The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1914-11-21
STATES RIGHTS AND
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

An address by Miss Kate Nj.
Gordon OF New Orleans, delivered
at the Southern States Woman
Suffrage Conference in Chattanoo
ga, November 10tb, 1914
ut is exactly one year today
Il that there assembled iii New Or
leans a body Of women, in re
Il Spouse to an invitation extended
TO the Southern Governors by
women from all the Southern
i States, and which invitation asked
of these representative of the
people to meet them and adopt A
uniform plan Of action for the
adoption of woman suffrage in the
South.
The invitation was uDeqnlvOcal
as TO the belief of these women
| that Suffrage was State right
aud that the power to define its
restrictions should +, main he ex-
elusive right of The State But
equally unequiyocal was their pc.
pitiou that woman suffrage was
no longer theory 10 be debated,
but condition 10 be met, and
that the women OF the South be-
lieving in suffrage land the great
majority of them DO believe) were
determined to secure as OF para
mount the ballot, their Oirthright
Of citizenship, even if ia so doing
they were obliged TO seek their
right through the head of a Ia
tional amendment.
| None Of The Governors availed
himself of the invitation, but d
large number of the Southern
states were represented, and the
Southern States Woman Suffrage
Conference, in convention assem-
bled here today for the first time.
is the result.
The Southern States Woman
Suffrage Conference has for its
immediate object: to make the
Democratic party declare itself in
favor of Votes for Women in
its next National Platform. This,
We Southern suffIaglsts believe, is
the first step in what will prove a
veritable suffrage landslide in the
South within the next five or six
years. Since taking this position
.ast year, we have Witnessed the
Democratic Caucus IN Congress
go out of its way to defeat the es.
adjustment of woman suffrage
committee 10 the House Of Repre-
sentatIves, by declaring the Par
ty's belief i'll suffrage as a State
and not Federal right, thus dis
posing Of their responsibility on a
question which has assumed the
proportions Of wofld movement.
During the same interim, the
President of the United States
has likewise expressed III opinion
which disposed of his responsible
ty III refusing to recommend the
establishment of such a committee
in the House. SAID the President,
when urged to recommend this
woman suffrage committee: 81 am
helpless to act, for ny lnterpreta
lion Ut representation in govern
ment is dependent upon an ex-
preston from the organic body.
The "Organic body" referred to
speaks through the Party's Ma
tiOnal Platform.
Let us briefly anslyse the posi-
ton OF the s. s. W. S. O., which
define as a strategic one. Our
suffrage friends of The opposition
(and | use the term "friends' in
the truest sense), are bending ev.
cry energy to secure the submis-
sion and adoption of an amend
ment "forbidding disfranchise
ment on account of SEX. We of
the South know The expedients
that have been adopted to offset
the amendments that gave ma
ti0Dal control on right that the
Democratic Caucus has so recent.
iy declared State right. We of
the South know that our ability to
employ these expedients is not
through the virtue of their consti
nationality, but by virtue Of the
fact, that public opinlou has rec
ognized The injustice and non wis
dom OF policy of national inter.
ference ID local self.goverDment.
Hence, the large chorus of Amenn.
without latitndinal, longitudinal
or political restrictions, which as. |
SCENTS to the Democratic Congress
sl0nai Caucus pronouncement that
suffrage is a State and not a Fed |
eral right,
Shifting the scene from Con
gress To the States, let us no
longer discuss the issue from the
point of view of party caucus.
out consider it from the stand
point OF the women of the fifteen
Southern states, who are heartily |