The Glenwood post., 1916-10-28
tanning woman suffrage which has
proved to lead up against blank wall.

Ior suHrage STATE by state, DuC What
\ has this party, what have its leaders,
done to achieve victory in any one
statei What did Mr.. Bryan do to help
in Nebraska? Nothing! What did
O'Gorman do in New York; Nothing!
Put one little ballot in box and fur
ther Champ Clark in Missouri did
nothing. What did President Wilson
do in New Jersey' Nothing! Moth
ing. The Democratic machine rose in
its might in that state, putting out its
entire force against the suffrage amend
ment and Mr.. Wilson did nothing to
check the Vaccinations of the bosses
when experience had taught him how
to control in New Jersey He says he
put one ballo! III the ballot box in our
favor and that was the ektent of The
Did given to lis by that al. powerful
Democrat, complete master and leader
of his party.
| President Wilson said at Atlantic
City in September that he was "fight-
ing with u.s. I challenge the presi-
dent to name the day and the place
where he fought for the political free
dom of women All this Democratic
passion for settling women suffrage
state by state is hypocrisy. No one
knows better than the gentleman who
advises "get suffrage state by state"
that it is the way not to get it all.
We women voters vote for President
and Vice President in twelve states,
in eleven states for members of con-
gress besides. These states change il
succeeding presidential elections from
Democratic to Republican, from Repub-
lican to Democratic, and they are car
ried by small majorities. If ss votes
had been cast differently in California
to what they were cast in 1912, that
state would have been lost to the Pro-
gressive party, and would have been
carried for Wilson.
| In such close states small group Of
voters can, if they are loyal to an idea.
hold the balance of power. 1t would
not need all women voters to see the
vision nor half of them. but a mere
fraction to decide the fate of party
in a suffrage state. A balance of power
reminds me of the old negro who, when
asked why he didn't wear two spurs
instead of only one on his right foot,
said, eff I spur de right side de horse
and make it 60 de odder side guine
to go too'' The state will 20 as the
balance of power goes. Women need
spur only one side of the horse and the
race is theirs
The retefca1un. is a delusion and
snare. Patty leaders even cannot even
insure its outcome. The vcte is secret.
The ballot box in a referendum elec.
tion is the burying ground of promises
broken. If all the men in the state Of
New York who promised me to vote
for the suffrage amendment had done
so on Nov. 2, 1915, the women of New
York would be enfranchised. Men,
like women, change their minds. They
have the privilege and evidently use it
, to larger extent than they got credit
for. Thousands of them in New York
changed their minds when they were
wrapped in the secrecy of the polling
booth.
| The federal amendment is not only
the one method of enfranchising women
! through which we voting women can
use our power, but it is the only way
to confer on our sex complete enfran-
chisement
Is it not time to write into the fed
eral constitution our amendment "The
right to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by
any state on account Of sex"3
You urge, perhaps, "But has not
Mr.. Wilson rendered the greatest SER
vice to women in keeping us out Of
war;" Let me reiterate my contention
that complete ,virile unfettered dem
ocracy, is the surest guarantee of peace.
Nothing greater could be done to keep
us out Of war than to give the people,
women as we'll as men, direct control
Of the question of war or peace. Blu:
Mr.. Wilson stands in the way of this
control. To me it is nauseous to hear
the perpetual chorus, " he kept US out
of war" 'Tis folly for nation of
100,000,000 souls to depend upon the
kindly Offices Of one man to keep them
out Of world cataclysm. Let the peo-
pie keep themselves out Of war.
But let us look little closer at this
suggestion of special debt We owe
Mr.. Wilson. One would think we had