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[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.