Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/396

 nomics plays an increasingly important part in the lives of us all and political power is absolutely necessary to obtain for women the possibility of decent conditions of living. The low pay and the hard conditions of working women are largely due to their disenfranchisement. Skilled women who do the same work as men for lower pay could enforce, with the ballot, an equal wage rate.

The ideal woman of the man of past generations (and especially of the Germans) was the housewife, the woman who could wash, cook, scrub, knit stockings, make dresses for herself and her children and take good care of the house. That ideal has become impossible. Those good old days, if ever they were good, are gone foreverMoreover, then the woman was supported by her father first and later by her husband. The situation is entirely different now. The woman has to go to work often when she is no more than fourteen years old. She surely has to go to work sometime if she belongs to the working class. She must make her own living in the factory, the store, the office, the schoolroom. She must work to support herself and often her family. The economic basis of the life of woman has changed and therefore the basis of the argument that she should not vote because she ought to stay at home and take care of her family has been destroyed. She cannot stay at home whether she wants to or not. She has acquired the economic functions of the man and she ought also to acquire the franchise.

Mr. Berger called attention to the fact that "the Socialist party ever since its origin had been steadfastly for woman suffrage and put this demand of prime importance in all its platforms everywhere." Representative Littleton made a persistent effort to ally woman suffrage with Socialism, saying that he "had noticed the identity during the past two years" and Mrs. Harper answered: "I wish to remind Mr. Littleton that the Socialist party is the only one which declares for woman suffrage and thereby gives women an opportunity to come out and stand by it. The Democratic and Republican parties do not stand for woman suffrage and that is why there seem to be more Socialist women than Republican or Democratic women. If the two old parties will declare for woman suffrage, then the women in general will show their colors."

Miss Ella C. Brehaut, member of the executive committee of the District Anti-Suffrage Association, stated that she also represented the National organization and when questioned by Representative Sterling as to the size of its membership answered: "It is too new for us to know the figures." Miss Brehaut's address filled six printed pages of the stenographic report and was an