Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/726

 Nevertheless this was an advanced step which attracted the attention of the entire country, While in Wyoming women had Full Suffrage, it was a sparsely settled Territory, with few newspapers and far removed from centers of political activity. Kansas was a battle-ground for politics, and great interest was felt in the new forces which had been called into action. From the first women very extensively took advantage of their new privilege. It was granted February 15 and the next municipal election took place April 5, so there were only a few weeks in which to accustom them to the new idea, make them acquainted with the issues, settle the disputed points and give them a chance to register. The question was at once raised whether they could vote for justices of the peace and constables, and at a late hour Attorney-General S. B. Bradford gave his opinion that they could not do so, as these are township officers. This made separate ballot-boxes necessary and in many places these were not provided, so there was considerable misunderstanding and confusion. On election day a wind storm of unusual violence, even for that section of the country, raged all day. Through the influence of the Liquor Dealers' Association, which had used every possible effort to defeat the suffrage bill, reporters were sent by a number of large papers in different cities, especially St. Louis, with orders to ridicule the voting of the women and minimize its effects. As a result the Eastern press was soon flooded with sensational and false reports.

An official and carefully prepared report of 112 pages was issued by Judge Francis G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Association, and Prof. William H. Carruth of the State University, giving the official returns from 253 cities. The total vote was 105,216; vote of men, 76,629; of women, 28,587. In a few of the very small cities there were no women's votes. In many of the second-class cities more than one-half as many women as men voted. In Leavenworth, 3,967 ballots were cast by men, and 2,467 by women; in Lawrence, 1,437 by men, 1,050 by women. In Kansas City, Topeka and Fort Scott about one-fourth as many women as men voted. In these estimates it must be taken into consideration that there were many more men than