The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-10-25
Third Term Candidate Was Con-
sistently Their Enemy Till
He Needed Their Votes.
COULD HAVE CARRIED OHIO
But Big Bull Moose Took TO the Yer
mont Woods-Noted Woman Ex-
poses His Change of Front.
BY lO6 Hustled HARPER.

! woman suffrage plank in its platform
! when the vote was taken in Ohio on
/ new constitution. Forty-two amend
ments were on the ballot, and all were
adopted except the one for woman
suffrage!
Ohio is one of the banner" Progress
sive states. and Mr. Roosevelt expects
, to secure it's electoral vote In order
to do this a plurality of the electors
must be Progressives, and they could
/ therefore have easily carried the suf-
frage amendment if all the others had
voted against it, as the vote on the
constitution was very light, only a
! few hundred thousand out of more
than million who were eligible. Did
he issue any orders to this effect? Did
he say to his followers: Now, here is
/ our first chance to show the women
that we mean business. OF course II
/ We win in November we will give the
franchise to all in the United States,
but just now we can make good by
| giving it to those in Ohio, so let every
! Progressive vote for the woman suf-
| frage amendment" Did he do this?
/ On the contrary, he completely tg-
nored the matter, although he passed
through Ohio the very day Of the cleo
/ ton.
A few days before, at St. Johnsbury,
Vt, Mr.. Roosevelt had devoted large
! part of his speech to showing how
/ strongly he believed in the ballot for
women and how anxious he was for
them to get it. The question was not
an issue there or likely to be, but it
was a vital issue in Ohio, to be settled
in four days, and yet not by spoken or
written word did he show to the peo-
pie of Ohio that he knew of its ex-
istence.
Two days after the Progressive par
/ ty in Ohio permitted the defeat of this
amendment its state convention met.
! If any women were elected delegates
| the press dispatches failed to mention
it. and in the platform a woman suf-
frage plank was conspicuous by its abb
/ senCe. The Progressive party pledges
itself to the task of securing equal suf-
frage to men and women alike" says
its national platform, and Ohio has
just given the first example Of the
way it apparently means to keep that
pledge.
In Mr. Roosevelt's second term the
suffragists determined to make every
! possible effort to secure an indorse-
ment from him. AS Miss Susan B.
, Anthonys most eloquent letters to
| him received no answer, she went in
person to see him in November. 1905,
just four months before her death.
With all her powers of persuasion she
pleaded with him to recommend in his
forthcoming message some recognition
of woman's claim to voice in the
government. Laying her hand on his
arm. she looked up into his face and
said, 81 beg of you to be the emafci-
pator of woman as Lincoln was the
emancipation of the slave" He was not
resembling Lincoln so much in those
days as he Is at present, and he re-
manned totally unmoved by her ap-
peals.
Scant Courtesy at White House.
Shortly before he left the White
House several officers of the National
Suffrage association, realizing his
great influence on public opinion.
made one last effort to have him
speak favorable word He came into
the outside lobby of the executive Of
fee, required them to state their bust
he RI
him and would hardly give them a
chance to speak, but kept saying, Go
and get another state He shrugged
his shoulders and turned on his heel,
and then they said, IF we will get up
a petition of a million names will that
influence you?" NO" he replied, mot
one particle"
That was in 1909 The next year
letter from him was read at an anti
suffrage meeting in the Berkeley thea
ter, New York in which he said: II
am very tepid on woman suffrage"
The cause of woman's enfranchise-
ment has no more implacable enemy
than the Outlook, and Mr.. Roosevelt
is on the editorial staff. Last Feb
ruary he had in that magazine ten
column article entitled "Woman's
Rights" but the only right considered
was that of the suffrage. The article
was such an excellent exposition OF
the attitude of women who do not
wish to vote that the Antl-sunrage as
ISOLATION ordered copies for distribu-
ton. In this article he said again,
I'm our western states where the suf-
frage has been granted to women l am
unable TO see that any great differ
ence has been caused as compared
with neighboring states"
And yet just four months after this
publication, when Mr.. Roosevelt had
definitely decided to make the contest
for the presidential nomination, all his
scrupies about forcing suffrage on
hostile and Indifferent majority van
ished in thin air because a million and
half already had votes and the colo
mel wanted them, and he knew they
wouldn't stand for any nonsense about