The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-08-17
Grace Wilbur Trout, Illinois
Suffrage Leader, Sees Pro
lection for Homes and
Moral Standards.
REFUTES OLD ARGUMENT
Speaker Thrills Big Crowd at
Hamilton With Clean Out
Talk on This Subject
Of Votes.


[By .. Stan Representative
HAMILTON, Aug. 17.-This year
for the first time In the forty years
OF chautauqla, the bureaus asked for
equal suffrage speakers, and at the
Hamilton chautnuqua yesterday Grace
Wilbur Trout, president Of the I'LL
no.s Equal Suffrage league. was the
principal speaker. She is very
Handsome woman, with a clear voice,
which without effort carried to the
farthest corner OF the tent. Her lee
ture was logical from the first sent
ence to tha last and was expressed in
the best OF English. There was not
one word OF bitterness, no appeal to
tile sentiments OF the women or the
chivalry Of the men, 1t was plain
'horse sense from first to last. The
speaker was faultlessly gowned, In a
very Frenchy dress and made a
strikingly attractive appearance.
In an interview she said: I'VE
weren't thinking about chautauqua
work this summer at headquarters.
we were too busy organizing our
leagues. When the agent came from
the lecture bureau, the women and
the men who are helping us in this
work, said you must co. So told
the agent I'd deliver ten lectures and
he begged for fifteen, SO I agreed.
And / have been in eight states and
delivered forty lectures and have
dates ahead into October, and I could
lecture all winter II would"
The Rev. Hall OF the Bethel Pres
byterian church, was platform man
ager yesterday. The management
asked Miss Eleanor Gordon to pre-
side during the afternoon. In intro.
ducing her. Rev. Hall said: ut is
the pride of our community that we
have living among us one whose
heart and life and mind for years
has been given to sthis work of equal
suffrage, and as q, mark of our love
and respect for her she is asked tc
Introduce Mrs. Trout
Miss Gordon was greeted with
hearty applause. She is a woman of
unusual ability, one known through
out this country and the compliment
and the applause were both merited.
In introducing Mrs., Trout, Miss Cord
on said she had done more than any
other one person in the state of Illi-
nois to bring about equal suffrage.
Her Faith an Inheritance.
Mrs. Trout SAID: MY interest
in suffrage came By inheritance from
my father and mother. My inspiration
to work for 1t came out of the shad.
ow. Just before the youngest of my
three boys became of age, he was in
California when the women there
We're working for suffrage. He saw
the evil forces, the saloon element
and the other forces combined against
II, and that boy saw that the great
est argument in favor Of equal suf-
irage is that the evil forces are ter
TOR stricken at the thought and al
ways fight the measure. He came
back to Illinois about the time the
women asked me to take the presi-
dency and said ooh, can't" He
said you must, mother" Not very
long after, he was taken from us in
the prime Of his young manhood, and
! am seeking to work out his vision
OF democracy in which the home
Shall be represented.
The suffrage question is the great
est question before us today; it is
not woman problem, or a man prob
lem, but q human problem. This
cry is not . new cry but the echo OF
an old, old cry for liberty and the
right to express it. Every great
movement rasses through three
Stages, rirst scorn, second desire on
the part Of the people to know some
thing about It and third its triumph.
The principles of equal suffrage wo,ld
nave been indicated long ago had It
not bcen that so many people are like
III Maine fisherman who when asked
now he spent his time, said. I sit and
mink and then agin just sit It is
apathy and lack OF thought that have
retarded the movement.
Lack knowledge Of Subject.
Everybody l meet, men and wom-
en-. who say I haven't favored suffrage
Tor women because knew nothing
about it, now that 1 know its reasons
l believe in r. 1t was Gladstone.
wasn't it, who said I am always will
ing to be convinced on any point and
saad to acknowledge that l am wiser
Today than yesterday
Ny friends, men were not born
With votes in their hands. they had
- struggle for fac franchise. Just as
arc sn!ng. FRS. cD'Y the kins's