i THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PQRTLAND, DECEMBER 15, 1912. OREGON WOMEN CAST THEIR FIRST VOTES IN CITY ELECTIONS Many Incidents Mark Exercise of Their Eight of S ufftage for First Time Keen Interest Is Taken in the Debut1 of Women Into Politics, f if if S! I 4 . it W i ill II II - 5 v. -; - - , hi r ' 0S2 S&e.cfczfer'ects'aJa fvs7Zc3Sz V? Pace. oft j4 t - J r V 72 x7 f if . ... ... I .. I .8 I... .1 .MMiMk(ir 5T 4 i ! 7 STy.'r. r SCmm? JT IN THE daf s lo i-ume. when the young and old gather together around the fire, and anecdotes and reminis cence are the order of th evening, the young children who gather at their mothers knee will learn to their as tonishment that women did not always rote. Then will arise a storm of those questions generally so apt yet hard t answer, and generally dodged by the paterfamilias, to the best of his ability. One question, however, will be ail' wered, there is every reason to ex pect, the question as to the date of the entry of women Into the arena of gov. eminent, and the mothers will be able to answer It. Soon. too. with the Inevitable advance of time will it come about that In the obituary notices one will read of some pioneer woman. "She was the first woman to vote In her city," or "She was the first woman to hold office.1 There have been held recently city elections In many of the large towns and clues of Oregon. Curiosity was rife to see how the women conducted themselves, what was the effect of their presence on the mere ly masculine element on the great questions of the day; In fact, every little move a poor woman made on this day of days was noted with avidity and seised upon as the basis for some re port or discussion. Long before suffrage had become an accomplished fact men were telling how women would make this city or that county dry; how the election booths would become my ladys bou dolr;- of the time they would take to vote and of their keen desire to run . for every office under the son. They watched with Interest, therefore, this first attempt. What did they find? Certainly they found that many towns went dry and that women did vote as a rule against candidates who had come out Into the open in favor of keeping It "wet." But they also fouad that women on elec- tion boards made for success. They were quicker at tabulating; they were neater with their figures, and they did not turn the polling booths Into dressing-rooms or prevent the men from acting in the main just as they always did, though it must be con fessed that more articles, especially feminine, were left behind. Certainly the men were pressed to continue smoking; they were even told the) could keep their hats on. but their gallantry proved adamant against such a misdemeanor of manners. That gallantry, too, urged them to bring flowers and candy, and it also had the effect of bringing; about a cleaner con dition at the polls. This much-needed Improvement, therefore, is one more feather In the cap of the woman voter. Additional Interest centered on 'the access of those women who ran for office and on the proportion of wo men who would turn out to vote. ' . Wenn as a Rule Defeated, Taken as a general rule, women who ran for the larger offices were de feated handsomely, though In some few cases the results were close notably, at Camas, where Dr. Louisa Wright came within one vote of success for the office of Mayor. In smaller of fices they met with quite their fair share of success. The anti-suffrage argument that ' vi 'J v.V..... '3 2 tfvz? fe22rZirexdyy women did not want the vote and iwu crushed, for the Dercntage of wo- the men. If not hiarher. In the mninrltv would, not vote 11 tiey had. the right men voting was as high aa that oil of town and cities. . As a rule, it was a woman who was first to vote, often through the gal lantry of the . men who stood aside, recognising this as an occasion which meant possibly something to them, but Infinitely more to the opposite sex. The - actual honor of being the first woman to vote was not won without a struggle. Some went many miles and waited many weary hours to lose no chance of being first In the field. Mrs, Q. P. Putnam made a break-neck journey from Connecticut to Bend in order to be at the polls and also to vote for her husband. In one or two instances, though, a woman was first . who did not even want the distinction. For instance, Mrs. F. E. Van Tassel, of Albany, was almost Indignant when she heard that no woman had voted before her. She said she wasn't hunting any publicity and did not want It. Miss Emma Sny der, too, of Aurora, just happened to be first, for she voted as a duty, not as a privilege. Oregon City seems to have had more powder puffs and mirrors left in the booths than any other city, while the woman candidate for Mayor, Mrs. Kate Newton, ran a bad second to Linn E. Jones. There Mrs. Dora Blanchard was the first woman to vote out of 406 from a possible 500, or a percentage of over SO. At Gladstone, Mrs. Minds, Church was j elected City Treasurer over a mere man by 25 votes. Mrs. Powell, Aged DO, Votes. It was at Gresham that, In all prob ability, occurred a feat never to be repeated in Oregon. Mrs. J. P. Powell, in her 90th year, voted side by side with her daughter, Mrs. Minnie Clana ham, who ran for the office of Treas urer, and her son, Earl Clanaham, not one of whom had ever voted before. At Redmond women had a great deal to do with the decisive defeat of ex Mayor Jones, who was ousted a short time ago by Governor West. Wasco men got their helpmeets to aid in quashing the proposed amendment to the city charter. At Shanlko Miss Annie Magee received ten complimentary votes for Mayor, while a woman lost by one vote In her race for Recorder. Three women and two men made up the election board at Island City, this be Ing a common occurrence. Miss Let . Luke, the popular Postmistress of Tal ent, managed to win her first munici pal fight as Recorder by 28 votes. Great enthusiasm was displayed at Dayton, one of the earliest of all the cities to hold an election after the passage of suffrage. In order to make assurance doubly sure, Mrs. Ella Har ris, wife of the ex-Mayor, awaited out side the polls for a considerable period of time to be the first woman ever to vote in Dayton. As was only fitting, a granddaughter of the first white woman to make her home In Astoria was the first woman to vote. This was Mrs. Bertha W. Holmes, the granddaughter of the late Mrs. Nancy Welch. Another case of special aptitude for the honor of first woman voter was) that at Warrenton of Mrs. 8. 8. Mu nel son, a survivor of the Whitman massa cre of '47 and widow of the late J. W. Mundson. for 30 years keeper of the lighthouse at Fort Canby and Point Adams. The only woman running for office) (Concluded, on Pace &Ji i