East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-03-29
LADIES AND MEN
FORM ORGANIZATION
Portland Suffragette Arouses
Enthusiasm In Appeal
For Votes

With thirty-five enthusiastic ladies
and twenty-five equally interested
men holding membership in local
branch of the oregon Equal Suffrage
League and Mems Auxiliary, respect
lively, the campaign in Umatilla coun-
ty for "Votes for Women" was last
evening given a winning start at
mixed meeting attended by about l5O
at the city hall, at which Mrs. Sara
Bardfield Ehrgott, of Portland, de-
livered an address, preceding the tenn
porary organization and the move
ment is today on in earnest in this
county. A second meeting will be
held at the city hall beginning at
o'clock Saturday afternoon, and ev-
ery woman, especially mothers, and
man is invited to be present. At this
meeting a permanent organization will
be perfected, according to an an
nouncement made last night by Mrs.
stephen A. Lowell. who presided over
the preliminary meeting.
Officers of the temporary organiza-
ton are Mrs. c. S. Terpening, pres
ident; Mrs. w. f. Matlock, vice pres
ident; Mrs. NJ. l.. Akers, secretary
and Mrs. c. S. Wheeler, treasurer u
S Wheeler heads the auxiliary or
ganization of men.
In a concise, clever, clear, enter
tanning but brief oral picture, Mrs
Erhgott portrayed the political condi-
ton of the fairer sex, talking on the
subject 1.-The How and Why of Wo-
man Suffrage" which might also
have been called the Evolution OF
Woman" She began with an ex-
PLANTATION that she had come to Pen
dleton as substitute for Mrs. Dun
iway, to whom she paid high tribute
and credited with being the mother
OF the movement in oregon, and now
probably hopelessly i'll. She appealed
for the success of the movement at
the coming election, that Mrs. Duni-
way, who has worked ceaselessly and
tirelessly for equal suffrage, might
see her dream come true, should she
survive her present illness until the
coming election, when the matter
will be decided at the polls, by the
men voters.
Briefly giving a history of the
movement, Mrs. Erhgott explained
that it's first inception. in the civiliz-
ed world, came with the French rev.
olution. But, she recalled, the prlm-
itive races in Africa, as reported as
covered by the English explorer Liv-
ingston, had for centuries recognized
womens rights and that the women
were on an equality politically with
the men of the tribes.
Inserting an abundance of sar-
casm Mrs. Erhgott went into the his
tory of women duriag the last few
generations, denouncing the English
laws of few centuries back, when the
wife was considered little less than
the slave of the husband, which GUS
tom came to this country with the
birth of new world-denied entrance
to the fields of education, profession
and industry, and absolutely not con-
sidered politically.
Admitting that most of the laws
that oppressed her sex at that time,
have fallen into disuse in this coun-
try, Mrs. Erhgott declared that many
of them still remain and practices up
just to the woman are still too nu-
merous She brought out that man
has found woman a necessity in in
dustry-over eight million being at
present engaged in the various indus
tries in this country-and that she
has also found her place in education,
with the high schools and other edu-