er sense of civic responsibility among women; it has completely
demolished the old stock objections and has familiarized men with the
presence of women at the polls. Without question a higher level in the
conduct of city affairs has resulted. It may, however, well be
questioned as to whether Municipal Suffrage has not militated against
the full enfranchisement of women. Politicians have been annoyed by
interference with their schemes. Men have learned that women command
influence in politics, and the party machine has become hostile to
further extension of woman's opportunity and power to demand cleaner
morals and nobler standards.[277]

Judge S. S. King, Commissioner of Elections at Kansas City, has given
the suffrage question much thought, and he has gleaned from the
figures of his official records some interesting facts. Alluding to
the mooted question of what class of women vote he says:

The opponents of woman suffrage insist that the lower classes
freely exercise the franchise, while the higher classes generally
refrain from voting. As women in registering usually give their
vocation as "housekeeper" it is impossible to learn from that
record what particular ledge of the social strata they stand
upon, therefore, in order to locate them as to trades, business,
etc., I give them the positions occupied by their husbands and
fathers. I take the 17th voting precinct of Kansas City as a
typical one. It is about an average in voting population of white
and colored men and women and in the diversified industries. The
149 white women who registered in this precinct, as indicated by
the vocations of their husbands, fathers, etc., would be
classified thus:

The trades (all classes of skilled labor), 32; the professions,
26; merchants (all manner of dealers), 16; laborers (unskilled),
15; clerks, 10; public officers, 8; bankers and brokers, 7;
railroad employes, 7; salesmen, 5; contractors, 2; foremen, 2;
paymaster, 1; unclassified, 16. Thus, if the opponents of woman
suffrage use the term "lower classes" according to some
ill-defined rule of elite society, the example given above would
be a complete refutation. If by "lower classes" they mean the
immoral and dissolute, the refutation appears to be still more
complete, for the woman electorate in the 17th precinct is
particularly free from those elements.