The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1914-07-15
'Do Not Force Us to Encroach
on State Rights to Obtain
Suffrage" Is Argument to
Lawmakers.
10 Longer Any Question That
Women of Dixie Demand the
Ballot, Declares Miss Kate
M. Gordon.

To grant suffrage is the right
|ot the State. To save another State
problem from becoming national
Issue Southern Legislators should
|oct, and act promptly, on woman
suffrage.
That is the original and tdctful
argument Southern suftragists,
through Miss Kate M. Gordon, non
are bringing to bear on Congress-
Miss Gordon, the 'Jdne adams
|ot the South" makes tho surpris.
|Hg assertions in this interview
Southern pomen, contrary to gen.
|er1l opinion, are deeply interested
In suffrage. The South mas the
pioneer in granting partial woman
Suffrage.
By ]. R. HILDEBRAND.
Business of handing Democratic
statesmen a golden opportunity ON a
silver platter.
Northern suffrage women are apt
to try to pierce their intelligence
With cold, merciless logic; Western
women have been trying to ride
Eough shod over traditions and pre-
yudices. 1t remained for the South
ern women graciousIy to hold forth
votes for women with a winsome
mile and an implied Surely, no
Gentleman could refuse
Miss Kate Gordon, the Jane
adams of the South" is the woman
directing this new flank movement"
Tor suffrage. ANY one who is con-
vinced that woman is not a
thoroughly practical politician when
she really tries should listen to Miss
Gordon expound this latest scheme
for gaining the vote.
Suffrage no longer is an academic
issue Few intelligent persons now
would debate its wisdom or deny its
justice. We no longer need convince
folk women should have the vote,
We must rather go about the best
and surest way of getting it.
We Southern women are inter-
ested in suffrage from special
ngle. We are thorough believers
IN State rights. We have no wish
20 force TO a national issue another
question which will infringe upon
these State rights.
Flank Movement for Votes.
That is why We must call the at
tention of our Southern members
Of Congress to the peril they invite.
II they do not act quickly in MAX
ing a State matter OF this state is
sue they will force US to join in
he national campaign for suffrage.
thus making suffrage national is
sue. and we dislike exceedingly to
do that"
There you have the neatest sort
Of flank movement in politics
lou could wish. Not a WORD that
the Southern women have made the
Presidents position their own. Not
Z word that they have taken the eN-
act argument with which they are
confronted when they go 10 the
Capitol. and converted il into
reasonable premise for quick action
on suffrage.
There has been a general mIscon-
ceptiOn about the relation Of South
sTn women TO suffrage, all along.
Miss Gordon will tell you. Southern
women are not opposed TO suffrage
she asserts. They not only see the
light nov, but they were pioneers
n the suffrage cause:
Woman suffrage first saw the
light of day on the Western Henri
sphere in the South" she explained
The first suffrage step taken in
our country was that of Kentucky,
in 1888. when school suffrage WAS
granted to women with children of
4 school age.
Suffrage got no further in the
South for a long time because the
movement in the North was in the
hands Of abolitionists. Human ma
ture is prone to prejudice, and this
fact caused Southern women to
drop suffrage like ahot iron. Then
came the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments, and suffrage gave
away before the intense feeling
against those who stood sponsor for
IL"
Want Suffrage In South.
But all that has passed, and South
ern women today are more keenly
alive TO the need of suffrage than
most folk realize, Miss Gordon said.
n