The Washington herald., 1914-12-27
letter" that now is the nuisance of Con-
Women Greatest Lobbyi.t..


Women Greatest LObbyists.
member of Congress in a recent
special article briefly described the
various lobbies kept up by interests"
OF different kinds. He went into the
Standardization" OF letters from
home" and wondered IL this Is becom-
ing a government by correspondence"
And then he Informed us that THE
woman suffragists. and the anti-woman
suffragists' have the most persistent
Hobbies. 1t is rather hard on the suf-
fraKe argument that women need votes
to note that without votes they are
already far ahead of mere men in CON
trolling legislatures"
In fact. the suffragists have become
rather adept at the Standardization"
OF lobbying, having carried it on for
nearly seventy years, whereas the antis
are only amateurs at this as yet
These letters and kilograms from
home are a wonderful help to u.s." said
the leader of the Congressional Com
mittee OF the National Suffrage Associ-
alton. to their convention. FOR even
though these men know that they are
originated by the committee. and know
that We have caused them to be sent,
they are Influenced nevertheless"
Men Weary of Topic.
And this is why the women in suffrage
circles would rather meet the "antis'' in
the legislatures than at the polls. They
arc defeated in nearly every case at the
polls, because there the opposition is
counted. whereas in a campaign OF let
terS from home" the side that has the
most Standardization AID gets out the
most frequent orders to Representa-
tives is likely to be mistaken for the ma
Il
aority has afflicted Congress and the leg
islatures so much in the last half CEN
tury that the majority OF the men would
rather vote on anything under the sun
than woman suffrage. II is the one thing
that politicians very often fail to meas
ure-simply because the women possess
the advantage of not having to show
their numbers at the polls. II man
from any interest writes his Congress
man. the member can gauge pretty ac-
curately just how many votes are back
of that man, but when a woman writes,
In the name of women, the Congressman
Is likely to consider il a demand on the
part Of all the women in his district, un-
less he has given the matter serious
study. And there is nothing man fears
So much as the adverse sentiment of the
women in his district.
Impossible to count or estimate. as a
rule, 1t may represent the views of the
majority of women, who. of course, will
have their wishes carried out by their
husbands, fathers, sons and brothers at
the polls. Mere man can only represent
himself as a Democrat or Republican or
Socialist, etc, and threaten or cajole only
as his party has political power: but
woman writes OIL speaks as a nonpartisan,
a moral power behind ballots not meas
urable by party strength.
"MOst PerpIexInE ISSUE"
This is why Copgressmen call this the
most perplexing political issue"-the
suffragists, although not in their most
roseate claims establishing so much as
10 per cent of the women in favor of
votes. have so standardized indirect in
fluence' that many men mistake the
noise of the fcw as representing the will
of the majority. All other considerations
aside, 1t is acknowledged by both suf-
fragists and antis that women will get
the vote il they want it."
The overwhelming majority, as proved
at the polls, do not want it, and the suf-
fragists, in their latest plea to put votes
for women" up to the State legislatures
instead of to the people, because the cam
paigns are SO hard on the women work.
ers," tacitly acknowledge that they would
rather trust to indirect influence" than
the vote. Hard and trying political cam
paigns would be exactly what women
would have to go into at every election
II they voted, and therefore We are heart
lily in favor of the suffrage view that
women should not be required to enter
them. Antis. too, believe women should
and can get the things they want better
from their legislatures than by going out
into the political arena-thats why they
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