Document 29: “A Colorado Voter’s View,” The Anti-Suffragist (March 1909), p. 4.

Document 29: “A Colorado Voter’s View,” The Anti-Suffragist (March 1909), p. 4.

Introduction

       The 1893 victory for woman suffrage in Colorado focused the attention of both pro- and anti-suffragists on the State. The fierce campaigning that led up to the achievement of national woman suffrage in 1920 often referred to the case of Colorado. Political developments in the state were credited or blamed on women voters, to build an argument either for or against female enfranchisement.

       This letter to the editor of The Anti-Suffragist, the journal of a leading anti-suffrage organization the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, indicates how the case of Colorado was used in such arguments.

A COLORADO VOTER’S VIEW.

(Extract from a letter to one of the editors.)

       “I am much amused to see the women of New York going in for female suffrage. I have been voting for the last five years, and loathe it--and most of the decent women out here do, I think. But as all the decent votes are needed, off I go to the polls, much against my will. I fail to see the purifying effects of the female vote out here, and would like to tell the suffragists so.”