Judging by the pages of the Oct. 29, 1920 edition of The National City News And Chula Vista Review—one of the progenitors of today’s The Star-News—it was just another ordinary week before election day.
There were letters to the editor exhorting voters to support Measure 16, an effort to provide money for public schools.
Another letter writer told voters that those in favor of making California a “wet” state amidst a nation of dry ones had a great deal of money to spend convincing people that temperance ought not be the law of the land.
“If all the voters come to the polls the law [18th Amendment] is safe and disloyalty to the constitution will be defeated,” wrote E.S. Hill.
An ad against Proposition 13 warned voters that it would: “Be against the best interests of the wife, it would make her responsible for half the debts. Decrease her share by extra probate proceedings. Pit husband against wife. Make divorce necessary in many cases. Necessitate marriage contracts. Place marriage on a commercial basis.”
Just another ordinary election cycle.
Except it wasn’t.
November 1920 was the first election in the country that allowed women to vote. I emphasize allowed because the notion that a woman had to be granted permission to engage in the fundamental human right of deciding their fate is ridiculous.
While the 19th Amendment had finally been ratified that preceding August, the fight for women to have a say was decades old. Given that this country claimed its independence in 1776, women’s suffrage was long overdue.
And yet there did not appear to be any mention of the historic milestone in the local paper. Surely there were women in National City and Chula Vista at that time, and surely they held opinions on many of the local and national issues the men did. But the paper did not see to encourage or celebrate the act of voting, for men or women.
Over the years the newspaper would have a spotty record with regard to getting out the vote. To be sure, there is a fine line between a civic duty and a privilege. Maybe pondering the difference is something you can do while standing in line or dropping off your ballot this coming election day.
Vote while you still can.
