Connecticut western news., 1913-06-05
ANTI-SUFFRAGE MEETING
Lively and Interesting Session, and
 Both Sides Heard From.

The anti-suffrage meeting in Town Hall, Friday evening called out a con- siderable crowd of interested auditors, the audience being apparently about equally divided between suffragists and antis and numbering almost as many men as women. The meeting was opened by Mrs. Cook, Of Hartford, who spoke at some length, on the rapid growth of the anti. suffrage movement, which has I 10000 enrolled followers in Connecticut, after only a few months existence, as compared to 5000 suffragists after A years of work. She spoke of the apathy of the registered women, in the matter of voting on school matters, stating that only 21s per cent. of the woman voters exercised The right of franchise. In in troducing Miss Lucy Prlce, of Ohio, Mrs. Cook referred to her as one who had been described by Hartford paper as ga mite of 8 woman from Ohio, who had taken up the arguments of the suffra- gifts, one by one, and put them out of business"
 Miss Price was greeted with a cordial round of hand. clapping. in which the suffragists joined heartily with the antis. She spoke for nearly an hour, and gave evidence of having thoroughly studied the anti side of the question. She re- peated arguments that are familiar to those who have kept tabs on the old con- troversy and brought out many new ones that appealed strongly to the oppo- nents of equal suffrage, as evidenced by the spontaneous applause that greeted them. She maintained that votes for women would not settle the wage ques- tion, the white slave problem, the tenn perance problem, nor any of the eco homie problems that confront the coun- try. She asserted that the rights of wo- men are more securely safeguarded in those states where equal suffrage has woman suffrage states that laws for social betterment are enacted by men primarily to benefit the women; that the plea that women who do not care to vote will not be obliged ito vote under equal franchise, is not valid, lnasmuch as it will then have become the moral duty of every honest woman to vote, just as it is now the moral duty of every honest man to vote, on matters affecting the public welfare. She read from the ''anonymous" poem in The News, signed, "B. A. H.," and denied that "the Price had been paid in Ohio," or that sinister interests were paying for her services.
 At the close of her address Miss Price invited questions from any in the au- dience, and after pause she got them, thick and fast, practically all from suf- frsgists, and it was generally conceded that she handled them in very clever fashion, whether she succeeded or not in turning the point against the questioner in all cases. She proved herself an ex- pert at repartes and hair-trigger wit, maintaing an air of good nature and courteous affabiIity throughout.
 Mrs. Hitchcock rose to inform Miss Price that she had written the poem re- ferred to. but that she had signed it with her initials, which are well known to readers, hence it was not " anonymous. !" but Miss Price insisted upon the dis tinction between " anonymous " and "se- cretiYe," and persisted in calling it anonymous. Mrs. Taylor, of Norfolk. president of the Litchfield County League, denied an assertion by Miss Price, that minors were enrolled in the membership. Miss Price replled that she had received her information from a suffragist, and as it seemed to be the word of one suffragist against that of another, it was for them to fight it out between themselves.