Newark post., 1912-11-20

In lS41, seventy-fve years ago, Susan
b. Anthony, in defiance of all conventions
began lecturing. On the evening of Nov
ember 9th of this year thirty thousand
people paraded in New York to celebrate
the winning of four more states for wOm-
an suffrage The crowds, for the first
time in the history of such affairs in
America, were sympathetically interested
and respectful at every point on the line
of march. Into those seventy-fve years
of hard work and effort, often heroic,
ha, been put the energies of thousands of
earnest, high minded men and women.
The convening Of the National Woman
Suffrage Association at Philadelphia
from the 2lst to the Goth of this month
VIII mark the end of the old order of OPP
position and the beginning of the new.
OF the oId hatred, lying and social os-
tracism were the weapons. The new form
Of opposition will come with gentle words,
outward respect and cunning devices to
secure delay, diminish interest and neu-
traIiZe effort.
When the little group around Susan b.
Anthony began to protest the women of
the State of New York owned neither
their own bodies, their own children nor
their own property. There was not a high
school open to girls among the public in
StitutionS of the country. The factory
owners worked women from dawn till
dark and drove children to death by dis
ease and Ovcrwork with no one making
any serious protest In some if not all
the states, a man could will his children
away from their mother and this was ac-
tually done. No woman was allowed to
speak i'll public upon any subject. No
woman was admitted to the colleges. No
woman might be a physician unless she
wouli practice without a college educa-
tiOn. \ few private institutions gave
women a partial education but most of
them merely gave a fashionable list of
accomplishments. With possibly an oc-
casional exception there was not a church,
not a pulpit, outside the Quaker meeting
houses, which was open to Miss Anthony
and her fellow workers. Clergymen an
nounced her meetings with scorn and
abuse or refused to mention them. Every
step of the way the suffrage workers, who
have led in the work of aboishing black
slavery, securing better laws for women
and children, asking better laws regulat-
ing the conditions for wage-earning wom-
en-. and demanding the ballot that wOm-
Ell might not be taxed and exploited with
out Representations have found opposed to
them great bodies of church and clergy,
of social leaders and political managers.
1t has taken seventy-fve years to make
their demands respectable. 1t will take
many more years to secure fair oppor-
tumty' for the women of the nation.
In noting the end of the first great cam.
paign of three quarters of a century the
help of certain groups of people should
be recognized. First among the pioneers
for justice were the Quakers. They rec
ognized the right of both sexes to equal
opportunity, in England in the days of
persecution, long before they began to
migrate. In New England they bore wit
ness to it as a truth in the days when
such testimony cost them their ears, their
liberty and sometimes their lives. They
continued it through the days of the Rev
oIutionary War and they proved their
faith by establishing some of the best
schools in America for both sexes, sup
ported by private means, in days when
the rest of the population were satisfied
with education for girls that included
little besides reading and writing. The
Shakers were equally advanced, though
not so active in educational matters.
The Prohibition party has for many