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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
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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 '
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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
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