Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-12
OPINION NOT WEIGHTY,'
SUFFRAGTSTS REPLY TO
RUM INTERESTS HEAD
Neil Bonner's Declared Opposi-
tion to Votes for Women
Fails to Perturb Work.
ers for the Cause
AVOID STAND ON LIQUOR

II Neil Bonner, president of the Ma
tional Retail Liquor Dealers Association.
hoped to ruffle the placid, prediction
calm of the suffragists by his announce
ment that the woman's enfranchisemeut
amendment would go down to defeat not
only in Pennsylvania, but in New Jersey
as well, his aspirations have been
blighted.
They are laughing at him. Coming after
President Wilson's affirmative stand,
they don't believe his declaration will
have any appreciable weight and fur
thermore, in the intervals between past
ing up placards, sending out literature
planning parades and making speeches,
they are wondering what the liquor inter-
ests have got to do with woman suffrage
and why, If the liquor men are SO dead
sure that the amendments are going to
be beaten, they go to so much trouble
to make frequent announcements against
the suffragists
Mr.. Bonner's statement" said Miss
Mary II. Ingham, vice president of the
Equal Franchise Society, that he disap-
proves of our voting because the great
mass of women do not wish to be en-
franchised, is ridiculous. Organized
women have declared unanimously for
suffrage-State declarations of clubs,
labor unions, the Ladies' of the Macca-
bees, the w. C. T. u, working women
and rich women have come out for the
cause.
NO DECLARATION ON LIQUOR.
while suffragIsts as a body have not
declared themselves on the subject of
the liquor question, because we feel It
is matter for the individual to solve,
public opinion always credits women, and
rightly so, with the desire to want such
xUin he hn
children and the general condition of
working women. This might mean the
abolition of liquor, but we cannot tell
until we have the vote how we are going
to use It! In view OF the ever-increasing
number of persons who are coming over
b to suffrage, 1 do not think Mr.. Bonner's
opinins will have much weight"
According to DIR. Eleanor NJ. Hiestand-
Moore, chairman of the publicity bureau
of the Woman Suffrage party, the presi-
dent of the Retail Liquor Dealers Asso-
citation is assuming an opposition where
there is no certainty that it exists.
"These arguments against suffrage
amuse me-" she said this morning. "Pre-
sumably the liquor men are against us
because they think our having the vote
will hurt their pocketbooks. Then along
comes Senator MARITIME, who has launched
perhaps the most powerful argument the
antis have ever had-if an anti argu-
ment can be said to be powerful. The
chief reason that he gives for not want
ing women to vote is that they have not
proven themselves to be opposed to the
liquor interests. So there you are. They
talk against each other.
KEEPING CLEAR OF ISSUES.
Moreover. in view of the fact that
prohibition is most rampant in the South
where woman suffrage has not gained
the foothold that it has in the West and
North, Mr.. Bonners attitude is particu-
larly illogical. The liquor question, like
the gold standard, democracy, socialism,
republicanism or free trade, has nothing
whatever to do with woman suffrage. We
are not linked up with anything and
we are keeping clear of all issues. We
are simply going to vote according to our
individual convictions, and In the long
run 1t will take more than Mr.. Bonner
and the interest he represents to stop
-