George Albert Smith Part II

An old fashioned name for voting is the word franchise.  This quote from President George Albert  Smith seems just as significant today as it was when he spoke it in 1925!

Counsel to Women

"Women have been given a sacred franchise by God.  There are some women who are a little careless about their franchise.  I am proud to belong to a church which was first to extend the franchise to women.  It was the Prophet Joseph Smith who first turned the key for the emancipation  of women of this world, and it was your organization in whose interest it was turned, and I am sure you are grateful for that.  It was not a whim of his; it was an inspiration from the Lord.  It was necessary that those women who were to be the mothers of those who should build the country in a proper way should have something to do other than just to follow the behest of their husbands and their brothers.  Sometimes we find individuals in both sexes who seem to think that they can get along very well without the other group, but I want to say that the Lord intended that both of the sexes should have their part, and he didn't intend that womankind should be in slavery to man.  He did intend that there should be order, however, and so he has placed in every well ordered home, as the head of the family, the male member of the family--sometimes the inferior mind.  But in so doing, the Lord has not said that women should not be her husband's equal in  all good things, and in the blessings that would flow to  the sexes.  And so, my sisters, you have been given not only your franchise in the Church, but you have been given your franchise in the country, in the Union in which you live.  The Lord has given you these privileges.  Your vote counts just as much as the vote of your husband or your brother, and it should be just as intelligently used.  You ought to know what the laws of our country are just as far as possible, you ought to know what kind of men are placed before you, and in the full dignity of a daughter of the Lord you ought to go to the polls and cast your ballot in the interest of peace and good government. (RSM 12 [January 1925}: 10-11.)"  

(McIntosh, Robert and Susan., eds. The Teachings of George Albert Smith.  Bookcraft. 1996. pgs 115-6)