The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-02-22
new MILFORD NEWS

New Milford, Feb. 22-The New Mil
ford Equal Franchise League fired a
suffrage, Thursday evening, when Dr.
Anna Howard Shaw, president OF the
na.tiona1 association, addressed q. large
Many were attracted BY the nation
al reputation of the speaker and were
not disappointed in their anticipa-
only an Intellectual treat but force
full and logical presentation Of the
cause of which she has been the lead
ing champion for thirty years. An
platform bore the words, Votes for
Women and around the auditorium
were small banners bearing the names
Of states in which women are voters,
with the date when they became SUCH
Mrs. G. H Wright. president OF the
local league, presided. Mrs. A. r.
Scranton Taylor of Norfolk, county or
ganizer, told of what is being done to
bring about legislative enactment CIV
ing women the right of franchise in
Connecticut DR.. Shaw discussed the
fundamental principles back of the
repeated efforts to promote universal
suffrage and surveyed the progress
lines by which woman has been
brought out from a position of semi
servitude to a realization of her
sphere and the stand she has taken to
maintain it. She declared that no
country can justly call itself repub-
lie in which certain rights are de-
nied to a certain class, and that , class So
another. The true republic is that
which gives equality to all for all.
The work of the world, she said. wac
not male nor female, but human
work. We talk of our splendid ideals,
and sing of the land of the free, and
yet deny to our sisters the opportun-
ity to aid in the a1leviatfOn of the
worlds sufferings which In so many
cases affects the women of the land,
as is evidenced by the degradation in
congested cities. The speaker strong
ly refuted the charges that women
are incompetent to handle the vote,
stating that the number or i1literate
males far exceeded those of the other
sex in the country, and yet the laws
were SO pliable as to adjust themselves,
in some unaccountable way, to the adj
mission OF such to the electorate. All
she, as preacher of righteousness,
demanded was a fair deal. In discus
sing the attitude of antf-suffragist
women, DR.. Shaw recounted her ex-
perience at a recent hearing in New
Jersey at which she was present to
press her claims in behalf of suffrage.
A sister member of the opposition
asked committee what women would
do if given the vote, explaining, in
pleading tones, that they had no time
soup houses and bread lines now sus-
tanned by women would have to be
abandoned and philanthropies in gen
era1 would 1anguish. My friends
said DR.. Shaw, charity and phiIan-
thropy should be elininated-these
conditions should not exist. We want
our own soup kitchens and homes and
comforts. In place of these terms put
Opportunity and the need for these
Institutions will never be- DR. Shaw
held the closest attention of the audi
ence for hour and a, half, and
made many telling points in defense
Of her position, the address sparkling
with keen hunor and emphasized with
shafts of effective sarcasm. Many
were for the time being drawn in SYM
pathy to her cause by the brilliant
and earnest manner with which she
presented her arguments, and the
charming rhetoric in which she cloth
ed her thoughts The address was re-
garded, without question, as being the
finest Of any delivered in town for
many years. During the evening
there were selections by a quartet
composed of MesSrs. Percy E. Collins,
F. J. Hatch, Louis S. Richmond. J.
Sear1e Pinney, Harold L Hunt acting