The Topeka state journal., 1901-11-14
ON new BASIS.
Suffrage Movement in Topeka
Being Re0rganiZed.
Women Who Have Been Prom
inent Not Invited.
HAS A NEW MA M E.
Is Called the Good Government
Club.
Mrs Horton Mrs. ThOmnsOn
HAS A NEW NAM E.
Mrs. Horton, Mrs. Thompson
and Mrs. McCarter Included.

| A new equal suffrage organization
has been secretly made in Topeka, com
posed of Is prominent society and club
women. selected with special reference
to the influence which their husbands
have in politics.
This new organization was at first
called the Susan B. Anthony ciup.
There was one woman in the club. the
wife of a prominent newspaper man.
who objected to this name, because her
husband had had some sort of disa-
greement with Susan B. Anthony, and
did not like her. So this woman got
several other members to help her, and
the name was changed to the Good
Government club.
The organization is distinctly an aris-
tocratic one. Many of the old time
suffragists are let out. The members
say that they have to be careful VINO
they admit to membership, in order to
avoid all possibility of friction between
the members. 1t was friction, they say,
that broke up the old suffrage associa-
ton, and they want to have the mem
bership so arranged that everything
will be harmonious.
Indications are that the effort to keep
the organization in harmony has been
principally directed toward keeping out
all staunch Republican women Mrs.
Annie Diggs, who is perhaps the ablest
exponent of women's suffrage in the
state, is not a member, because she is
a Populist. But the PopuliSt women are
not the only ones who are left out n
the cold. Miss Helen Kimber, the presi-
dent of the state associati ton, is not a
member, because some of the women
think that she is a disturbing factor,
and would split the organization up into
| factions. And Miss Kimber is a red
hot Republican and worked for the
Republican state central COMMITTEES
during the last campaign.
Among other prominent advocates Of
women's suffrage who were not taken
into the counsels of the new organiza-
ton are Mrs. Thurston, Mrs. Lucia. o.
Case, DR.. Eva Harding. Mrs. T.. s.
Lyon and scores of other women who
have considered that their influence
was of some value to the suffrage
cause.
Mrs. A. H. Horton, wife of ex-Chief
Justice Horton, is the president of the
new suffrage club. Among the other
members are Mrs. A H. Thompson,
Mrs. w. A. Johnston. Mrs. w. A. Nc
Carter Mrs. ]. d. Mcfarland, and 9TH
er club women of equal prominence.
For two months the women who COM
pose the membership of the new club
have been holding meetings at the
homes OF the members These meetings
have not been announced in the news
papers. Every effort has been made to
keep them secret. The story only got
out because several non-members of
the organization happened to call at a
house where one of the meetings was
in progress, and proceeded to investi-
gate what was going on. Now that the
secret is out, there are likely to be some
interesting sessions. both private and
public of the erstwhile Susan B. An
thony club. The women who were not
taken into the secret are all mad, be-
cause they believe that they have been
slighted and turned down as persons
of no worth to the cause. The gulf
between the two factions of suffra-
gists is wider than at any time since
the hair-pulling times OF Populist-
Republican combat.
AS the story goes, the new organiza-
tion was conceived with very definite
programme in view. deal was made
by certain prominent club women with
the proprietors of Topeka newspaper
by which that paper would come out
wide open at the proper time in sup
port of female suffrage. In return for
this, the secret organization agreed to
deliver to that paper the united sup
port of the suffra gists of Kansas. 1t
was far from being in the programme
that the existence of the deal or of the
organization should become known for
some months hence. The secret or
ganization was planned to include only
such women as were acceptable to all
the members, and only women who
could exert a political pull were con-
sidered eligible. 1t was planned that
this formidable aggregation of pulls
should descend upon the members of
the legislature at it's next session, and
demand in the name of Republicanism
that the long desired equal suffrage
measure be passed Backed by the
vociferous dictation of the organ of the
secret club, it was confidently expected
that the legislature would wilt and
pass any kind of a bill the women
might demand. The plot was we'll de-
vised, and might have worked if the
other women had not discovered what
was in the wind. Now there is trou-
BILE ahead for the ex-Susan B. Anthony
club.
There has been no suffrage organiza-
tion in Topeka since the defeat of the
suffra gists about six years ago. At
that time, the organiza ton, which had
been fiourishing previous to that time,
collapsed, and owing to lack of inter
est has never been revived.
Members of the old organization look
upon the attempt of the prominent club
women to secretly make an organiza
tion on strictly novel lines as an at
tempt to steal the suffrage support,
and concentrate the power of the suf-
fragists in the hands of few Re
publican women of great social promi
nence. The women who were left out
of the organization do not call it the
Susan B. Anthony club, or the Good
Government club. They call it 1.-THE
Kansas Equal Suffrage Corporation,