In brief, then, the voting privilege granted to women, and particularly to business women, would be a detriment to the women, and it would not be of sufficient value to the government to outweigh the loss to them. IV SOME PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION ELLEN MUDGE BURRILL _Miss Ellen Mudge Burrill, educated in the Lynn public schools, graduated from the Lynn Classical High School; now in the employ of the Commonwealth as Cashier in the Sergeant-at-Arms Department; Supervisor in the First Universalist Sunday School of Lynn; a member of the Council of the Lynn Historical Society; author of the "State House Guide Book," "Essex Trust Company of Lynn" (the successor of the Lynn Mechanics Bank,) "The Burrill Family of Lynn During the Colonial and Provincial Periods," and of "Our Church and the People Who Made Her," being a history of The First Universalist Parish, Lynn._ _J. A. H._ If suffrage were a natural right, then women should have it, and at once, but it is not like the right to have person and property protected, which every man, woman and child already possesses. It is not a natural right, but a means of government, and therefore a matter of expediency. The question is, will government by the votes of men and women together produce better results than by men alone? Suffrage means more than casting a ballot; if it means anything effectual, it means entering the field of politics. Had the proposed amendment been ratified, it would have become the duty of all women to vote systematically in all primary and regular elections. Would they have done it in justifiable numbers? Look at Public Document No. 43, giving the number of assessed polls and registered voters for the Massachusetts State election of 1914: _Assessed Polls_ 1,019,063 _Registered Voters_ 610,667 _Persons Voting_ 466,360 Also for the City and Town elections of 1914: _Assessed Polls, Male_ 1,229,641 _Registered Voters, Male_ 740,871 _Males Who Voted_ 532,241 It is evident from these figures that a larger proportion of men should fulfill their duty to the State. Government being one means to the end, of making better conditions, the indifference of so many thousand is beyond comprehension, and is a serious menace to the Commonwealth. It was Governor Curtis Guild who said: "I base my anti-suffrage position on the fact that our great failures in legislation are caused not so much by a vicious element among the voters, as by abstention from voting and emotional voting."