NOT EQUAL SUFFRAGE
We very much fear that the cause
of woman suffrage in Tennessee is
going to be disrupted and set back
by the mistaken course of its friends
and sponsors. The highest plea and
argument for equal suffrage is that
it shall be equal. The bill overwhelmingly passed by the house Friday fractures the equality principle
in two respects. It will give the women the franchise only in a limited
way, and it relieves the sex of the
prerequisite condition of paying a
poll tax as one of the qualifications
for voting. This was a gallant act
on the part of the legislators but we
gravely doubt its wisdom. The relieving of women from the necessity
of paying a poll tax for voting in
presidential elections may tend seriously to unbalance the Tennessee
electorate as now constituted. Quite
a considerable element of our male
population do not consider it worth
the payment of the $2 poll tax to exercise their manhood privilege of
casting their ballots. Many of these
poll tax delinquents, however, have
female relatives or connections
through whom they may deem fit
and and be enabled to influence and
virtually exercise the ballot without
payment of the tax. This would be
scarcely fair to those citizens who
do pay poll tax and yet whose ballots might be killed by the influence
of men who do not pay it.
In saying this, we wish expressly
to disclaim any intention to infer
that genuine, sincere suffragettes
would or could be unduly influenced
by the men. But there is possibly a
large element of the sex in the state
who have taken no interest in the
equal suffrage question, either for or
against it, and who are not
qualified by patriotism and intelligence to properly exercise the
ballot, who might be used in this
way to the detriment of the electorate.
