The Washington herald., 1914-12-13

en- or the United states for stxty-fve
years. and II 1t has not accumulated
among women In that time the circtia-
tion OF a thlrd-rate woman's magazine,
what Is the answer7
Ciubwomea Question.
The ciubwornen. sunragisfs say, have
indorsed suffrage. They neglect 10 say
some eiubwomen, OF course. and persons
like myself. vino remain In Federations
OF Clubs because they did not indorse
woman suffrage. are represented In these
titanic struggles OF woniel who are al
legged to have approved votes for wom-
en- The suffragists challenge Us 70
produce figures showing that 80 per cent
Of the organized women favor anr-aui-
frage and are against votes for Wom-
en-" We Will take up this challenge
when Il seems worthy Of emphasis. but
meanwhile We would like to challenge
the suifragists to produce the proof that
80 20 30 per cent Of the women canYassed
IN campaign States have signed peh-
tons. as alleged, We know suffragists
who have gone round with petitions. who
are ashamed 60 tell the number and pro-
portion they got. How delightfully."- re-
freshing Il would be TO find a few who
can say that 20 or 90 per cent OF the wom-
en- canvassed signed-and then how
beautiful IL would be to tell just how the
signatures were obtained. or how many
OF the slips were signed by one person!
"No. Madam doesn't mean that you
tndoree women suffrage at all, glibly
explains the expert suffrage canvasser
I'VE only want il submitted to the peo-
pie. Yes. that's it. right here on this
little yellow slip. Thanks" Apd the wo-
man becomes one OF the enrolled per
cent who want the vote! We happen to
know of one person who has been 'en-
rolled thirty-five times. but really, this
In telling stories out OF school and We
should keep such things TO liyen up the
sessions Of the legislature IL We were
not so abundantly possessed OF them that
We have them to spare. And besides, II
would not be charitable to give the suf-
fragists no warning that their methods.
even, may hurt their cause 1t Is such
a fraiI and failing cause, anyhow. with
its sixty-fve years of public life weigh
ing IL down. that Il needs assistance to
stand on its feet and face another great
popular defeat in 1915, and even the
"antis' would hate 10 see the things for
which women like Julia Ward Howe
pleaded before the suffrage experiment
was extensively tried. go out into the
cold night Of political oblivion and popu-
lar condemnation without a warning to
its present leaders that their methods
are helping TO kill poor old votes for
women" After New York. New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania get through with wO-
man suffrage in 1915. the issue will be
las dead as Queen Anne" here as well
as a suffraE.st member OF Parliament
says II is I'm England II may linger for
a while I'm the sparselS settled States
OF the West. where there are so few
women to men in the population But
even there the reaction Is noticeable.
For instance. not one OF the old four
suffrage States-COlorado, Idaho, Utah.
and Wyoming-was interested enough
this year 20 send a delegate to the Nash
vile convention, and apparently in three
OF these States. there are no suffrage
organizations, as they are not listed with
the fifty-three associations in the Ma
tlonal. In the eleven suffrage States
the national membership is 600. accord
ing to the credentials report figures at
Nashville two weeks ago. Remember this
the next time you are told that -four
million women vote now from these
States. that less than One-sixth OF I
per cent of them will join a national
movement to enfranchise their sisters,
This is one Of the saddest things about
suffrage. its desertion by women with
the vote.