Scranton Opera House and Bertha's Millinery Store
Culture; Music; Business; Female Entrepreneurship; German-American Women
A scrapbook page containing two images: Bertha and her business partner in front of their millinery shop in Scranton, Iowa; Scranton's Opera house
Iowa Women's Archive, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City
1910s
Photograph
English
Box #5, Bertha Hedges papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City
1910s; Iowa; Scranton; Greene County
<em>Waverly Phoenix</em>: The Women's Suffrage Amendment
1916 Women's Suffrage Amendment
The Women's Suffrage Amendment
The referendum on women's suffrage will take place together with the June 5th primaries, in which voters will nominate candidates for state and county offices for the later November election. Should the measure be approved, the state constitution will be amended to grant suffrage to all women in Iowa. We can easily surmise why such an important referendum was not postponed until the November election. In November, when the presidential election takes place, nearly the entire state will turn out to vote. During a primary, however, only a fraction of voters, even a small fraction, will turn out at the polls, and since all friends of women's suffrage will vote, the amendment will pass much more easily than with a high voter turnout. The suffragists in the state legislature have slyly brought this referendum before voters during a primary election rather than a general election. Such an important matter should have been placed on the ballot when nearly every eligible voter would go to the polls. But no, that didn't suit the all-powerful yes-men and suffragettes who completely dominated the last state legislature, and so the matter was scheduled to come to a vote at a time when there is certain to be a low voter turnout, anything but a full turnout that might be a representative measure of opinion among all citizens.
Next year's Prohibition referendum will likely depend on the result of the women's suffrage vote. This second referendum will decide whether the current Prohibition nonsense shall become constitutional, i.e., whether we'll be rid of temperance or not. Without women's suffrage, there is at least the possibility of a victory for personal liberty; with women's suffrage, absolutely not. For this reason, it would be quite useful if the liberals and opponents of the political equality of the sexes would rouse themselves more often than they have up to this point, if the failure of this referendum is of any concern to them at all. They have all the more reason to do so, since the suffrage camp has the more favorable prospects at the moment. The majority of candidates for governor, even the so-called Democrat, Mr. Meredith, have declared their support for women's suffrage, and the majority of aspirants for state offices have done the same. The petticoat supporters, moreover, are conducting a much more vigorous campaign, both in the open and quietly, than the opposing side, which has hardly lifted a finger, with the exception of a few sensible women who are opposed to being dragged into politics.
There are only a few weeks left until June 5th. If public momentum against the proposed women's regime is to develop, then it's time to act. If there is to be any hope of victory over the suffragists, then we must work towards generating the largest turnout possible, for therein lies apparently the only chance of heading off the coming storm. The apathy of the masses towards primaries must be overcome, so that as many citizens as possible, not only the proponents of women's suffrage, make their way to the ballot box.
(Iowa Reform.)
Waverly Phoenix
17 May 1916
waverly-suffrage.jpg
Waverly