The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-04-13
She MADE FORTY ADDRESSES
And I&ft Organizations in Every
One. NJ Her Districts Counties
1%3Sanguine of Success
of Amendment.

making the campaign 1or equal suhlaso
in Iowa extremely promising for "a
vorable vote ON the constitutional
amendment which will go to the state
voters on June 5, said Mrs. Gerald
Mcdowell, 529 Park avenue, who has
been in Iowa six weeks and is now q
guest of her sister, Mrs. R. N. Kimball,
414 Prairie avenue Mrs. Mcdowell is
home for a week IS rest and then will
return to her campaigning.
''The three suspicious circumstances
are that most Of Iowa is populated by
American born people; that the school
system is large and splendid, and, third,
there are no saloons, and there are
many colleges
"Of course the brewery interests are
fighting in the state but they have
found it impossible to organize against
suffrage as they did when they had a
saloon on every corner and could order
the saloonkeeper to bring in from ten
to thirty votes on election day, accord
ing to the size of his place. They did
just that in the campaign in Michigan
in which / took part -
In telling of Mrs, Catt's recent visit
TO Iowa, Mrs. Mcdowell said Governor
Clarke of Iowa introduced her when she
spoke in Des Moines and the mayor of
the city and the governor both spoke
at the banquet given for her at which
$500 people were present.
Mrs. Mcdowell was sent to the first
district to organize. The district was
considered one of the most difficult in
Iowa and in the last campaign no or
ganization had Been perfected there.
Mrs. Mcdowell left in her wake a live
county organization in each of the
seven counties, a local organization in
every town of over 900, including a
large and enthusiastic one in Burling-
ton, and few in the smaller cities,
and in each of the townships there were
organizations.
Made Forty Speeches.
Mrs. Mcdowell made forty speeches
in the course of her work, including
several in Des Moines and Burlington.
"Ninety-fve per cent of all the men
met in Iowa are favorable to equal
suffrage, and this includes ministers,
lawyers, Judge or two, newspaper men,
business men, farmers and physicians, !"
she said.
4" AS to Iowa women wanting the
vote, can say that the majority of
Iowa women do. Iowa women are a
splendid lot, unusually intelligent, wide
awake and alert. "
Mrs. Mcdowell said that it is no
unusual experience for the suffrage
speakers to be sent for by the many
colleges that are dotted through Iowa
with the request to speak before stu
dent bodies and in Fairfield, Iowa, she
addressed all of the students of Par
son s college, and later the faculty
with the addition of the ministers, law
yers and newspaper men.
Mrs. Mcdowell said old-fashioned.
aristocratic Keokuk, Iowa, had never
heard a suffrage speech until she went
there, but she left with a well organ
lied society as evidence of her coming.
81 wrote three letters to Wappello,
Louisa county, before I went there, -
said Mrs. Mcdowell, "for I had heard
this would be most difficult town.
addressed one to the wife of the mayor.
one to the chief judge Of the town and
another to the wife of the member of
the legislature.
l received no response from anv of
the three but when L arrived in town I
found that two were out of town and
a message was waiting from the third
to tell me that she was not interested
but had turned her letter over to a
friend who was. This FRIEND called on
me at the hotel and told me she was
ardently a suffragist but she was GER
tain nothing could be done in the town.
! induced her to try. 1t resulted in a
strong organization with the mayor as
member of the advisory board, the
mayors daughter as the vice president
and so many others in the ranks that
when a suffrage tea was given they
counted 1875 present and there were but
1900 people in the whole town,
He Used Safety Pin
" met three men in Iowa who con-
fessed they were opposed to suffrage.
One was delightful old gentleman of
N, Col Scott, a Bostonian, and most
conservative. He opposed it on the
strength of an out-of-date form of
chivalry; young newspaper reporter
who confessed he really knew nothing
of it except that he was opposed to it
on general principles; and funny old
loafer that I was much interested in.
He read IN the paper that ! was at a