Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-01-16
By Anna III. Wood

AS an anticlimax to the busy State
convention of the Progressive party,
the large auditorium of the Board of
Trade was crowded to the doors last
evening by men and women who gath
cred to hear Senator Helen Ring Rob-
inson, of Colorado, and Miss Margaret
Foley, the social worker of Massachu-
setts, speak on suffrage.
DR.. Ruth Deeter as vice-chairman of
the Dauphin County Women's Stuff
rage Association, introduced Senator
Robinson, a typical westerner. She is
tall, strongly built with a manner
combining deep sincerity with keen
humor. Her apparent nervousness
soon wore off under the sympathy of
her audience.
II always feel at disadvantage
among you eastern people," said Mrs,
Robinson, because you treat suffrage
as if 1t were still matter of debate.
OF course it is not so among us of
Colorado. But | am, not here to ans
wer argument with argument but
facts with facts. Certain ladies -
those who go into politics in order to
keep other ladies out-often try to
use the example (as an argument) of
a certain body of women to-day in
England who have formed habit of
throwing stones not wisely but too
well. OF course the women of Amer
lea do not approve Of militant tactics.
| Let me tell you that in our nine States
where women have won the vote not
one militant movement was ever start
ed. Having been so successful we are
not likely to change our methods
now!
Spiritual Suffragcttcs
'As against this argument of the
antis, ] want to say word in pass
ing about a new order of Englishwo-
men increasing in volume daily called
the Spiritual Suffragettes. In the
modern churches and in tho crumbling
cathedrals with the full consent of the
bishops and clergy, a new order of
prayer Is being made by them for the
honor and safety of English woman
hood.
Men and women, this vote which
women are seeking Is only a new
means of expressing their nature, not
| violating it, Woman's status has
changed steadily in the past few years
socially, economically, educationally.
| Why not politically? | do not see
| how any good man or intelligent wo-
man can oppose votes for women un-
less he holds a double standard OF
! Justice, fair play and common sense.
! Not long ago a scientist brought
| forward as an objection to suffrage
| the fact that women were disqualified
I
! carbonate of lime in their bones than
men. | investigated and found he was
correct. Then | carried my investiga-
| tions on and found lions possess far
less carbonate of lime in their bones
than chickens. Chasing men with
chickens and women with lions, can
the scientist use the argument fur-
| ther? Your fathers are so prone to
think your sons must inherit your abil-
| . ,t,, ,1 WI a h.
ters develop traits of their mothers!
| Very, very often you find you are
] wrong The masculine and feminine
traits get sadly mixed up at the por-
| tails of life.
MANY years ago a wise gentleman
/ named Plato said that in matters of
government the on.y difference be-
tween men and women was the differ
ence of inherited prejudice. | feel like
the old shoemaker who said, L like
that fellow Plato, he has so many of
/ my ideas!
| First Woman Movement
Senator Robinson went on to speak
| of woman's great passion for the con-
servation of human life and the home.
She claimed the first woman move
ment was when the female ape reach
ed out and gathered branches to bu1ld
| for her young q better home than the
tree crotch which satisfied her lord.
! She spoke of young woman acquaint-
ance who was driven into the suffrage
cause by ''the dead hands of her an
cestors and those of the unborn gene
lrations urging the conservation and
safeguarding of motherhood, child
hood and the home" 1t is through the
American woman's vote that Senator
Robinson feels the great problems OF
the hour, immigration, white slavery
capital and labor. social evils and kim
dred subjects can be I 1T.
I'VE no longer have a geographi-
cal frontier she said, but how about
the frontier of the spirit? The Jane
Addames Of the twentieth century are