You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday November 23, 1914
From The Washington Herald: Ida Husted Harper Debates New York Times
In a recent editorial, The New York Times gave this dire warning should the nation's women be granted the right to vote:
"If they cram the vote down the throats of a large part of the United States which does not want it and is even hostile to it, the showing on the next election day will be a body blow to the influence and standing of women in politics."
In an article in yesterday's
Washington Herald, Ida Husted Harper put this argument neatly to rest. She described recent conventions held in the south, well-attended by suffragists, and she further pointed to the support of women's suffrage voiced by American Federation of Labor. The A. F. of L. has supported woman's suffrage since 1890.
From The Washington Herald, November 22, 1914:
Women of Southern States Ask Ballot
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GOTHAM PAPER DENIES THEY WANT TO VOTE
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Antis Inaccurate, Says Opponent
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BY IDA HUSTED HARPER.
An amusing editorial appeared last week in the only paper in New York City actively opposed to woman suffrage, entitled, "Forcing Women to Vote," sympathizing with the Southern women's opposition to a Federal amendment and saying of the Northern women who favor it: "If they cram the vote down the throats of a large part of the United States which does not want it and is even hostile to it, the showing on the next election day will be a body blow to the influence and standing of women in politics."
The suffragists are quite willing to take the chances of a body blow by southern women not using the ballot when it is placed in their hands, and the most amusing thing about the editorial was its being written at the very moment when the Southern States Woman Suffrage Association was holding a big convention in Chattanooga. It was welcomed by the mayor and president of the chamber of commerce, each speaking in favor; the News of that city endorsed the movement in a leading editorial and issued a ten-page suffrage supplement and other papers devoted many columns to the meetings.
People Seemed Enthusiastic.
The audiences overflowed from the Lyric Theater into the chamber of commerce and filled the streets outside. The handsomest homes in the city were opened to the delegates, who came from every Southern State, and the keynote of the convention was sounded by Miss Kate Gordon, of New Orleans, in her president's address:
The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference has for its immediate object to make the Democratic party declare itself in favor of votes for women in its next national platform.
She referred to the action of President Wilson and the Democratic caucus in "disposing of their responsibility by declaring the suffrage to be a State and not a Federal right," and asked:
In the name of the women of fifteen Southern States * * * why is this truth not applied at home, but only proclaimed in the halls of Congress?
Some of the delegates were in favor of working for both Federal and State amendments, notably Miss Laura Clay, of Kentucky, and Miss Mary Johnston, of Virginia, but there was a general endorsement of Miss Gordon's recommendation to "adopt a policy of concentration on the Democratic party to make it declare itself." "This," she said, "would cause a veritable suffrage landslide in the south within the next five or six years."
`
All States Working.
Active working was reported in all the Southern States and some of them shown to be well organized, the Kentucky association, for instance, having 10,600 members. Its State Federation of Women's Clubs is also practically a suffrage association and was primarily responsible for obtaining the school franchise.
Politics, it is said, makes strange bedfellows and so the woman suffrage movement brings about odd combinations. Northern women are constantly told that none of their spectacular, sensational measures would be countenanced by those of the South, who would make their contest for the ballot in the most quiet, dignified, conventional manner: and yet at the first exclusively Southern convention the two guests of honor were the leading "militants" of Great Britain and the United States, Christabel Pankhurst and Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, and no women ever received greater ovations.
The Chattanooga Times, in describing the effect of Miss Pankhurst's morning speech, said:
Aroused to frantic fervor, the line of delegates marched around the hall singing strains of "Dixie," and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," with cheers of "Hurrah for Virginia," "Hurrah for Louisiana," and so on.
All of these reports should be read in connection with the New York Times editorial pointing out to the Northern women the great danger of "cramming the vote down the throats" of their Southern sisters! In addition to the three or four suffrage papers already published in the south, this conference arranged to establish its own official organ with Miss Gordon as editor. It also decided to focus its energies on carrying one State for suffrage during the next two years, which would probably be Alabama. This will be interesting news to Representative Heflin.
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Convention Not Harmonious.
The convention of the National Suffrage Association in Nashville was not so harmonious, and the daily reports of its proceedings offer a striking contrast to those of a few years ago and reaching back through four decades. Secret caucuses lasting into the small hours of the morning to fix up "slates," and hotly contested "primaries" have a strange sound to those who remember the days of an informal ballot with no electioneering and every delegate free to vote as she pleased and the nominations so nearly unanimous that the secretary was requested to cast the vote of the convention.
The president of the Anti-Suffrage Association draws a wholly erroneous conclusion, however, when she says in speaking of the differences of opinion: "They create a confusion which, in its final results, will wreck an altogether futile propaganda." They will no more wreck suffrage than the everlasting rows among the adherents of football and basket-ball will put an end to those two national games; or than the perennial conflict between the reform Democrats and Tammany will destroy their party or than the terrific combat which rent the Republican party two years ago will annihilate that organization. The splinters flew in the Anti-Suffrage Association not long since and some of the members "bolted," but it didn't make much noise because this is a comparatively small body. It is only when a movement nears success that a scramble begins to hod the offices and dictate the policies.
War of Words Don Quixotic.
The war of words at the Nashville convention over what measure should be championed at the approaching session of congress had more than a slight suggestion of Don Quixote. It will be interesting to watch the effect on congress of the "blacklisting" of its members by one flank of the suffrage forces, and by the other the fight on the party that would inevitably be returned to power. Its receptiveness will depend entirely on the pressure which is brought to bear by the women of those eleven States where they are enfranchised. The national association made no effort to show its influence by punishing those whom it stigmatized by "blacklisting."
The Congressional Union says with pride that it is responsible for the reduced Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, but, if so, then it must also be held responsible for the increased majority in the Senate. The suffragists will enter upon their Congressional work under these handicaps which did not exist last session, and their efforts will be much weakened by championing two measures.
Antis Inaccurate.
The most conspicuous feature of anti-suffrage literature next to its deliberate inaccuracy is lack of information. The official letter sent out last week by the Pennsylvania association began: "In the introduction to the fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage, copyrighted in 1902, Miss Elizabeth Cady Stanton says;" and throughout reference is made to "Miss" Stanton.
The death of Mrs. Stanton at the age of eighty-seven occurred in 1912 and she had no part in writing this volume. It was prepared by Miss Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper and the introduction was written by the latter, who is prepared to defend any challenge of its statement.
The object of this especial anti-suffrage article is to show that women now have all the legal and civil rights that men possess. If this were true, but it is not anywhere near true, they should still demand political rights, the safeguard of all the others.
It also attempts to show that no more laws are needed for the protection of women and children or the welfare of society, a statement which it would be a waste of time to consider. The tenor of all the literature and speeches of the women's branch of the anti-suffragists is reactionary to the extreme, entirely without the constructive quality and always derogatory to woman.
Labor Is with Them.
The convention of the America Federation of Labor, which has a membership of over 2,000,000, gives much consideration to the cause of the coal miners' strike in Colorado, but it has failed to enumerate woman suffrage as one of them. This will be a disappointment to the Eastern "antis," who have insisted that this is the very root of the strike. They will also disapprove of the plank in the federation's platform demanding the enfranchisement of women after they themselves have declared repeatedly that the working woman does not need the vote.
In a speech to the convention President Gompers uttered a noteworthy sentiment which applies as much to women striving for the vote as to workingmen seeking justice.
[He said:]
I believe in quiet and order...and I will go to as great lengths as any man in promoting peace and tranquility, but there comes a time in labor when to remain in tranquility is to rivet the chains of slavery and oppression.
In the smoke of so many battles a very gratifying victory for women has attracted little attention-the granting of parish suffrage by the New York diocese of the Episcopal Church at its 131st annual convention. A special committee of clergymen and laymen recommended that women should be admitted to an equal share in church management; the resolution was presented by Bishop Greer and strongly advocated by Dr. William T. Manning, rector of Trinity Church. He called attention to the fact that the church in Connecticut and other states granted this right, and said he favored it not only in the interest of women, but for the credit of New York. It was carried almost unanimously.
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New York Women Ask Vote.
The most important happening of the week in its bearing on political suffrage for women was the adoption of a resolution in its favor by the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs at its convention in Binghamton. The opposition was led by Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, and the vote stood 227 ayes, 72 noes-more than three to one. Every "anti" who wished to speak was permitted to do so, and Mrs. Dodge thanked the officers for fair treatment, so they cannot raise the usual cry of "gag rule," and "packed convention." This is the largest of the State federations and its action following immediately a similar one by that of Pennsylvania ought to be accepted as a convincing answer to the continued assertion of the "antis" that they represent 90 per cent of the women.
Only a few years ago Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, was considered one of the most backward States in the woman suffrage movement. Now its State convention is in session at Scranton with delegates from all of the sixty-seven counties overflowing the largest hotel and no theaters or halls large enough for the public meetings. One legislature has declared for the submission of an amendment; the one of next winter will be Republican and that party is pledged to it, so a campaign in this great State is assured.
[photograph added]
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SOURCES
The Washington Herald
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Nov 22, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The National Labor Digest, Volumes 2-3
Labor Press Association, 1920
(search with "equal suffrage" & choose p.34
for article from October 1920 edition: "Equal Suffrage a Labor Victory"
-source for support of AFL for woman suffrage since 1890.)
http://books.google.com/...
See also:
New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Nov 12, 1914
"Forcing Women to Vote" -Editorial
pdf! http://query.nytimes.com/...
History of Woman Suffrage: 1900-1920
-by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony,
Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper
Fowler & Wells, 1922
(search with "convention 1914" & choose p.398)
http://books.google.com/...
Note: Of course this is not the edition referenced in the article above, which edition, sadly, I could not find. Nevertheless, it provides an interesting account of the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association which took place in Nashville from Nov. 12-17, 1914.
IMAGES
National Suffrage Convention Pamphlet, 1914
http://www.tennessee.gov/...
Ida Husted Harper
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Mother Jones
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
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More on Mother Jones and the Suffragists:
Perhaps Ida Husted Harper was thinking of Mother Jones when she wrote this:
The convention of the America Federation of Labor, which has a membership of over 2,000,000, gives much consideration to the cause of the coal miners' strike in Colorado, but it has failed to enumerate woman suffrage as one of them. This will be a disappointment to the Eastern "antis," who have insisted that this is the very root of the strike. They will also disapprove of the plank in the federation's platform demanding the enfranchisement of women after they themselves have declared repeatedly that the working woman does not need the vote.
Suffragist were not happy with speeches made by Mother Jones in New York City in
May of 1914.
See for example:
Hellraisers Journal: I have raised hell all over this country!
You don't need a vote to raise hell! by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Hellraisers Journal: God Almighty Made the Woman
and the Rockefeller Gang of Thieves Made the Ladies by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage
Lyrics and more
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11:20 AM PT: Diary edited to include information that AFL gave its support to woman suffrage as early as 1890. I searched the proceedings of the 1914 AFL Convention, but could find nothing regarding votes for women.