Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/858

 844 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

suffrage in some definite locality, should be considered worth while. For what people really interested in this question are asking for, is practical proofs of the way in which the thing has operated and is operating now.

The purpose of the investigation of which this book represents the results, was to make an impartial and scientific study of the influence of equal suffrage upon political, economic, and social life in Colorado in 1906. Colorado, where women first voted in 1894, was chosen as a good field of study because it was considered more typical of normal industrial and social conditions than either Wyoming, Utah, or Idaho. Miss Sumner considers the effect of women's votes upon the following: political methods, elections, public office, public and private employment of women, legislation, and the effect of the possession of the ballot upon woman herself, her intellectual and moral character, the home and children. The information was collected in four ways: (i) by the circulation of question blanks, (2) by the study of newspaper files for 1894, 1900, and 1906, (3) by the examination of registration books to obtain statistics showing proportions of and classes of women who vote, (4) by a study of state, country, and city reports and records to determine the number of women office-holders, their records, sal- aries, etc. Further sources were the census, the United States Bureau of Labor reports, and political conventions. Five thousand question blanks were sent out to women and men delegates to conventions, to members of political committees, to state legislators, county and city officials, and other prominent persons; 1,200 of these were answered wholly or in part. Replies were classified on the basis (i) of belief in equal suffrage and of sex, (2) according to political experience, residence in Colorado or some other state, general prominence and intelligence. The material gathered in this and other ways is presented in tables as well as by discussion.

Most of the material for the conclusions as to party machinery, some of that for the economic aspects of suffrage and its effect on legislation, and all of that on the effect of equal suffrage on the women of Colorado, was taken from answers to question blanks, and therefore represents the opinions only of less than 1,200 persons in Colorado. The conclusions drawn are as follows: as to the part women take in caucuses and primaries — "women nowhere take quite their full share of responsibility — their activity depends first upon the size of the community and the proportion of women and