The Woman's Journal, vol. 43, no. 6, February 10, 1912, p. 44

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THE WOMAN'S JOURNAL

LUCY STONE and HENRY B. BLACKWELL A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to Winning Equal Rights and especially to Winning Equal Suffrage for Women. E ditor MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL MONADNOCK STREET, DORCHESTER, MASS Contributing Editors MIS MARY JOHNSTON MRS. IDA H. HARPER MISS ELLIS MEREDITH REV. CAROLINE BARTLETT CRANE MRS. MABEL CRAFT DEERING

Office - 585 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. Telephone, Back Bay 4717 NEW YORK office: National Suffrage Headquarters, 508 Fifth Ave. NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION

505 Fifth Avenue, New York City. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President, Moylan, Pa. JANE ADDAMS, 1st Vice-President, Hull House, Chicago, Ills. SOPHONISBA P. BRECKINRIDGE, 2nd Vice-President, Green Hall, University of Chicago, 1lls. MARY WARE DENNETT, Corresponding Secretary. 505 Fifth Avenue, New York. SUSAN W. FITZGERALD, Secretary, 585 Boyliston Street, Boston, Mass. JESSIE ASHLEY, Treasurer, 505 Firth Avenue, New York. HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW, 2nd Auditor, 6 East 06th Street, New York. ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Editor of “The Woman's Journa Monadnock Street, Dorchester., Mass SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1912

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ROOSEVELT ON SUFFRAGE

It was said of a book written by a certain philosopher that a fighting atheist might walk off with one-half of its argument and a devout Christian with the other half. A fighting “Anti" might walk off with part of Theodore Roosevelt's latest article on the woman question, and a devout suffrasist with another part. Col. Roosevelt says:

“If the woman suffrage movement were to be judged only by those advocates of it who discredit themselves and their sex by disorderly antics in public, and who assail the foundations of private and public morality in their endeavor, not to raise the sense of moral duty in man, but to lower the sense of moral duty in woman, I should certainly oppose the movement. But do not believe these undesirable apostles are in any way to be accepted as exponents of the cause, and I call attention to the fact that they are prominent, not in the resion where woman suffrage does exist, but in regions where it does not exist.

“I pin my faith to woman suffrasists of the type of the late Julla Ward Howe. Julla Ward Howe was one of the foremost citizens of this Republic; she rendered service to the people such as few men in any seneration render; and yet she did. nrst of all, her full duty in the intimate home relations that must ever take precedence of all other relations. There was never a better wife or mother; her children rose up to call her blessed, and the commonwealth sheuld call her blessed for the children she bore and reared, for the character she transmitted to them, and the training she gsave them in her household. We are fortunate in being able to point to such a woman as exemplifying all that we mean when we insist that the good woman's primary duties must be those of the home and the family, those of wife and mother; but that the full performance of these duties may be helped and not hindered if she also possesses a sense of duty to the public, and the power and desire to perform this duty.

“In our Western States where the suffrage has been given to women I am unable to see that any sreat difference has been caused, as compared with neighboring States of similar social and industrial conditions where women have not the suffrage. There has been no very marked change in general political conditions, nor in the social and industrial position of woman. Yet what slight changes have occurred have been for the better, and not the worse. Moreover, I must say that, being a natural-born democrat, 1 do like to associate with people who possess every right that I possess. In those Western States it is a real pleasure to meet women, thoroughly womanly women, who do every duty that any woman can do, and who also are not only im fact but in theory on a level of full equality with men. I fail to see that these women are any less efficient in their households, or show any falling off in the sense of duty; I think the contrary is the case; and so far as their influence has affected political life at all it has affected it for good. I do not see much difference between Denver and the big cities of the East in those very matters where we would expect the influence of women's voting to count most; yet, after all, it is the women of Denver who have stood most stoutly behind Judge Lindsey. When I1 passed through Seattle last sprins, it had just finished an election in which a most needed bit of political house-cleaning had been performed; and the votes of the women had been a potent factor in securing decent government. The same thing was notably true in the Los Angeles election the other day. A very good citizen of Los Angeles, in a position fitting him to pass judgment, writes. me as follows of this contest: 'By the way,

— NAL Colone1 sedto bedead agastwom's urae, md ha althoush I voted for it and wrote for it—because it seemed to me Yet, sine ————risht and and a necessary part of sincere 1 dreaded consequences. Of course one swallow doesn't suffrase LL make a summer, but up to date in this contest the women have that ao conducted themselves in a way to excite the liveliest admiration. only 10 They are setting the men a much-needed example of rapid, thor- of our 48 ough work, with no foolish scrapping—dignified, conscientious, State to and effective... the votes “I believe in the movement for woman suffrage, and believe cast on that it will ultimately justify itself." ever bee

Col. Roosevelt probably underestimates the amount of sood that equal suffrage has done in the enfranchised States. He certainly does, if any weight is to be given to the census of ministers in those States which Mrs. Howe took, and a summary of which she published just before her death. She addressed to the ministers of four denominations a circular letter asking whether the results of equal suffrage were gsood or bad. Out of 624 replies received, 62 were unfavorable, 46 on the fence, and 516 in favor. Ministers living and working in those States can judge of the good or bad effects better than a transient tourist. A. S. B.

SUFFRAGE AND DIGNITY

Col. Roosevelt says: “The supreme importance and high position of the woman of the type of Julia Ward Howe cannot be materially increased by the possession of the ballot. 1 am glad that the good, wise, and brave mother should have the ballot. I am especially glad if its possession will add to the high dignity of her position in the eyes of men. But I cannot conceive of any man's now failing to hold such a mether as more worthy of respect than any man, or than any other woman."

The Colonel must have been singularly fortunate in his male acquaintances if he has never met any men with whom such was not the case. Mrs. Howe did not at all agree with him in thinking that the ballot could add nothing to a mother's dignity. In an article in The Outlock of April 3, 1909, which has been reprinted by the suffragists as a tract, Mrs. Howe named twelve definite benefits that she said had been positively proved to result from equal suffrage. The first in the list was this: “It gives women a position of increased dignity and influence." Mrs. Howe backed this up with testimony from well-known men and women. Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker says: “Under woman suffrage there is a much more chivalrous devotion and respect on the part of men, who look upon their sisters not as playthings or as property, but as equals and fellow citizens."

Mrs. K. A. Sheppard, President of the New Zealand Council of Women, says: "“Since women have become electors, their views have become important and command respect. Men listen to and are influenced by the opinions of women to a far greater degree than was the case formerly. There is no longer heard the contemptuous 'What do women know of such matters? And so out of the sreater civil liberty enjoyed by women has come a perceptible rise in the moral and humanitarian tone of the community. A youns New Zealander in his teens no longer regards his mother as belonging to a sex that must be kept within a prescribed sphere. That the lads and young men of a democracy should have their whole conception of the rights of humanity broadened and measured by truer standards is in itself an incalculable benefit."

Dr. Margaret Lons, daughter of ex-Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, has resided for years in Denver. She writes: “It seems impossible to me that any one can live in Colorado long enough to get into touch with the life here, and not realize that women count for more in all the affairs of this State than they do where they have not the power that the suffrase gives. More attention is paid to their wishes, and much sreater weight given to their opinions and judgment." Mrs. Howe might have added the statement of a famous old mother in Israel, Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana, from whom Gen. Lew Wallace said that he drew the portrait of the mother in “Ben Hur." She said:

“To deprive woman of the right to express her thought with authority at the ballot box puts a mark of imbecility upon her at once. So far as the government is concerned, we are held in perpetual tutelage—we are minors always; and while good men will act justly toward women in spite of this, it is an excuse for every bad and foolish man to oppress woman, and for every unfledged boy to make a butt of her." The Rev. Charles F. Dole, author of excellent works on good citizenship, points out that American women's lack of the ballot distinctly strengthens the tendency of immigrant men and boys to look down upon women.

Col. Roosevelt says that he cannot conceive of a good mother being less respected because she has no vote. The Colonel has the reputation of being a good father. Is he quite sure that he and all other good fathers would be just as much respected, not only by their own families but by women-folk at large, if all the women had votes and all the men had none? A. S. B.

“INDIFFERENCE AND OPPOSITION

As set forth in his latest article in The Outlook, Col Roosevelt's position on woman suffrage is progressive in the abstract, but reactionary in the concrete; he believes in woman suffrage, but not until the majority of women vote that they want it. He would like to have a referendum of women on the question in New York and Massachusetts. In case of a light vote, “those mot voting should be held to have voted mo."... “If a majority of the women of a State vote afmrmatively for the suffrase, it is time to give it to them." Neither in New York nor in Massachusetts have the majority of the men ever voted affirmatively upon any constitutional amendment placed before them. If anyone should propese that in New York an amendment, in order to carry, must receive a majority vote of all the men in the State, the suggestion would be received with universal ridicule. Everyone would say that such a measure might as well be entitled “An Act to make it forever impossible to amend the Constitution of New York." Yet it is precisely this impossible condition that Col. Roosevelt proposes to demand of women. In most States, when any set of men want to amend the constitution, they are only required to show that more men fayor the change than oppose it. Two or three years ago, four constitutional amendments were submitted in New York, The vote showed that only about 25 per cent. of the men wanted these

changes, while 75 per cent. were “either indifferent or opposed." Yet, since less than 25 per cent. were actually an the amendments were declared carried. In the last d suffrage in the Massachusetts Legislature, it was that a constitutional amendment nad sometimes carried whe only 10 per cent. of the men in the State voted for it. Not one of our 48 States requires a majority vote of all the men in the State to pass an amendment. A fow requirs a majority of al the votes cast at the election imstead of a majority of a those cast on the amendment. None of these States, it is satla, have ever been able to carry at a general election any amendment whatever, no matter how slight the opposition to it; simply because a majority of the men voting for Governor do not take the trouble to vote even for the most popular amendment.

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Progressive men of every stripe are protesting against those few old-style constitutions which practically count indifference as opposition, thus setting up an almost insuperable barrier to reform. Yet here comes Col. Roosevelt recommending (for women only) a method which out-Herods the worst of them! He has always stood up for an equal standard of morals. On what principle of ethics can he justify imposing infinitely harder terms upon women seeking a change than he would consider fair in the case of any change sought by men?

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Mrs. Julia Ward Howe wrote, in The Woman's Journal of an, 23, 1909:

“Opponents say that the ballot should not be granted while the majority of women are ‘either indifferent or opposed. But it is one thing to be indifferent, and quite another to be opposed. Every amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution that has ever been adopted would have been set down as defeated if all the men who were too indifferent to vote on it either way had been counted as voting against it. The antisuffragists invoke majority rule. But the accepted principle of majority rule is that a question should be decided according to the wish of the majority who care enough about it to express a wish. The indifferent do not count. On the suffragse question, the vast majority of those women who care are in favor. This has been demonstrated wherever the matter has been brought to a test. In New York, at the time of the last constitutional convention, the suffragists secured more than 300,000 signatures to their petitions; the anti-suffragists, only 15,000. The woman suffrage petitions presented to the recent constitutional convention in Michigan bore 175,000 signatures. There were no petitions on the other side. In Chicago, a large number of women, headed by Jane Addams, are asking for a municipal woman suffrage clause in the new city charter. One hundred and four organizations, with an agsgregsate membership of more than 100,000 women, have petitioned for it, while only one small organization of women has petitioned against it. In Maine, Iowa, Kansas— in short, in every State where petitions for suffrage and remonstrances against it have been sent to the Legislature, the petitioners have always outnumbered the remonstrants, and have generally out-numbered them fifty or a hundred to one. On the only occasion when the government took an official referendum among women on the subject (in Massachusetts in 1895), the women's yote was in favor of suffrage, twenty-five to one."

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This was the occasion referred to by Col. Roosevelt, when “less than 5 per cent." of all the women in Massachusetts voted for suffrage. Mrs. Howe menticns the fact (which Mr. Roosevelt omits) that less than one-sixth of 1 per cent. voted against it. In 238 of the 322 towns of Massachusetts, not a single woman voted no. Out of every 665 adult women in Massachusetts, only one voted in the negative. Mrs. Howe adds:

“Doubtless it will be said that the nesative vote did not represent all the women who were opposed. This is true. But it showed with absolute accuracy how many of the women opposed to suffrage believed that the right to vote implies the duty to vote. There were just 861 out of a possible 575,000." No others can claim that the ballot would lay a conscientious burden on them. Mrs. Howe says, in conclusion: “It is well known that, with rare exceptions, the ladies who make a specialty of opposing equal suffrage do not use the school ballot. With what consistency, then, can they object to full sufrrage on the ground that it would impose on them ‘an added duty. By actions which speak leuder than words, they every year declare their conviction that the right to vote carries with it no duty or obligation whatever." A. S. B.

RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Much of Col. Roosevelt's article in the Outlook is irrelevant to suffrage. Whether early marri age is desirable for girls or undesirable, whether woman in industry is a transient or a permanent, whether the economic dependence of wives is necessary for the proper fulfilment of their duties as mothers or unnecessary—all these are questions over which people divide according to their views on economics, not according to their views on suffrage.

The doctrine that people ought to think more of their duties than of their rights is perfectly sound; but there are appropriate and inappropriate times to press it. When the Continental army was just marching out to wrest the rights of the Colonies from Great Britain, it would have shown a lack of judgment on the part of Washington's chaplain if he had chosen that time to preach the troops a sermon on the duties of subjects to their king, or even on the text “He that provideth not for his own household is worse than an infidel," setting forth that every man's most fundamental duty was to support his family, and that the acquirement of political rights was of sman importance in comparison. It speaks well for the depth and permanence of mother love that it has not been visibly lessened by having the conservatives hold up maternal duties as an obstacle against unclosing every deor of wider education or opportunity that has been opened to women in the last hundred years.

Colonel Roosevelt says that most of the women of his circle are antis, and reproach him for wishing to “force" suffrage upon them. In so conservative a feminine environment, it is to his credit that he can hold in principle to the early faith which led him to vote for woman suffrage as a member of the Legislature, and to recommend it in his inaugural message as Governor of New York. With votes for women in California and Washington, with Parllamentary suffrage already sranted in Norway and about to be granted in Sweden, it looks as though the Colonel would soon have a chance to see the reform in very general operation; and he will find that mothers love their children just as well as before. A. 8. B.