Your Vote and How to Use It

Chapter Xx. Public Charities 209

State and Private Control of Charitable Institutions—State Board of Charities, Duties, Powers—Proposed Changes in the Reorganization of the Board—County and City Institutions—Department of State and Alien Poor—Local Boards of Managers—State Department of Inspection—Provision for the Feeble-minded—Recommendations of the State Board—State Commission in Lunacy—State Prison Commission.

Chapter Xxi. the Protection of Working-Women 221

Conditions Before the War—Number of Women Wage-earners—Clothing Manufacturers, Laundries, Restaurant Workers, Textile Operators—War and Woman’s Work—The Eight-hour Day, New Occupations, Messenger Service, Wages—Minimum Wage—Protection Needed.

Chapter Xxii. Americanization 232

The Need of a United Country—The Immigrant a National Asset—Housing Conditions—A Common Language—Night Schools—Neighborhood Classes for Women—Home Teaching of Women—Naturalization—Uniform Laws for Naturalization—Ignorance of Laws—The Study of Citizenship.

Chapter Xxiii. Patriotism and Citizenship 243

APPENDIX 253

Some Definitions: Habeas Corpus—The Initiative and Referendum—The Recall—Injunction and Abatement Act—The Tin Plate Ordinance—Prohibition, High License, Local Option, the Guttenburg Method of Controlling the Liquor Traffic—The Single Tax—The House of Governors—Proportional Representation—Workmen’s Compensation Laws.

CHART OF OFFICIALS FOR WHOM YOU CAN VOTE 261

When Elections Are Held.

FOREWORD

It is one thing for women to win the vote and a totally different one for them to know how to use that vote so that it will count to the greatest good of the state. The keynote of woman’s long struggle for the ballot has been her ardent desire for service. Now that she has been given the vote, she is eager to learn how she can best render that service.

Citizenship has been very lightly regarded by our country in the past. It has been given to the immigrant without any ceremony, in the midst of the sordid surroundings of a local court-room; it has come to the boy of twenty-one without any special preparation on his part; it has often been bought and sold. It remains now for women to treat it with a new dignity and to give it the importance it deserves.

Civics should be taught in every school in the land. The ballot should be regarded as a sacred trust. Every man and woman who grows up under the protection of our flag should feel the obligation to give of his and her best to make our democracy a better expression of our ideals.

I hope that this book will help to start some new citizens in the right way.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT.

PREFACE

There never seems to be just the right book on a topic that one has very much at heart.

When the vote for New York women was an accomplished fact there came a sudden and pressing need for a book on government that would give the busy housewife or the overworked woman in the factory the simple outline of her government and the officials for whom she was going to vote, with the duties and requirements of their positions; but that was not all. There are certain problems of government to-day and certain departments of politics which have to do with things which are of special interest to women. The protection and care of human life has always been woman’s great business in life. So a book on civics for women must include an outline of what the state is doing for its children, for its poor, for working-women, for public health and recreation; in short, for the same things in government with which she is concerned in her individual capacity as a woman. These are also the departments of government which seem to need her attention the most. It is natural that men should have given the greater care in government to business and material affairs. To counterbalance this, woman’s work and votes are needed for the human side.

To be an intelligent voter some knowledge of the structure of government is needed. Also one must know the duties of an office in order to judge of the qualifications of would-be candidates, so Chapters II to VII give an outline of the different divisions of government, beginning with the local offices, for which women will cast their first votes, and going through the State to the National Government. Chapters VII to X, inclusive, deal with the actual casting of the ballot in the elections, the organization of political parties, and the management of elections. The major part of the book is then given to those departments of political affairs in which women are undoubtedly most deeply concerned.

The substance of some of these chapters has been used as a correspondence course in citizenship by the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, and is published by special arrangement with them. Through four years of continuous intensive educational work in the State the Woman Suffrage Party has come closely in touch with many thousands of women; it has learned to know their idealism, their fervent belief in democracy, and their desire to make democracy more effective. It knows also that there are many other women who have never thought about voting, but who are equally conscientious and are now eager to learn. It knows the problems of women as does probably no other organization of women.

It also has a deep feeling of responsibility. It feels its obligation to furnish all the help possible to the new women voters to meet their new duties wisely. It hopes to bring home to women the human side of government, to arouse a desire for further study, and especially to encourage them to regard their vote as a trust to be used not to advance partisan politics, but to further human welfare.

This is a book for amateur citizens written by an amateur citizen. It may be found to differ from the others in that it deals with the subject of civics from the standpoint of the woman voter.

GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN.

=YOUR VOTE AND HOW TO USE IT=

YOUR VOTE AND HOW TO USE IT

POLITICS AND WOMAN’S INTERESTS

The average woman has never thought of politics as having an intimate relation to her daily life. She has not realized that government has a direct effect on the comfort and happiness of the family in the home, on the successful upbringing of children, and on the health and safety of men and women workers.

She has known vaguely that government controls the fundamental question of war or peace; that it has to do with taxation; that it handles the mail, but that it also plays a large part in domestic and social life is a fact that she has only recently been learning.

With the rapid extension of the vote to women, especially the recent granting of suffrage to the women of New York State, there is a new and wide-spread interest in how government works, and a realization of the importance of good government and the dire peril of bad government. Women are conscientious; they are accepting their new responsibilities with much seriousness. They are eager to learn how to be good citizens. The war also has made everybody think. It has made government seem a more personal affair.

WHAT IS GOVERNMENT?

=Government is the management of those common affairs of a people which can be handled in a more effective and more economical way by a community acting together than by each individual acting for himself.=

In a sparsely settled community government is less apparent than in a city. Its functions are simple. Sometimes it does not seem very important. But as people congregate closer together it becomes more complicated and comes in closer and closer touch with the individual and family life.

For example, a man living in the country may rely on himself to protect his home and property; but in the city life and property are better protected by a police force than if each individual citizen had to provide his own protection. A woman in a pioneer country may bring up her child as she pleases. She may teach him when and how she chooses. But as population increases and government is established, a large part of the child’s training is dictated by it. He must go to school at a certain age; he must stay there so many hours a day; he must study certain things in a certain way. He cannot be put to work until he has reached a certain age. If he contracts a contagious disease the city takes control of the case.

Directly and indirectly the government in a city affects a woman’s life and interests in innumerable ways.

She is dependent on it for the light and sunshine that comes into her home. Laws concerning housing and building and tenement departments of government are very important to the health, comfort, and even decency of the family. She is dependent on government for the safety of the milk she has to feed her baby. The health of the family depends as much on the city department of health as on the mother’s care. It is of the utmost importance to the city mother that the streets be kept clean, because they are usually the only place that her children have in which to play. The street cleaning department, therefore, touches her closely. It is of vital moment to her that the streets be kept free of criminal influence, therefore the management of the police department is of great importance to her. If the town is run “wide open” it may mean that her husband’s wages may be dissipated. The way in which the excise law and the laws against gambling are enforced is a matter which deeply concerns her.

Continue reading Your Vote and How to Use It free in the Wunder reader →