Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-13

| tenton. Miss Bates described the re
joicings at the last womans suffrag,
convention in Philadelphia and told how
the women of Maine had to hang theil
heads because the Pine Tree state was
| not represented.
In closing, Miss Bates said: There is
a tide in the affairs of states as well as
| in the affairs of men which taken at the
| food leads on to fortune. n great op
portunity has come to you men of the
/ 18th Legislature which you will not lei
go by and you will put yourself on RECORD
as favoring legislation, truly advance
which will place our State in the line OF
progress On this birthday of the great
and good man whose faith in govern
ment of tile whole people never wavered
4 who, at time when a belief in the ballot
| for women was. considered mad dream
said: 4 believe in all sharing the privi-
| leges of government who assist In bearing
| its burdens, by no means excluding wo-
men, On this day, with the memory OF
the great Lincoln in your minds, you can
not resist our plea for human rights, and
when the voters adopt the equal suffrage
amendment in September, Maine will take
her place as the 18th star in the suffrage
| flag. A star in the east to guide the
states, yet in darkness, into the light of
the true democracy
Mrs. Livingston.
Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston Of
Bangor made fine impression with
the clearness and force of her argu-
ment and with the clean cut business
like manner in which 1t was delivered
She first took up the objection To
granting votes to women because of
the unedueated class and argued that
there is certainly no greater proper
tion of uneducated women than men
and education has never been consid-
cred an Indispensable qualification for
a male voter. AS to ignorant foreign
women She declared that % per cent.
less of them are illiterate than the
foreign men. As to the objection that
women would increase the bad vote,
Mrs. Livingston asked The committee
to consider the proportion of men and
women in the prisons and refofma-
tories and in arrests made by the po-
lice. Five out of every seven members
of the evangelical churches are wom-
en-.
The speaker declared that not only
are the women of education and feis-
ure asking for the ballot but those
known as the wage earning women
who are now such factor in modern
economic life These women want the
right to say now long they shall work
and for what wages which the ballot
alone can give them. Working men
want the ballot for it is their most
nnnprfnI hot arinW bair
condition and women want it for the
same reason. The privileges apd
rights which you have so freely grant
ed women in the shelter of their
homes" said Mrs Livingston, I'VE now
ask you to extend to those women
working side by side with their chill
dren in Industrial life"
She referred briefly to the white
slave traffic, declaring that this can
only be wiped out by the votes of
women.
In closing Mrs. Livingston said: II
come before yo. gentlemen. not only as
the representative of the wage earning
and child training women but as
mother who demands the right equally
with his father to protect her boy
Mrs. Lawrence.
Mrs Efiie Lambert Lawrence of Luz
bee, In a witty and clever speech, told
about the duty of women in the home
and appealed for the boys and girls of
Maine whose lives We're directed from
the home She described the oiden
days when women wove the goods they
wore and made the household articles
and how she could manage to have
them nearly right, but today she had
nothing to say by ballot about pure
food or honest goods. She believed
that a government by women for wo-
men would he a mistake and women
do not understand the needs of man
nor do men the needs of women. 1t
is impossible for one sex to understand
what the other sex needs. Women will
not usurp mems places in business, but
they need the ballot today in order to
march alongside men in the struggle
for existence.
Mrs. Lawrence remarked that police
men need not fear women taking their
places on the force, for policemen are
never known to resign their jobs, and
as for military duty, she believed that
women could do that in the field hos
pitfalls on the battlefield and she was
always ready to do ner fun duty to
her country in war time Mrs Law
renee ended with toast to the COM
mittee, the burden of which was to
observe the Golden Rule, which
brought out a round of applause as she
took her seat
Mrs. isWrence's Toast.
Here's to thee and thy folks. from
me and my folks. and here is hoping
that if thee and thy folks ever come
before me and my folks. asking justice
for Thee and thy folks that me and my
folks will be as courteous to thee and
thy folks as thee and thy folks have
been to me and my folks. And here is
further hoping that when thee and thy
folks consider this plea from me and
my folks, that thee and thy folks will
be as just to me and my folks as thee