Miss Jane Addams in her recent address at Boston University gave several practical examples showing how the poorer women in Chicago find it a disadvantage not to have the right to vote.
"The Russian Jewish women are always grumbling because there are no covered markets in Chicago," said Miss Addams. "The Italian women are greatly distressed because there is no public washhouse. When advised to see the municipal authorities on the subject they complain that they can get no attention because they have no vote.
"Then there is the burning question of fire escapes. One woman with young children was very much troubled because there was no fire escape on her tenement and came to Hull House to ask us to put one on. We advised her to have her husband go to the alderman from her ward, who had scattered promises of fire escapes right and left before the election. She answered that her husband was away at work for months at a time and that because she had no vote the alderman wouldn't listen to her.
"So women are being brought to see the need of the ballot in a thousand ways, not through any theory, but as the result of their practical experience."
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