Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-12-01
LADIES ARGUE FOR
VOTES FOR WOMEN
Miss Mary Johnston and Mrs.
Valentine Address Large
Audience in Tazewell.

The visit to Tazewell and the ad
dresses of Miss Mary Johnston, tn,
well known authoress, and suffragist,
and Mrs. Valentine, President of the
Woman's Suffrage League of Virgil.
MIA, will long be remembered b,
those who did themselves the honor tc
hear the addresses. The High School
Chapel was we'll filled by a crowd
which included a large majority OF
the representative people of the town
and community. The visits of these
ladies to TazewelI, as advocates of
Woman Suffrage, was looked forward
to with some apprehension,o the part
of those who were instrumental in
having them come. 1t was evident at
first that there was opposition in
fact positive refusal on the part of
a number of men and women to hear
the speakers was freely expressed at
first, and there was apprehension that
"frost" would fall, in Tazewel on
Tuesday evening. But glance over
the audience at 7 80 O'Clock dispelled
all fears as to the size and character
of the crowd. Tazewell's representa-
tive people were there, and did them
selves honor in being present. Some,
quite number, like the man in the
scriptures, said, 81 go not, but after
wrds repented and WENT 1t is not
too much to say that the audience
was completely won by the presence
and addresses of these two splendid
Virginia women. Not that the entire
audience was converted by the ad-
dresses. This woul6 be expecting and
claiming too much, but it is true,
that converts were made on the one
hand and objectors silenced on the
other. Miss Johnston, beginning away
back, traced briefly, but graphically,
the history of the oppression, strug-
giles and development of the idea of
freedom and equality for women,
showing in unanswerable argument
that women need, and are capable of
exercising to the betterment of the
race, the uplift of society and the
transformation of governments, the
ballot, and that great and absolutely
necessary reforms will never be
brought about until the ballot is plac
ed in the hands of the women. Ans
wering the question, Why do the
women want the franchise?, Miss
Johnston replied, for the same reason
that men want it self protection,
self government, self development,
self realization. Protection and fair
play for the d millions of women
workers in the world of industry, dis
franchised as Chinese coolies, for the
sake of some control over all the
multitudinous aspects of an industrial
civilization which has become veri-
table Juggernaut to women and child
ren. Because we are taxed without
representation, and governed without
consent. Because there are forces of
corruption which threaten the exist
ence and happiness of our children,
and our hands are bound. We ask the
franchise, said the speaker" in the
interest of truth, enlightenment,
freedom of thought, in the interest of
the whole of the human race, of man
anu woman ana chllQ.
Miss Johnston mentioned briefly and
answered conclusively, the old stock
objections to Woman Suffrage. 1t will
not work 1t will work badly; women
are already represented by men: can
obtain all they want by indirect in
fluence; only the bad women will vote
and the bad women outnumber the
good; women are too sentimental;
women cannot fight; all these object
ions were ably met.
Miss Johnston brought out the fact
that in the States of Idaho, Utah,
Wyoming, Colorado, Washington and
California, women have the ballot
equally with the men. In australia,
New Zeal and, Iceland, Finland, The
Isle of Man, Norway, Sweden, and in
,,-r5very part of the British Empire,
there.is some form of suffrage, and in
the world more than three million
women have the franchise, in whole
or in part.
This splendid address closed with
strong appeal to the men and women
present to give their influence to this
great movement.
No less effective or interesting was
the address of Mrs. Valentine, the
President of the League, which fol-
lowed.
Mrs. Valentine said, among Other
striking things, that she did not care
for the ballot for herself personally
as she mad all she wanted, but fol
what she might thus be able to do fo
her sisters who did need it. The con
stitution of Virginia, she said, for
bids the ballot to idiots, criminals
delinquents, the very illiterate ant
women, and she wanted to see womer