The Republican journal., 1916-12-21
TO BE CONTINUED. I
Woman Suffrage.

| The first national gathering of women
opposed to women suffrage was opened
in Washington, D. c., Dec. 7th, with
delegates present from TWENTY-FIVE
States. The keynote speech of the con-
vention was made by Mrs. Arthur M.
Dodge of New York, President of the
National Association. ''In this conven-
ton we do most earnestly protest against
a Federal amendment for Women Suf-
frage upon the demand of the minority
of the women" said Mrs. Dodge. ''After
sixty-five years of organized effort Wo-
man Suffrage is minority movement
The assumption that minority has
right 20 dictate to the unwilling or in
different majority does not belong to
democracy.
Gin protesting against the imposition
of political duties on women we know we
voice the majority of women of the
United States. After IS years of organ
lied effort, woman suffrage is minority
movement. We believe that woman has
more power in uplifting civilization
through the home than man has through
his vote.
1.-The conservative suffragists have
never been able to control the organized
emotion and radicalism in their ranks.
Under our form of government there is
great danger that such an element might
cripple wise legislation.
II should like to repeat what we call
our creed we anti-suffragsts stand for
the conservation of the best of American
womanhood in all conditions and stations
of life, for the preservation of the home,
for the retention of the ideals of preceu-
ing generations adapted to the advant-
ages and opportunities given to them
under modern conditions. We believe
that woman, according to their leisure,
opportunity and experience, should take
part Increasingly in civic and municipal
affairs as they have always done in chart
table, phlanthropic and educational ac
Invites. And we believe that this can
| best De done by women without the bal
lot, as nonpartisan body of disinterested
workers.
Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, President
of the New York Association, read the
following letter of protest from Elihu
Root:
81 am against having the Constitution
of the United States amended SO as to
impose Woman Suffrage on the States
which do not wish tor it, not merely or
chiefly because my judgment does not ap-
prove of Woman Suffrage, but for a
much more vital reason.
1t is destruction of the right of self
government and a subsection of the peo-
pie of New York to the Government of
others. Having failed to secure the as
sent to Woman Suffrage of such States
as South Dakota and West Virginia and
Ohio and New York and Pennsylvania,
the advocates of Woman Suffrage now
seek to compel such States to accept it
against their will and to compel them to
carry on their local government and Sc
lect their representatives In the national
government in conformity to the opin-
ions of the people of other States who
are in favor of Woman Suffrage l think
such an attempt is contrary to the prin-
ciples of liberty upon which the Ameri-
can Union was established and without
which 1t cannot endure.
without the right of local self-gov-
eminent we should lose the better part
of our liberty.
"This country is so vast, the difference
capacity for production, in predominant
industries, and the resultant habits of
living and thinking, are so great that
there are necessarily wide differences of
view as to the conduct of life, and to
subject any section of the country in its
local affairs to the dictation of the vast
multitudes of voters living in other parts
of the country would create condition
of intolerable tyranny, and to use the
power of the Nation to bring about the
condition would be to make the Nation
an instrument of tyranny.
1T is needless to argue that this
would ultimately destroy the Nation.
''The one exercise of national power
over suffrage to prevent discrimination
against the black race was made and
justified only upon the same grounds
which justified the war and the Emanci-
patton Proclamation, and for the time
being destroyed all local government in
the seeding States. 1t establishes no
precedent and justifes no attempt at
control upon less terrible and compel
ling cause
Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore sent a
message to the convention. in which he
said
II regard 'woman's rights women
and the leaders of the new school of fe-
male progress as the worst enemies OF
the female sex. l wish l could impress
on American women the dangers that
would attach to such innovations.
''The most precious, undeveloped as
set of any nation is its children. An all
Z wise God, through the law of nature,
has committed this precious treasure in
special manner to the mother. Women
cannot vote intelligently unless they
give time to an intelligent study of polit-
ical questions, and all such time taken
from the household will be injurious to
the future generation, without giving to
the present generation any appreciable
benefit in the purifying of the ballot.
"When deprecate female suffrage
am pleading for the dignity of woman.
l am contending for her honor. l am
striving to perpetuate those peerless
|. prerogatives inherent in her sex, those
charms and graces which exalt woman
kind and make her the ornament and
coveted companion of man. Woman is
queen indeed, but her empire is the do.
mestic kingdom. The greatest politica
triumphs she could achieve in public life
fade into insignifcance compared with
the serene glory which radiates from the
domestic shrine and which she illuminet
and warns by her conjugal and motherly