Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-09
WOMEN or CITY
HOLD MEETING ON
WOMAN SUFFRAGE

/
number assembled in Library hall
| Friday afternoon to hear Miss Helen
Bates, Mrs. Florence Brooks White
house and Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott,
speak upon the question of Woman
| Suffrage" There was a sprinkling of
the male sex throughout the audience.
All three of the ladies are brilliant
speakers and held the attention of
| their hearers closely. The ladies of
Gardiner are to be congratulated on
this, their first suffrage meeting in
this city.
1t was very appropriate that the
meeting should be opened by Mrs.
Laura E. Richards, who is deeply in
terested in the cause. Mrs. Richards
introduced Miss Helen Bates of Port
| land, president of the Maine Woman
Suffrage Association, as the first
speaker of the afternoon.
Miss Bates spoke of the growth of
the cause from the time Wyoming
granted equal suffrage in 1869 to the
! present time. Nine states now enjoy
| equal suffrage and ii is a significant
/ fact that each of these states is con-
! tiguous to another where women are
| invested with the same right, as sure
/ proof of its success. In addition to
the above, Nevada, Montana, North
! Dakota and South Dakota have had
| the cause successfully pass the Legis-
| lature and will go to the voters in
| November. Three states, Iowa, Mis-
| souri, and Oklahoma have the initia-
/ tive petitions now in circulation
| Coming nearer home we have New
| York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts, where woman suffrage
has passed the Legislature once and
! must go through again as required by
the Constitutions of these states.
Illinois starts a new cycle and as
! granted, Presidential and partial coun-
| ty, state and municipal suffrage. Fin
| ally 20 states have granted taxation,
! spoke of the bright outlook for the
cause to be carried in Maine during
| the coming session and referred to
the fact that the Socialist, Republican
and Progressive parties of this State
have this plank in their platform 1t
| is becoming everywhere recognized
that the question of woman suffrage
is a vital one and she commended the
press of the State that was support
ing the cause.
).
| Florence Brooks Whitehouse of Port
land, who held her audience spell
bound by her brilliant oratory. She is
rapid and forceful speaker, though
her clear and almost perfect enuncia-
ton makes her easy TO follow. She
opened by saying that the spirit of
democracy was born in the American
youth, that all men were born free
n 81 Il
the reins of government by usurpa-
ton. Wherever woman has been given
the chance she has proved that she is
! able to use the ballot right. Women
are beginning to ask: Where do we
come in? 1t is our country as we'll as
mans and where We are denied suf-
| frage we are deprived of our rights.
1t is our right because it is the last
! step for the benefit of humanity and
the home" The liquor interests are
| opposed to the cause and others ask us
to prove that we would use the ballot
| for public good. Mrs. Whitehouse an
swered many of the arguments pro-
| pounded by opponents by statistics.
showing that but one-third of one per
cent. of the women are corrupt: that
there are II times as many native
born women than foreign born; that
there are $4,000 white women in the
South, more than the Negro race, both
male and female; that one per cent.
| OF the women are opposed to woman
| suffrage and SO per cent. are indiffer-
| ent. Work against the cause has been
| carried on for IS years in Massachu-
! sets and they have succeeded in only
| 9ettlhg per cent of the women OPP
posed to the cause in that State. Six
hundred organizations have endorsed
the cause. What is there about pol
ltlcs that the most ignorant man can
understand and the most intelligent
woman cannot" she asked.
She cited Jane Adams, Florence
Kelly and Maude Ballington Booth as
proof that women We're interested in
municipal reform and good laws. Child
labor and the employment of women
IN factories received attention. Statis-
TICS prove that women use the ballot
quite as much as the men. where thev
nave the privilege. The speaker con-
Guided with: The Suffragists believe
IN democracy and whatever addition
al freedom given them will hold little
OF menace and much of inspira ton"
MRS. Maud Howe Elliott of New Jer-
sey daughter of the late Julia Ward
Howe, was the next speaker and took
for her topic, Women in Politics."
Opening with reference to the splen-
did victory recently gained in New
York for the betterment of the civ
in the election of John p. Mitchell
she stated that he had selected for
his commissioner of corrections Miss
Katherine Davis. as the most efficient
rerson he could find for the lob. Fran
ees A. Keller of New York was re-
ferred to as one of the most remark
able women in the United States. to
whom conditions regarding immi-
grants are constantly being referred.
Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's
Federal Bureau, is doing remarkable
work. Jane Adams, a national figure
in social reform work. Woman is to-
day part of the political structure
and they should have the vote. They
should have right in the spending
of the taxes, of which they paw a
part. The one thing for women to do
iS tn