100 Year Old Weblog: CLEAN POLITICS SAFE IN WOMAN'S HANDS. ~ Ten Years to See Nation-Wide Equal Sufferage Says Mayor Crittenden to Woman's Athletic Club.

October 30, 1909

CLEAN POLITICS SAFE

IN WOMAN'S HANDS.

MORE CAPABLE TO VOTE THAN

THE AVERAGE MAN.

Ten Years to See Nation-Wide Equal

Sufferage Says Mayor Critten-

den to Woman's Ath-

letic Club.

"I believe the average woman is more capable of clean, honest politics than the average man, and should vote on all local issues. The matter of keeping a city's life clean physically and morally should be entrusted to a woman's hands. It is my firm conviction that within the next ten years this country will have woman suffrage from one end to the other." These were some of the remarks of Mayor Crittenden before the regular business meeting of the Kansas City Women's Athletic club, in the gymnasium at 1013 Grand avenue, yesterday afternoon. The speech was made on the invitation of Mrs. S. E. Stranathan, president of the club.

"I know that a great many women, as well as the majority of men, are against a suffrage movement or any other movement which would lead the gentler sex into the ungentle game of politics. It has been customary for men to assume that a woman could never understand the tariff; that the value of ship subsidies and river navigation would floor her, and that she is far too impulsive to be of value as a factor in our national government. "These great issues, however, are not necessarily local. It might take time for the average matron or maid to grasp their details, but give them a few years of experience in town and city or perhaps state politics and it is my opinion that their vote would be as honest and as intelligent as any deposited in the box election day. "There was a time when I did not believe in women voting, but that was before I held public office and dealt with committees of both sexes." About seventy-five women, members of the club, heard Mayor Crittenden's remarks and applauded him at his conclusion.