The patriot. [volume] (Indiana, Pa.) 1914-1955, 1916-09-30


"WiIson Voted For suffragej Has
Hughes" Mrs. Graham of Idaho
Asks.
Western women who have had the
ballot equally with the men for several
years resent the interference Of one Of
the factions of suffragists and the at
tempt to turn the suffrage cause into
an adjunct of the Republican party
They believe they know how to vote,
and they refuse to turn against the
Democrats, who have done so much for
their cause In their respective states.
This attitude is brought out clearly
I'm an interview by Nixola Greeley
Smith, nationally prominent as writer
on the staff of the New York World
with Mrs. Alexander Thompson, Dem
Ocratic national committeeman from
Oregon, and Mrs. Theresa M. Graham
Of Occur d'Alene, Ida.
zone would think observed Mrs
Thompson to Miss Greeley Smith, "that
If any instruction in suffrage matters
had to be given it would come from
the women who have won the vote
and do vote rather than from suffra-
gists in the east, who are still disfran-
chised. | am young woman, but |
have been through three campaigns for
the vote in Oregon. In~the final cam
paign we won through the co-opera-
ton and help and belief in us OF the
men of Oregon.
Aided by Democrats.
eve have been voting only FIVE
years, and we are still grateful to our
men. So when the Congressional IN
ion sent speakers to Oregon to tell us
to vote against all Democrats we laugh
ed at them. Why, at the last election
they campa1gned against George e.
Chamberlain, who introduced the first
suffrage bill in Oregon and who had
been the friend of the women all
through their fifteen years fight"
"I agree with every word that Mrs.
Thompson has spoken" declared Mrs.
Graham, proxy member of the notif-
cation committee from Idaho. 'The
conditions in my state are the same as
in Oregon, except that we have had
the vote for twenty years, and 1t was
given to us without our having to fight
for It. The Congressional Union has
speakers in Idaho now urging us to
slaughter the Democrats and free our
sisters I'm the east. How silly that is!
Are women In the east so foolish as to
be led away by the mere declaration
of a candidate, unsupported by his
party, that he's personally in favor OF
a federal amendment?
"Woodrow Wilson voted for euffraqe.
HAS Charles {. Hughes ever voted for
0uffrags7 Wilson has done everything
consistent with belief i'm state rights,
one of the fundamental principles of
Democracy. Suffrage can never win as
o. partisan issue. ALLEVIATE the Demo-
crats en- masse and you have killed ev-
cry chance suffrage has"
Won by Wilson's Speech.
It Is admitted by suffragists that
their cause has been helped greatly by
the speech President Wilson made be-
fore the convention of the National
Woman Suffrage association at Allan
tic City ON Sept. S. When the presi-
dent told them he had "come here to
fight with you the 1000 suffragists
gathered in NiXon's theater arose and
cheered him enthusiastically.
This pledge by the president led Mrs
Carrie Chapman Gait. president Of the
association, to say:
''You touched our nearts and won
our fealty when you said you had
come here to fight with u.s."
1.-The astonishing thing about this
movement" said President Wilson, lis
not that it has grown so slowly, but
that it has grown so rapidly.
j get a little impatient sometimes about
the discussion of the channels and
methods by which it is to prevail. 1t
is going to prevail, and that it is 9
very superficial and ignorant view of
1t which attributes it to mere social
unrest 1t is not merely because the
womel are discontented it Is because
the women have seen visions of duty,
and that is something which we not
only cannot resist, but If we be true
Americans we do not wish to re-
Sist.
ST have felt as I sat here tonight
the wholesome contagion of the occa-
sion. Almost every other time that |
ever visited Atlantic City l came to
fight somebody. I hardly know how
to conduct myself when have not
come to fight anybody, but with some
body.
st have come to suggest, among 9TH
er things, that when the forces of ma
ture are steadily working and the tide
is rising to meet the moon you need
not be afraid that it will not come to
its food. We feel the tide; we rejoice
In. the strengtN o. it,
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