The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1916-11-24
Campaign TRAIN
NOT SUFFRAGE MOVE
Suffrage Organizations keep
Out of Partisan Politics
Says Speaker.

ALBANY. n. Y, Nov. 24.-Explain.
Ing why the wOmen's Hughes campaign
train which toured the country to the
Pacific Coast and return in behalf OF
Charles Evans Hughes, was not SUI.
frage movement. Mrs. Raymond Brown
speaking here tonight al an open meet.
Ing In connection with the New YORK
State Woman party's annual conven.
ton, said that woman suffrage work.
ers DO not desire as party to speak
for any candidate as long as they are
themselves denied the ballot.
1T was not Q suffrage train, the sui.
frage organization did not approve OF
1t, and there were few, II any, organi.
cations suffragists in It.
1.-THE suffrage organizations urged
their women not to take part In par...
san politics so long as they are forbid.
den the vote. Organized suffragists
were urged not to speak or work for
any candidate. They would have been
shy. also, as unenfraucised Eastern
women, to set out to tell Western wo
men voters how to vote. They believe
that as long as women are forbidden
the direct way Of taking part in an
election they should refues to take any
part: that as long as the men deny
them the right they demand for them.
selves Of helping choose the kind of
government: they want, they should
refuse to allow those men to use them.
Sunragists will no longer be the door
mats OF men in politics or Of political
parties"
To the women of the East who are
working for equal suffrage, certain
sense Of insult" was brought out in
the recent political campaign, Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw said last night,
speaking at an open meeting in con.
nection with the convention. P1esi.
DENIAL candidates were guilty OF
careful, geographical distribution OF
their utterances," Mrs. Laidlaw assert.
cd, as they favored woman Suffrage
when on woman suffrage soil but man.
tanned silence when campaigning east
Of the Mississippi.
Republican and Democratic D. lit.
cal organizations In many unenfran
chised states have endea.ared practi.
cally to repudiate the national planks."
the speaker said. In the most caya.
lier way they have adopted state plat
forms. after the national conventions.
with utter disregard for the pro-sut.
rage principles announced in the ma.
uonal platforms Of their own party.
when 1t has come to the declara.
lion OF their woman suffrage convic.
tons Presidential candidates have
shown discrimination unparalleled in
their treatment Of their other utter.
ances OF campaign principles East OIL
The Mississippi they were smitten with
a strange forgetfulness not to say OBJ.
liViousness Of their spirite lttrrances
en- this question. In view OF their blank
silence on suffrage questions in our
Eastern states the who'll hear'ed en-.
thusiasr Of the u.terances which burst
spontaneously from their lips as soon
us they set loot uL ,rLiy Tree AM. IL
can soil OF woman suffrage states is
CHE OF the nos. picturesque Phenomena
II our political history.
Naturally this brought a glow OF
trtde and sense OF dignii!Cd .espIn
sibiiity 10 the hearts oil the cAiran.
".Sed women 20 feel that their pros.
pective national executives were 10
quickly responsive TO the interests OF
womanhood childhood and the home,
that big business OF the United States
But how could any uEcN'ranChisca
american woman with a dr..p If rem
blood in ner veins, with an atom of
telf-respect. fail to realize the humiia.
lion of such position The oraen uf
the East simply do not count, they
re not a consideration, they arc prac.
tically negligible"
Mrs. Laidlaw asserted that the suf-
frage cause has become so strong. how
ever. that never again in the history
Of our country will any national party
meet In convention" without endors-
ing 1t and that never again would it
lie possible for presidential candidate