WOMEN: Candor

Last week Mayor Dever of Chicago addressed the Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs:

“I don’t want to say anything unpleasant. Let me remind you, however, that before you were given the franchise it was urged that woman suffrage would bring purity and cleanliness into public office.

“I am wondering if our hopes have been justified. I don’t think they have. It is not chargeable to women any more than to men, and I want it understood I favor the franchise to women as their natural right. . . . This is no time for empty compliments. If we cannot now have clean government in Illinois and Chicago with organizations like these great women’s clubs to help us, what can we do? . . . Woman with her franchise has proved a disappointment. She is not taking advantage of the opportunities placed in her hands. She has failed to come up to expectations.”