Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/157

 

Idaho women have been voting citizens for twenty-four years and during these years much has been accomplished for the making of a bigger and better State, especially along educational lines. The women came into their suffrage sanely and quietly, working shoulder to shoulder with men in everything vital to their country. State and local politics has been materially improved since women have been electors. No strictly suffrage association has been maintained since the franchise was granted, but when the National League of Women Voters was instituted in 1920 a branch was formed in Idaho with Dr. Emma F. A. Drake chairman. Work heretofore had been done through the Federation of Clubs, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and other organizations of women. Political leaders always consider what women will think of a candidate before he is nominated and it is constantly demonstrated that nothing puts the fear of God into a man's heart like the ballot in the hands of a good woman. The women vote in about the same proportion as the men and there never is any criticism of it. Women have worked for many good laws and have seen the most of them passed.

The women are not ambitious for office, but they fill regularly, without question, the following: State Superintendent of Public Instruction, County School Superintendent, County Treasurer, City Treasurer and, in many counties, Auditor and the appointive offices, Law Librarian and assistant, Traveling Librarian and assistant. In January, 1920, Governor D. W. Davis appointed Mrs. J. G. H. Gravely on the State Educational Board. The following women have filled the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Miss Permeal French, Miss Belle