amendment, extending the right of
suffrage to women. Vote YES or NO.
_________________________________________________________
- Yes.
__________________________________________________________________
- No.
__________________________________________________________________
[3]
(On Official Ballot, Nos. 300 and 301.)
SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.
Section 2 of Article II of the Constitution of the State of Oregon shall
be and hereby is amended to read as follows:
Section 2. In all elections not otherwise provided for by this Consti-
tution, every citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years
and upwards, who shall have resided in the State during the six months
immediately preceding such election, and every person of foreign birth
of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who shall have resided
in this State during the six months immediately preceding such election,
and shall have declared his or her intention to become a citizen of the
United States one year preceding such election, conformably to the
laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization, shall be
entitled to vote at all elections authorized by law.
[4]
(On Official Ballot Nos. 300 and 301.)
ARGUMENT
(affirmative)
SUBMITTED BY
THE OREGON STATE EQUAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION
In favor of the measure designated on the official ballot as follows:
_____________________________________________________________________________
PROPOSED BY INITIATIVE PETITION
Equal suffrage amendment, extending the right of
suffrage to women. Vote YES or NO
_____________________________________________________________________________________
300. Yes. _____________________________________________________________________________________
301. No
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN OPEN LETTER.
To Every Liberty-Loving Voter of Oregon, Greeting:
The undersigned, representing as we believe the large majority of
the women of Oregon, are happy to remind you that since we last
appealed to you for your affirmative vote for the enfranchisement of
one-half of the people, we have seen the elective franchise extended
to all women on equal terms with men in our sister states of Washington
and California.
We come to you, believing that you will be glad to add Oregon to
the constantly increasing number of equal suffrage states of the mighty
West, thus making the Coast States a solid phalanx at the head of the
great procession, and by increased representation giving our Coast
more power to aid and protect her great and growing interests.
Suffrage is a duty that should be performed by every citizen of every
state, otherwise Democracy is a failure; it is a duty that, if shirked,
results in misgovernment, inequality, and injustice. Those who would
evade this responsibility, because it may entail labor, simply plead
laziness. To call a government a democracy when half the population
is barred from participation in governmental affairs is an absurdity.
The same arguments used in defense of depriving women of suffrage
were used to keep the Romans enslaved, to keep the peasants of Europe
in serfdom, to clog the progress of human liberty throughout the ages.
[5]
The inequality of suffrage has been the basic principle that has ever
oppressed humanity.
There is always an element that resents change. Many a serf
fought to prevent freedom and many a slave opposed his own liberation.
It should be the obligation of every individual irrespective of sex,
whether householder or not, to have a voice in the making of our laws
both civic and national. Liberty and responsibility for both sexes in
public affairs will improve the quality by stimulating the study of
government. Men and women can never be pitted against each other
in government, because nature, which is higher than human law, has
fitted them for companionship. They must help men in the uplifting
of the world by making democracy and its consequent development, a
realized dream.
The growth of public sentiment in favor of this movement all around
Oregon has been, as you know, phenomenal.
Believing that our Beloved Oregon should and will prove that her
progressive spirit is equal to that of the six equal suffrage states sur-
rounding her, and add a seventh star to the galaxy of fully free states,
we rest our case with you at the coming election. In the hope that we
shall not be compelled again to make this expensive and laborious
struggle for equality of rights as voters, we respectfully request you
to vote “YES” for the EQUAL SUFFRAGE CONSTITUTIONAL
AMENDMENT at the coming November election.
By order of THE OREGON STATE EQUAL SUFFRAGE
ASSOCIATION.
MRS. HENRY WALDO COE, Honorary and Acting President and Treas-
urer of National Committee, 841 Lovejoy St., Portland, Oregon.
MRS MYRTLE PEASE HATFIELD, Member National Committee, Box 151,
Forest Grove, Oregon.
Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, Presi- Miss H. L Seeley, Chairman of
dent and Corresponding Secre- Fin. Committee, Headquarters,
tary, 292 Clay St, Portland, Ore. 406 Selling Bldg., Portland, Ore.
Mrs. Elizabeth Lord, Vice-President
at Large, The Dalles, Ore. AUDITORS.
Mrs. C. M. Cartwright, Vice-Presi- Mrs. F. Eggert, The Hobart-Curtis,
dent, 215 7th St., Portland, Ore. Portland, Ore. .
Miss Elma Buckman, Recording Mrs. M. A. Dalton, 300 24th St.,
Secretary, 42 E. 18th St., N., North, Portland, Ore.
Portland, Ore. Mrs. Imogene Bath, Hillsboro, Ore.
[6]
(On Official Ballot, Nos. 300 and 301.)
ARGUMENT
(negative)
SUBMITTED BY
OREGON STATE ASSOCIATION OPPOSED TO THE EXTENSION
OF THE SUFFRAGE TO WOMEN
opposing the measure designated on the official ballot, as follows:
PROPOSED BY INITIATIVE PETITION
Equal suffrage amendment, extending the right of
suffrage to women. Vote YES or NO.
- Yes.
- No.
ARGUMENT AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.
To the Electors of Oregon:
Notwithstanding the repeated and emphatic defeat of woman suffrage
amendments in Oregon, the proposition is again on the ballot. It was
submitted to a vote in 1900 and beaten by a plurality of 2137; it was
submitted again in 1906 and beaten by 10,173; it was submitted again
in 1908 and beaten by 21,649; it was submitted again in 1910 and beaten
by 23,795. Notwithstanding this repeated expression of the will of the
people we note in the argument offered in support of this amendment
a contention that those who favor it represent the large majority of
the women of Oregon. We submit that this adverse vote rolled up again
and again with increasing emphasis at each election is the best possible
evidence that woman suffrage is not wanted in Oregon, either by the
women or by the men. The fact is that the agitation for woman suffrage
is carried on by a small minority of the women of the State, who make
up in activity what they lack in numbers. Let any man ask the women
of his acquaintance, and particulary the women who are doing woman’s
work in the world, the women whom he most respects, and he can satisfy
himself as to whether women want the right to vote.
WASHINGTON AND CALIFORNIA.
It is true, as suggested in the argument in favor of this amendment,
that woman suffrage has been adopted in Washington and in California.
[ 7 ]
The result in Washington was brought about by a ballot title which
did not advise the voters of the State of the purport and effect of the
measure on which they were voting. Woman suffrage went on the
official ballot in Washington in November, 1910, under the following
title:
“For the proposed amendment of Article VI of the Constitution
relating to qualifications of voters within this State.”
There was a similar attempt to mislead the voters of Oregon by a
false ballot title, but the attempt was exposed in the official pamphlet
and by the press of the State, with the result that the amendment was
defeated by the above quoted vote.
In California the amendment providing for woman suffrage was
voted on at a special election held on the 10th of October, 1911. The
measure carried by the meagre plurality of 3587. The entire vote cast
on this question at that election was only 246,487. This was only 63%
of the vote cast in November, 1910, when a governor of California was
elected. The woman suffrage amendment received 28,798 votes less than
the Democratic candidate for governor received at that election and yet
the Democratic candidate for governor was defeated by a plurality of
22,356. There is always an active and zealous minority in favor of
woman suffrage and this minority can be trusted to get out and vote.
The majority of the electors opposed to woman suffrage are less zealous
on the subject and less certain to register their votes. We are confident
that on a full vote the measure would have been beaten in California
as it has been so often beaten in Oregon.
DEMOCRACY NOT A FAILURE.
There is a suggestion in the argument presented by the advocates of
this amendment that in the absence of woman suffrage democracy is
a failure. No American woman with a proper pride in the history of
her country would advance this contention. American democracy, with
its century and a quarter of constitutional government, with its Wash-
ington and its Lincoln, with its security for personal rights, and its
expansion of national power, is the most glorious success of the ages.
Woman has had her part in all this, she has had her work to perform,
and her burdens to bear. She has done her part in the home and not
on the hustings, and her power for good is the greater because she has
been content to be a woman and has not striven to be an imitation man.
IDA M. TARBELL ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Few women of our day have accomplished more than Miss Ida M.
Tarbell. In an article in a recent magazine Miss Tarbell says:
“Human society may be likened to two great circles, one revolving
within the other. In the inner rules the woman. Here she breeds and
trains the material for the outer circle which exists only by and for her.
[8]
That accident may throw her into this outer circle is of course true, but
it is not her natural habitat, nor is she fitted by nature to live and cir-
culate freely there. We underestimate too, the kind of experience which
is essential for intelligent citizenship in this outer circle. To know
what is wise and needed there one should circulate in it. The man at
his labor in the street, in the meeting places of men, learns unconsciously
as a rule, the code, the meaning, the need of public affairs as woman
learns those of private affairs. What it all amounts to is that the labor
of the world is naturally divided between the two different beings that
people the world. It is unfair to the woman that she be asked to do
the work of the outer circle. The man can do that satisfactorily if she
does her part, that is if she prepares him the material. Certainly, he
can never come into the inner circle and do her work.
EQUALITY NOT LIKENESS.
“The idea that there is a kind of inequality for a woman in minding
her own business and letting man do the same, comes from our con-
fused and rather stupid notion of the meaning of equality. Popularly
we have come to regard being alike as being equal. We prove equality
by wearing the same kind of clothes, studying the same books, regard-
less of nature or capacity or future life. Insisting that women do the
same things that men do may make two exteriorly more alike—it
does not make them more equal. Men and women are widely apart
in functions and in possibilities. They cannot be made equal by exterior
devices like trousers, ballots, the study of Greek. The effort to make
them so is much more likely to make them unequal. One only comes
to his highest power by following unconsciously and joyfully his own
nature. You run the risk of destroying the capacity for equality when
you attempt to make one human being like another human being.”
All evidence proves that the adoption of woman suffrage brings into
evidence the bold, obtrusive woman whose conduct cheapens the sex
and deprives all women of a portion of the chivalry and respect which
are their birthright.
Marie Corelli has well said:
“If woman would impress man with an abiding sense of her moral
and mental power and with the purity of her intellectual influence
upon the time, she must begin to teach him in the nursery and school
room and not at the polling booth.”
OUR PROTEST
In conclusion we, American women, citizens of the State of Oregon,
protest against the proposal to impose the obligation of suffrage upon
the women of this State, for the following, among other reasons:
- Because suffrage is to be regarded not as a privilege to be
enjoyed, but as a duty to be performed.
[ 9 ]
- Because hitherto the women of this State have enjoyed exemption
from this burdensome duty, and no adequate reason has been assigned
for depriving them of that immunity. - Because conferring suffrage upon the women who claim it would
impose suffrage upon the many women who neither desire it as a privilege
nor regard it their duty to seek it. - Because the need of America is not an increased quantity, but
an improved quality, of the vote, and there is no adequate reason to
believe that woman’s suffrage by doubling the vote will improve its
quality.
- Because the household, not the individual, is the unit of the State,
and the vast majority of women are represented by household suffrage. - Because the women not so represented suffer no practical injustice
which giving the suffrage will remedy. - Because equality in character does not imply similarity in func-
tion, and the duties and life of men and women are divinely ordered to
be different in the State, as in the home. - Because the energies of women are engrossed by their present
duties and interests, from which men cannot relieve them, and it is
better for the community that they devote their energies to the more
efficient performance of the present work than divert them to new
fields of activity. - Because political equality will deprive woman of special privileges
hitherto accorded her by the law. - Because suffrage logically involves the holding of public office,
including jury duty, and office-holding is inconsistent with the duties
of most women.
OREGON STATE ASSOCIATION OPPOSED TO THE EXTENSION
OF THE SUFFRAGE TO WOMEN.
Mrs. F. J. Bailey, President, Portland.
Miss Failing, 1st Vice-President, Portland.
Mrs. R. W. Wilbur, 2nd Vice-Pres., Portland.
Mrs. Wallace McCamant, Treasurer, Portland.
Mrs. A. E. Rockey, Portland. Mrs. J. W. Connell, Hillsboro.
Mrs. J. B. Montgomery, Portland. Mrs. E. Yockey, Ashland.
Mrs. Gordon Voorhies, Portland. Mrs. J. H. Templeton, Prineville.
Mrs. Herbert Holman, Portland. Mrs. A. J. Richardson, Joseph.
Mrs. Robert W. Lewis, Portland. Mrs. R. D. Carter, Baker.
Mrs. F. E. Harlow, Troutdale. Miss Bush, Salem.
Mrs. M. E. McFarland, Airlie. Miss Ritta Alderman, Falls City.
Mrs. E. H. Shepard, Hood River.