WOMEN'S VOTE IN CHICAGO.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 92, 25 May 1914, Page 5

WOMEN'S VOTE IN CHICAGO.

11,000 SALOONS WILL CLOSE. Supporters of woman's suffrage are somewhat undecided how to interpret the result of the recent municipal elections in Chicago, but, although the seven women candidates for alderinanic honours suffered an overwhelming defeat, the effect of the new women's vote was shown in a most unmistakable mariner in the outskirts of Chicago and other parts of Illinois, wrote the Washington correspondent of the "Express." Approximately 150,000 out of 218,000 qualified women voters availed themselves of the franchise for the first time in Chicago, but it is clear that instead of solidly supporting any party, the new voters were about equally 'divided politically. The principal fight in the alderinanic contests was in the First Ward, .where "Bath House John" Couglilin, the notorious machine leader and "boss" of the'disreputable "Red Light district, was opposed by Miss Marion Drake, a Progressive. Miss Drake put up a splendid fight, and polled double the number of votes of Coughlin's male opponent two years ago. She succeeded in reducing that redoubtable politician's normal majority by about 600, but she could not fight against the '' machine,'' which automatically re-elected "Bath House John" by a majority of over 4,000. The do." - ling of the Progressive vote is, of course, accounted for by the introduction of the feminine voters, but it is clear that more women voted for Couglilin than for the representative of their own sex. Outside the city the women gained notable successes, and while the prohibitionists easily held their own in all "dry" districts, many "wet" districts were captured, and some 11,000 saloons will be closed in different parts of the State. Several score of women tax collectors, school officials, etc., were elected for the first time, and the returns available so far show that in proportion to the number of electors on the register the women's vote-was far heavier than that of the uvea's; :