The San Francisco call., 1896-06-15
WOMEN WOO THE BALLOT.
Equal Suffrage Leaders to Labor
Among Democrats.

Among Democrats.
SACRAMENTO, CAL, June 14.-The
first delegation of equal suffrage leaders
arrived this evening TO take up the appar-
emily hopeless task OF convincing at least
308 representatives of the Democracy that
the party should be just and chivalrous.
Susan B. Anthony, weary from her
labors in the Oregon campaign, will arrive
from the north little after sunrise and
the ladies' here will be up with the lark to
greet her at the depot.
Those who reappeared at the Golden
Eagle tonight were Mrs. A. A. Sargent,
Mrs. John Swift, Mrs. Henry Krebs, Mrs.
Ida Harper, Miss Winnifred Harper, San
Francisco; Mrs. Knox Goodrich, Mrs. E. o.
Smith, San Jose; Rev. Anna Shaw and
Miss Mary Hay. Sarah B. Cooper and
other ladies active in the cause will be
here to. morrow.
The ladies are tonight weary, warm,
discouraged and determined to see the
bottom of that last ditch as far as this ag-
gregation of Democrats is concerned. Miss
Mary Hay is the bravest of these heroines.
She is the optlmist of the crowd.
al never give up until l am beaten, and
I believe we will win,'' Miss Hay says.
The ladies have three rooms on the third
floor of the Golden Eagle for headquarters,
and tomorrow alluring flowers will adorn
their rooms. and placards elsewhere will
invite and direct Democrats to call at the
headquarters. The policy pursued at the
Republican Convention will be repeated.
The ladies will go button-holing among
the delegates. Delegates are expected to
come to them to be talked TO. But the
Democratic Convention will take off its
hat to the ladies, invite them to sit down
in nice place when they visit the con-
vention, and will probably listen with
chivalrous patience to their pleas. Then
about eleven delegates will vote for the
resolution in their favor when the report
of the committee on platform is read,
minus the coveted plank.
Mrs. Ida Harper, who is supposed to do
the talking to newspa permen, told to-
night of the ladies' resolution to do their
duty of Gavin McNa b. S chivalry; of John
Daggett's fight of his own; of the big
bachelor Democrats who are fierce for the
home and the babies, and why the Dem
ocracy could lose nothing by getting into
the procession.
Gas to the prospects," said she, "aIl we
can judge by is what the papers say, and
they nearly all declare that we will not
get our plank in the Democratic platform.
We find in talking to the leading Demo-
Gratis that while many are personally
favorable to woman suffrage few consider
it party expediency to put it in the plat
form. We found very few ready to fight
for the cause. The very strongest man we
found was McNab. McNab said that he
was an out-andout woman suffragist. He
said he had secured headquarters here and
that he would be glad to have US come to
his headquarters TO confer with him, and
that he would come to our headquarters
and do anything he could for US.
"Max Pepper is for our cause. W. w.
Foote is not in favor of it. Mr.. Laymance
and Mr.. Fitzgerald are not in favor OF
woman suffrage. but are not particularly
opposed to it. Mr.. Daggett said that he
had his own fight in hand, and it was all
be could attend to. He would not commit
himself as to whether he was favorable or
unfavorable to us. We made quite an eff
fort to see Mr.. Buckley, but were unsuc-
cessful His home is in Livermore, and
we were not successful in finding him in
the city. We we're told that Mr.. Donovan
and Mr. Rainey were both friendly to us,
but we were unable to see these men when
we called.
"Our own work has been conf ned to
San Francisco and Oakland and we have
expected the women of the various
counties to do the work among their dele
gates. Among the Democrats we met the
same old arguments about the home and
children. Mr.. Fitzgerald talked very
pleasantly when he said that woman was
crowding men out of employment, as they
were unable to marry, and that it was
woman's duty to create homes and care
for children; and looked at him-a bach
elor with an income of several thousand
year and gray hairs coming on his head
and | said:
"Well, why don't you give some woman
a chance to create homer
"'Youve got me. Mrs. 1 surren DER he
said.
'There is Jerome Hart, another old
bachelor. You read the beautiful ed.
itorials in the Argonaut about home and
the blessings of maternity, and you want
to go right out and buy a home Bach
eIors and old maids know more about rails
ing children than any body else.
"If we knew we could not get what we
ask we would come just the same. The
woman suffrage organization is absolutely
non-partlsan, and we wish to show that
we are not working on party lines. We
will do all in our power to succeed. We are
here representing the women of California.
and have a duty to discharge This thing
coulo not hurt the Democratic party, be-
cause it is in the platforms of all the other
parties, and opponents will have no place
to turn. Some OF the Democrats say that