xt7bcc0ttn2b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7bcc0ttn2b/data/mets.xml Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs Kentucky Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs 1908 Relation of the public schools to Kentucky's commercial development, by Mrs. R.N. Roark.- Women and the schools, by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge.-The relation of the public schools to Kentucky's commercial development, by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge.
31 p. 24 cm. books English Harrodsburg, Ky.: The Democrat Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Breckinridge, Madeline McDowell, 1872-1920 Education -- Kentucky School Betterment for Kentucky, 1908 text School Betterment for Kentucky, 1908 1908 1908 2021 true xt7bcc0ttn2b section xt7bcc0ttn2b

KENTUCKY FEDERATION 0F YYDMEND CLUBS
SCHOOL DETTERMEDT FOR KENTUCKY

1
l
1
l
l

I ['1 Relation oi the Public Schools t0 Kentucky’s Commercial Development;

BY MRS. R. N. ROARK
Chairman oi Educational Committee K. P. W, C.

WOMEN AND THE SCHOOLS

BY MRS. DESHA BRECKINRIDGE
Chairman of Legislative Committee K. F. W. C.

The Relation of the Public Schools to Kentucky’s
Commercial Development '

BY MR5. DESHA BRECKINRIDCIE

Chairman of Legislative Committee K. F. W. C.

1908
PRESS OE THE DEMOCRAT

HARRODSBURG, KY.

LIBRARY
'ENWERSETY OF KENTUCKY

-ﬁ;

1'
l
s

.‘n —‘ '(vk—‘u;i~_.

\- w-;%1:.~:r-5r

At the morning session of the Kentucky Federation of
Women’s Clubs, held at Shelbyville, June 14th, 1907, the fol-
lowing resolution was offered by Mrs. Minor Simpson, of

Lexington.

“Whereas, The Women of Kentucky are deeply stirred
by the educational needs of the State, and deplore the illit-
eracy and badly equipped school buildings, the short average
term. the poorly paid teachers, and the alarming fact that
over half the children of school age are out of school; and

“Whereas, We believe the remedy for these conditions
lies in the voting of local taxes, in securing earnest and dis-
interested persons as school trustees and members of city
school boards, in the merit system for teachers, and in other
reforms, the means towards which must be found in an en-
lightened school electorate, and

“Whereas, We realize that all efforts of women in behalf
of schools are feeble compared to the power they would
exert if included in the school electorate; therefore

“Resolved, That, while not abating any of our efforts to
improve the schools by the indirect means now open to us,
we also exert ourselves to the utmost to secure the school
suffrage for Kentucky women, and here reafﬁrm the position
taken at former meetings of the Kr F. W. Clubs in asking
this suffrage of our State.”

After an amendment calling for educational qualiﬁca-
tions had been accepted by Mrs. Simpson, this resolution
was adopted by an overwhelming majority.

Since then the various Clubs over the State, composed
of over eight thousand representative women of Kentucky,
have endorsed the voice of the Shelbyvillc convention. To
this has been added our leading educators, and other men
of thought in the highest places of honor.

The attention of the General Assembly at Frankfort
has been most respectfully called to the resolution of the Ken-
tucky women, and its endorsement most earnestly requested,
to the end that by direct means, as well as indirect inﬂuence,
the women of the State can work for and secure a higher
standard for Kentucky when again the education roll call of
States must be answered. FRANCES SIMRALL RIKER,

President K. F. W. C.
HALDON HELM HARDIN,
Corresponding Secretary.
1

U:
a
“3
CG
“.4

RELATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO KEN/
TUCKY’S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

Address Made by Mrs. R. N. Ronrk at the Louisville Meeting of the Kentucky
State Development Association.

It is an especial privilege and honor to bring to you the
greetings of the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, an
organization of eight thousand women.

We are profoundly interested in the development of our
State, in the work you are doing. The preservation of our
forests, the enrichment of our soil, the improvement of our
farm products, the development of our mines, the building
of good roads, the opening up of new railways through
our hermit regions”, . the :in‘eroductibii of_ nmultiform manu-
facturing plants, : gill th‘ese interest ”us: We appreciate their
untold value to our_ State.-. , . ~;» . f z r a -’

In this ,ndustrla-I anclucommercial age, with its in-
tense activity, and intenser :competition; we want Kentucky
prepared to enter the éon’tésn 3.131011g «the States for com-
mercial and 1ndustr1a1supremacy—and we want her to win!
It 1s well to ask ourselves, what must we possess, what must
characterize us as a people, before we can hope for success ?
Is it not well directed industry,—skilled 1abor,——a ready
power of initiative, directed, controlled, driven by a certain
ideal of material success—an ambition that will triumph
over poverty, unfavorable environment and innate laziness?
History proves that ignorance and illiteracy are absolutely
incompatible with commercial and industrial achievement.
The average height of our intelligence, the average skill of
our labor, the average industry‘of our citizens, the average
standard of living of our entire people—these determine the
economic position of our State. A trained citizenry insures
wealth and all that civilization means.

The world has long known and paid tribute to the charm
and beauty of our cultured people. Our writers, artists and

Decrease in
Negro Illiteracy

Decrease in
White Illiteracy
from 1880 to
1900:

statesmen belong to the whole nation. We do well to be
proud of their achievements. I know of no State west of the
Alleghenies that has so enriched our national literature, no
State where the social life is so alluring. But while this is
true, we must remember that it is not the supreme height of
culture and genius that determines the greatness of a State
-—but the average training and intelligence of the whole

people.

During the past twenty—ﬁve years our towns and cities
have made commendable progress in the improvement of
their schools. Sentiment has changed. The 'public schools
are now the pride of our towns, and while much remains to
be done for their betterment, with the awakened interest now
noticeable in them, we can feel sure of their continued
growth. But we have all this time forgotten the rural
localities. The country school has been neglected and
ignored.

It is due to this criminal neglect that Kentucky ranks
thirty- seven in the der cenc‘ing .sC: ale :of :itliteracy, counting
the whole population, as compared with other States, or
forty-second whenwe estimate; only;t the white population.

The negroes ﬂock to the citiesano towns there and get
the advantage of some fsoft of school ing. It may be that
they appreciate what a"'€ittle elfacatitzn will do for them
more than do the ignorant Whites; the fact remains that
illiteracy among the negroes in'our State has decreased during
the past twenty years 30.3 per cent, while the ’white illiter-
acy has decreased but 9.1 per cent (general decrease 13.9 per
cent). This is not only true of Kentucky, but of every
Southern State.

per cent.
Virginia ........................................... 7.4
Mississippi ......................................... 8.6
North Carolina ..................................... 12.2
South Carolina ........................... . ......... 8.8
Georgia. . . . . ...................................... 11.3
Florida ............................................ 12.1
Tennessee ............................. . .......... . 13.6
Alabama ........................................... 10.2
Louisiana .......................................... 2.5

‘ _. ... unﬁt—mww
—--1~- '1‘" '

‘VWp—hm

Arkansas .......................................... 13.9

Texas .............................................. 7.8
per cent.
Virginia .......................................... 29.1 Decrease in Col-
Mississippi . . . .‘ ..................................... 26.1 ored Illiteracy
North Carolina ..................................... 29.8 from I880 to
South Carolina .................................... 25.7 1900;
Georgia ................... . ........................ 29.3
Florida ........................................... 32.2
Tennessee ......................................... 3O 1
Alabama ........................................ 23.2
Louisiana .......................................... 18
Arkansas .......................................... 32
Texas .............................................. 37.2

In every instance the decrease in the percentage of negro
illiteracy has been twice as great, and in several States even
greater, as has the decrease of white illiteracy.

We rejoice that we have this indication that the negro
is rising. We would in no way lessen his advantages.
Rather, we would multiply and improve his schools and give
him the practical training that will ﬁt him for his work,
such training as is given by the great leader of the negrq/
race at Tuskegee. The safety of the whites, the develop-
ment of our State, can be secured only by training every
child. black or white, to be a self-supporting producer.

To appreciate that the rural school is the pivoted point The Pivotal
of the whole question of State development, we must remem- Point.
her that we are a rural people. Over 87.5 per cent. of our
entire school population lives in the country and, if the
great majority of these children are trained at all, the coun-
try schools must do it. If we can once get the 600,000 coun-
try children enrolled in our schools, get them to attend reg-
ularly and furnish them trained teachers, good buildings and
all equipment necessary for a school, it will put Kentucky
a half century ahead and do more to lift up the State than
anything else.

We have to face the painful fact that less than half our
school population attend school; that many of our country
schools are worthless; that the average pay of $32.00 does not

always secure trained, competent teachers. The problem

5.1m

'i‘a.a».:.< “'A. ;. I,

m... -_____...__.‘__W_a-V—w-am.. -;

The School Im-
provement
League.

would be easier if these neglected people always wanted good
schools, if they wanted their children trained. We must not
only improve the schools—but in some instances we must
actually create a desire for them and an interest in them. In
the majority of instances, however, people are hungry for an
education and parents are glad to make any sacriﬁce to se-
cure the beneﬁt of a good school for their children. But it
requires a sympathetic imagination or actual observation to
realize the helplessness of our illiterate poor for self-eleva-
tion. Dr. Scovell may send out his bulletins that tell how to
enrich the soil, what crops pay, best, how to improve the
trees and stock, but these people get no beneﬁt from them.
They can not read. Their loss is the State’s loss.

The Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs realizes
that the country school is the strategic point in this battle
against illiteracy. Following the example of the Southern
States, we are forming School Improvement Leagues. These
are organizations of trustees, patrons and children for the
sole object of bettering the grounds, buildings and equip-
ment of the schools and quickening an interest in education.
Already these leagues have accomplished great good in our

State. In several counties entertainments have been given

and goodly sums realized for libraries and equipment. Play
grounds have been laid out, trees planted, yards cleaned up,
pictures and books secured, and a fair beginning made for
bettering the conditions of a number of rural schools. The
work has been started in thirty-four counties. If we can once
get the people organized and get them to feel a personal re-
sponsibility for their School, get them to actually do some-
thing for its betterment, they will begin to take pride in it
and it will soon become the center of life of the community.

The next step will be to vote a local tax to still further
improve it. We are not greatly addicted to voting taxes in
our State, and our attitude on this question must change if
we would see Kentucky prosper. More than 69 per cent. of
all funds raised for education in the United States is raised
by local tax. In Massachusetts more than 95 per cent. is
thus raised. 1

Kentucky is the second wealthiest State in the . South,
second only to Texas, yet in the matter of local tax she is far

behind the poorer States south of us. In Virginia 47 per
cent. of the school fund comes from local tax, while in Tenn-
essee it is 80 per cent. Our State is liberal in her State per
capita; it may be too liberal. as it seems in the more prosper-
ous localities to deaden the nerve of local effort.

Regarded solely as an economic measure, it is found that
the liberal spending of money on the rural schools pays.
During the past six years in North Carolina the rural school
property has increased in value 71.2—while in the towns the
records show the marvelous increase of 219.2 per cent. This
has had its effect on all the property in these localities.
Better school houses have increased trade. Better schools
have increased the material needs of the people.
What in an ignorant community is a visionary dream of
luxury, becomes a necessity where the community has come
in touch with the broadeninginﬂuences of educational advan-
tages. The story of the wonderful quickening of trade and
industry in the Southland, due to the educational revival,
remains to be written. In North Carolina during the past
year four hundred and thirty-three new country school
houses have been put upaand in the entire South,—not
counting Kentucky,—over 2,500 new rural schools. In sev-
eral of the States, as in North Carolina, these have been
planned by the best architects and have been approved by
the State Superintendent. Material prosperity follows a
liberal and wise expenditure for schools.

To receive the best returns for money invested, we be-
lieve we will do well to imitate the Southern States and
lessen the number of our school districts. Tennessee has re-
cently reduced the number of her rural schools six hundred
and thirty, but increased her teaching force for them two
hundred. This gives these consolidated rural schools the
advantage of several grades; enables them to have, in place
of a number of mediocre buildings, one commodious and well
equipped; to employ trained teachers and put them on a par
with the urban schoOls. The cost of carrying the pupils to
and from school under safe guidance has been found to be so
small as not to be appreciable, while the beneﬁt of a well
equipped graded school is incalculable. In these consolidated
rural schools the elements of agriculture and manual train-

Economic Re-
sults in Other
Southern States.

Consolidate Dis-
tricts.

Kentucky Must
Help Herself.

ing are being introduced. Children are trained to skill in
the doing of useful things. After they complete the rural
school course they can pass up to the County High School
and on to the University. A number will do this. The
great majority will stop with the high school course, or even
with the rural school, but they will have received such a
training along the practical lines that they are ﬁtted to go
on the farm and make a success of it and thus develop our
State.

The consolidation of rural schools and the system of
County Agricultural High Schools are comparatively new in
the South.

Our sister States in the South have had liberal ﬁnancial
aid from the'Southern Educational Board, and with this
money they have put hundreds of speakers in the ﬁeld, have
scattered thousands of pages of facts and ﬁgures broadcast,
and have aroused and invigorated atrophied ambitions, and
undeveloped public sentiment until the whole Southland is
aﬂame with the desire and, purpose to make public schools
reach all and be worthy of all.

But Kentucky has not received one cent of money,
hardly one word of encouragement, from outside her borders
—nor does she need these. Kentuckians can carry their own
burdens if once aroused to the consciousness that they have
burdens to carry. The Educational Improvement Commis-
sion carried out a brilliant and successful campaign for the
establishment of State Normal schools, drawing its funds
from the slender pockets of public school teachers. The
Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs has undertaken a
campaign for the betterment of school houses and grounds—
through the School Improvement Leagues—depending, so
far, for its funds on the club women of the State. The
marked and immediate results of these eﬁorts, even with the
meagre funds used, prove clearly that public sentiment in
Kentucky only awaits the impulse of organization to move
with irresistable momentum along all lines of educational
advancement, and that our State,——the second richest Com-
monwealth in the South,—-does not need to stand on the
highway, jostled and pushed by the quick-step of States,
holding out her hands, a suppliant for alien help. If we

could but touch the nerve of sympathy, money for the for-
warding of this work of arousing public thought and feeling
to the level of action would be generously contributed.

Is not the honor of our State so dear to us that we will
subordinate every other interest to this paramount issue?

The chains of illiteracy bind the humble, unskilled toil-
ers to drudgery and degradation with fetters that only an
aroused people . can break. In thirty—eight counties of our
State, as the men march up to the ballot box on election day,
every fourth man has to look at the emblem at the top of his
ticket to know how to stamp his ballot. Surely a realization
of the ignominy of this enslavement of free born, white Ken-
tuckians will ﬁre us to action. The loss to our State of
wisely directed industry, of productive skill due to our past
neglect of the rural schools cannot be estimated. Since the
great commercial currents are rapidly shifting their course
from the East to the South and West, and undreamed-of op-
portunities for material development are rapidly coming our
way—opportunities that will be multiplied many times when
the Panama Canal is completed,—we must see to it that the
children of Kentucky are ﬁtted to do their part in the
world’s work.

ToIndict aWhole
Sex.

Women and the Schools.

Address Made by Mrs. Deslia Breckinridge at Winchester Meeting of Kentucky
Educational Association.

I am not at, all»sure that the subject I have chosen,
“Women and the Schools,” is an important one. It seems to
me that perhaps the subject that ought to be discussed in
Kentucky is “Men and the Schools.” Men are responsible
for the Schools we have and for the schools we have not.
They alone have the power to improve the school laws and
through them to better the‘condition of the schools. So long
as women are denied all participation in school management,
it seems more or less futile to discuss the subject of women
and the schools. Yet the school men have invited ﬁve of us
womenfolk here to-night to speak on some phase of the sub-
ject, “Women and the Schools.” They seem to have come to
the conclusion that something is to be gained by getting
women and the schools together. And I admit that I am
very hopeful that this discussion may result in advantage
both to women and the schools—that after all my subject
may turn out to be important.

I do not mean to rehearse here the dreary ﬁgures that
proclaim Kentucky’s deplorable educational status. The
scandal has gone abroad—we all know more of it than we
like to know. It has been said that it is impossible to indict
a whole people—that where we ﬁnd‘a whole community, or
in a State that seems indictable, there is always some excuse
or justiﬁcation for the situation. But it occurs to me that it
may be possible to indict a whole sex, and if in Kentucky we
have to indict one sex or the other for our educational con-
ditions, we shall have to indict the male sex. If our public
school system has failed to reach our people, it is to the men
of Kentucky we must go for explanation, to the sex which
writes school laws, establishes schools and, as a rule, super-

intends them. It is true that women are allowed to teach in
the schools, once established; in fact, over 75 per cent. of our
Kentucky public school teachers now are women; but it is
self-evident that we cannot hold these women responsible for
the illiteracy in Kentucky—we might rather hold them re-
sponsible for the literacy! Probably every one of us in this
audience to- night who knows how to read and write was
taught to do so by a woman. Of course it is not quite fair
to say that the men of Kentucky are responsible for its illit-
eracy and the women for such literacy as exists But I main-
tain that the general statement is perfectly fair; that we
must now hold the men, who have heretofore felt themselves
perfectly sufﬁcient to the management of school affairs in
Kentucky, responsible for the fact that Kentucky, instead of
leading the educational procession, now brings up a sorry
rear.

In the early part of her history, Kentucky led the way,
educationally, as in other respects. The ﬁrst State carved
from the western territory, the first State to grant manhood
suffrage, her constitution was a model for the constitutions
of the other Western States. For over half a century, from
the days of the Kentucky Resolutions, through the days of
the Missouri Compromise, Kentucky’s statesmen molded
national policies. Kentucky founded the ﬁrst library and the
ﬁrst college west of the Alleghanies, and it was in this early
half of her history, when she led the way educationally, that
Kentucky granted the ﬁrst school suffrage to women, in the
year 1838. In the nearly three quarters of a century since,
she has granted little more; one grant to women of cities of
the second class was afterwards rescinded. In the meantime
thirty other States and Territories have granted school suf-
frage to women, most of them on equal terms with the school
suffrage to men; and while Kentucky has stood still in the
matter of school suffrage, she has also stood still in the edu-
cational world; and the other States have gone forward

I think it will be proﬁtable for us to comparefjbriefly the
educational status in Kentucky with the educational status
in the States which have granted school suffrage to women.
Seven of these lie east of Ohio; the rest are included in the
North Central and Western Divisions—the great Northwest-

When Kentucky
Led the Way.

Kentucky Com-
pared With
States Having
School Suffrage
for Women.

SpeciﬁcCompairi—
sons.

ern territory and part of the Spanish domain. I have put
together some ﬁgures comparing Kentucky with the North
Central and Western Divisions, in which are found the great
body of States having school suffrage for women. I have in
each case compared Kentucky with the State having school
suffrage for women that made the best showing, and I want
to say that I could have proved my point just as well if I had
compared Kentucky with the State having the worst show-
ing, so far is she below the average; naturally, however, I
have taken the most striking ﬁgures. However, I do not be-
lieve the ﬁgures I have gotten, which are merely the ones I
could get. with the least difﬁculty, prove the case nearly as

well as it might be proven. The truth of the matter is that

any of the multitudinous sets of educational statistics that

may be adduced would prove it. The ﬁgures I have touch
upon illiteracy, length of school term, amount of schOoling

given each child of school age, per capita expended for edu-
cational purposes, and teachers’ salaries. These seem to me

the most indicative features in the educational situation of
any State.

Kentucky compared with States of North Central and
Western Division (Census of 1900):
Per cent. of illiteracy of total population 10 years of age
and over: Kentucky, 16.5; Nebraska, 2.3. Native white 10
years of age and over: Kentucky, 12.8; Washington, 5.
Expended for schools, per capita of total population
(1903-4): Kentucky, $1.19; Washington, $6.96.
Average number of days schools are kept: Kentucky,
100; Minnesota, 169.
Average number of days’ schooling of every child be-
tween 5 and 18 years: Kentucky, 40.3; Colorado, 103.3.
Days of schooling received by each pupil enrolled: Ken-
tucky, 55.6; Washington, 116.9.
Average wages paid to teachers: Kentucky—Women,
$39.18; men, $50.90. Nevada—Women, $63.39; men, $103.47.
Some more speciﬁc comparisons might bring the thing
even more convincingly to our consciousness. Local interest
in the schools, educational status in fact, may be measured
with some accuracy by the amount of local taxation. In the
State of Michigan, where the women vote on school matters
12

on equal terms with men, the amount spent on education per
capita based on average attendance is $23.60; in Kentucky it
is 8.59. In Michigan more than 70 per cent. of all the money
raised for educational purposes is raised by local taxation; in
Kentucky only a little over 32 per cent. is so raised. In
Wyoming, where two generations of women have voted on
equal terms with men in all elections from school to presiden-
tial, the whole cost of the public schools is raised by local
taxes, the State taX being devoted to the State University.
Think what a university we might have in Kentucky were
this the case here! In some tables of adult illiteracy we ﬁnd
Kentucky with over 14 per cent. of illiteracy and Wyoming
with less than 1 per cent. Inone table of illiteracy among
children we ﬁnd Wyoming the ﬁrst of all the States and Ter-
ritories of the Union, whileKentucky is forty-second.

In all Kentucky/counties we pay a considerable school
tax when we pay our State taxes. In pauper counties more
than is paid comes back; in the wealthiest counties a part of
of it comes back; but in no county is the State per capita so
large that it should not be supplemented by:a local tax.

Now, in my own county'of Fayette, where the total as-
sessment for the year 1906 was considerably over $34,000,-
000, and ’where the amount raised in county taxes for all
other purposes was $186,733.31, there was raised for school
purposes in the county ius‘t $2,309.49. In a county of the
wealth of Fayette “that seems to me to indicate a condition
of almost complete apathy as to our rural public schools.
Some of our white districts pay as low a salary to teachers as
$26.48 a month. While ﬁve white districts and one colored one
have a longer term than the State law requires; they get it
by making a good bargain with the teacher; not a single one
supplements the salary from its own pocket. Of more than
2,600 children in our county schools this year, but 23 pupils,
I am informed, were graduated, less than 1 per cent. And
graduation, means only that they have completed the work of
the ﬁfth grade of our city schools in Lexington. While the
white children in the city of Lexington are offered two years
of kindergarten, eight years in the common school and four
years in the high school, with nine months to the year, the
county children are offered at best—~and about 1 per cent. of

Fayette County.

;;
l
f
l
.
l

Cause and Effect.

Testimony of
Superintendents
of Education.

them receive this m/uchwﬁve years of schooling. 1f this is
true of a Blue Grass county, where, as might be shown, con-
ditions are rather unusually good, what sort of comparison
would our average Kentucky county make?

To return to our general comparison, I am told that in
a recent table of illiteracy, every State having school suf—
frage, for women, with a single exception—Pennsylvania—
stood above every State that did not have school suffrage. ,

Now I do not say that these conditions in these numer-
ous States are the result alone of school suffrage for women,
or even that they are neg—the result of that. Mrs. Roark
has suggested that it may be simply that school suffrage for
women is one of the natural results of general enlighten-
ment, instead of school suffrage ior women being the cause
and general enlighenment the effect. But I do call your at-
tention to the fact that, whether cause or effect, educational
advance and school suffrage for women go hand in hand from
Massachusetts to Washington; that when Kentucky was blaz-

ing the way for the West educationally, she was blazing the

way in school suffrage for women; and as the West has come
to the front educationally, leaving Kentucky behind, she
has also gone to the front in granting school suffrage to
women. Moreover the recurrence of these two things hap-
pens too frequently for it to be mere coincidence, and I think
anyone who studies the situation must grant, from the ﬁg-
ures merely, that school suffrage for women has been a dis-
tinct factor everywhere in improving educational conditions.

Next to the testimony of facts, perhaps the testimony
of men most intimately connected with educational affairs
in each State, is the most convincing evidence. I have re-
cently examined letters from twenty-one State Superinten-
dents or commissioners of Education, whatever the title of
the executive educational ofﬁcer of the State may be, in re-
gard to this subject. A letter was sent out containing cer-
tain questions. It was intended that the replies to the ﬁrst
might furnish an answer to some of the foolish objections
brought to school suffrage for women. The school superin-
tendents were asked, “Do‘the bad and ignorant women vote
in greater numbers than the good and intelligent?” “Does
the school suffrage make women unwomanly?” “Does it
14

,. —-——~--,

4...”. >514...
#4.”- mi,

compel them to neglect their duties as wives and mothers?”
Then they were asked if it had any good or bad results, and
the crucial question, the one which allowed them to really
give some indication of the working of the law, was this:
“When there is a contested election with any important is-
sue involving the interests of the shool, do the women vote
in any considerable numbers, and can you give any instances?”
Four of the replies were from New England, three from New
York, New Jersey and Delaware, and the rest from Ohio and
the States west of her. The least encouraging replies natur-
ally come from the “effete East,” so we will take them up
ﬁrst.

Of all the letters, that from'the superintendent of New
Hampshire is the most non-committal. He does not know
whether the bad and ignorant women outweigh the others,
or whether women are forced to neglect their home duties,
and when he is asked if they are made unwomanly by it, he
says he “only knows one woman well enough to tell—his wife
ﬂ-and that she does not Vote.” Think of the narrowness of
that man’s circle of feminine acquaintances; that in all the
State of New Hampshire he should know but one woman
well enough to know whether or not she has been made un-
womanly by a great State movement! He apparently does
not know whether there have been any good results or bad

-ones, but thinks if there are any they are evenly balanced.

Why he thinks that, I am sure I cannot tell. But when asked
if women vote in any considerable numbers when an impor-
tant issue is envolved, he says, “Frequently, and usually
carry the issue to the advantage of the schools, from my
point of view”. So he does know one thing besides his wife,
and it is a thing that it seems to me might almost destroy
that even balance of results. The Vermont superintendent
is nearly as non-committal. He does not even tell us wheth-
er or not his wife votes, and I should like to know. But on
one question he speaks positively,—when asked if the bad
and ignorant women vote in greater numbers than the good,
he says emphatically that there are no bad or ignorant
women in Vermont. This is reassuring,'for there must be
some ignorant men in Vermont, judging by the information
displayed by the school superintendent on a subject with
15

The Effete East.

which we might expect him to be conversant.

Connecticut answers the questions as we would have her
answer them, but thinks a larger amount of suﬂrage would
stimluate the women to more interest in the schools.

Massachusetts answers as we would have her, and says
that better persons are chosen to school boards because of
women’s votes, and that “in two contested elections recently
women have come out in large numbers and in both case