Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/114

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The Woman Socialist

To those amongst Socialists who are afraid of the results of the women's vote upon legislation let the results of the Finnish elections, which come to hand as I write, be pointed out. In Finland the women are free, having lately, by the will of the people, been granted the franchise; and, though this is the first time they have recorded their votes, "the general opinion in that country," says the special correspondent of a prominent newspaper, the Tribune, “is that they have perfectly acquitted themselves of their new rights and duties. The women showed greater interest, as a rule, than the men.”

To Socialists, an interesting point is the fact that, in spite of the women voters, who are supposed to be retrograde in politics, by far the largest number of party votes recorded were for the Socialist Party. The following is an analysis of the poll: Socialists, 293,021; Scveccomans, 212,235; Young Finns, 104,732; Swedish People’s Party, 97,712; Agrarians, 40,037. The desires of the women who took part in these elections were well expressed by one of their number, a lady of high birth and education, Madame Anni Furujelm, who said: “We don't