The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-08-27
POINTED LETTER OF ERA CLUB
OF NEW ORLEANS.
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE: Tissue
Unanimous Protest Against Attitude Of
Would-be Governor, Who Is Flayed
by the Gentle Sex-Irrefutable Facts.
why Deny Women Right of Suffrage? !?

vi iSdiS ~ Odliuludtt CdllueIS letter Oh
recent date is pointed and irrefutable
Not long since the Era Club addressed
letter to each Of the candidates for
Governor requesting his views and opin-
ions on the question of Woman Suffrage
In his reply Candidate Sanders was more
or less facetious and the reply con-
tanned much sentiment and compliment
ary illusions to the fair and lovely sex
Candidate Sanders was strictly non
committal, as are all politicians strad-
ding in the political sense. The la lies
of the Era Club, as it appears by their
reply, were not misled by Sanders hon
eyed words. Here follows copy of the
ERA CLUBS REPLY.
August I9 1907.
Hon. ]. Y. Sanders, New Orleans,
La: My Dear Sir-At a regular meet
ing of the Era Club, held Saturday,
August 10, 1907, unanimous protest
was entered by the club members against
certain statements i'll your letter of Au-
gust 2.
1t is unfortunate that 50 many men
and women persist i'll trying to make
twentieth century conditions fit into
eighteeth century traditions.
You state in your letter that "in Louis
lana. woman's word is law" then her
lack of pride and sense of justice is pitt
full indeed when she allows herself to re-
main classed with the idiot, the insane,
the criminal and the minor.
If lin Louisiana woman's word is
law why as she no legal control over
the child she has borne?
If in Louisiana woman's word is
law why is the cross mark of an illit
crate male, white or black, accepted in
law as valid witness to an authentic
act, while the signature of an educated
woman is rejected?
If ''in Louisiana woman's word is
law why does she allow the husband
to sell the community property without
the wife's knowledge or consent, while
the wife can not dispose of her own
separate property, brought into the mar
riage estate through inheritance or 9TH
erwise, without the husbands authorize
ton?
If "in Louisiana woman's word is
tIa cho ho1
to the husband?
You confess that you ''can not escape
the thralldom of that beautiful tradition
which enthrones woman as the queen OF
the home and the ruler over hearts. !"
The woman of today is quite willing to
accept this beautiful tradition, but feels
that if queen of the home, she should be
invested with power to protect her home
and loved ones from the influences which
so often blast and bring sorrow into her
domain. When her babe lies murdered
through a polluted milk or water supply,
over which she has no control because
it is relegated to the sphere of politics
wherein she has no voice, it is the
mother-heart, not the queen-heart, which
breaks.
Every department of the home is to-
day under the control of the government,
and thereby in politics, and the woman
who takes no interest in those issues
which affect her home and her children
has not yet realized the value of the
ballot as factor in regulating these con-
ditions which affect the home.
Moreover, consider the thousands OF
women not enthroned as queens of the
home, who are so circumstanced in life
as to be deprived of their so-called nat
ural protectors, and are themselves
forced to become the protectors of and
bread winners for others dependent upon
them
You state further that ''our laws have
already made beginning by giving
woman the right to vote i'll certain
classes of elections. The women oi
the Era Club know of one class only o.
elections in which the women of Louis
lana are allowed to participate-tht
right of the property owner to vote upor
all questions of taxation. Is it not al
injustice that she should be encouraged
to tax herself and then be denied th'
right to vote for those who will admin
lister the fund accruing from said tax:
You state that whenever the woman
hood of Louisiana shall present unte'
front, demanding the right to vote, ther
will be no power in the State stronl
enough to resist their demands" In re
viewing the history of the world W
have been unable to find in any progress
live movement a single instance wher