Connecticut western news., 1917-03-29
Letters From the People.
MRS. HEPBURN REPLIES.

against the Connecticut Woman Sui frage Association and mentioning me personally, has been called to my at tentiun. I am sending the following reply which, in the interest of fair play, ask you to publish.
 Mrs. Goodwin resents the suffragists' publishing the fact that anti-suffrage articles are published in liquor papers. As have pointed out to Mrs. Goodwin. the women who are opposing the en- franchisement Of their own sex cannot help finding themselves in bad com. pany, and anything that we can do to show up the situation is atreal public service as it may help other men and women from putting themselves, un. willingly, in such position.
 The truth is that the liquor interests welcome the anti suffrage agitation and use the antis' leaflets and pictures in their campaign If any one doubts this we should be delighted to show him some of the papers on file at suf- frage headquarters in Hartford We have among others the copy of "The Liberal Advocate" " official organ of the Ohio Liquor League, containing Mrs. Goodwin's article, entitled, Mothers heal Place. Mrs. Goodwin seems to feel that the only matter cf interest is whether the anti women gave these articles to the liquor papers or not. To my mind the important point is not how the liquor men obtained these articles. some doubtless obtained them in one way and some in another. The important point is that the liquor pa pers find the anti suffrage material good copy and use it continuously. It is undoubtedly true that the good women who are working against suf- frage do not realize half the ways that the liquor interests use their agitation. I do not wonder that it shocks them to see one of the ways. only hope that it will open their eyes to just what they are doing.
 Mrs. Goodwin refers to the fact that Miss Clara Markeson, an anti suffrage organizer in Montana went to conf CT with the publishers of the National Forum, the official organ of the liquor men, and was misunderstood. The publishers of the National Forum, when the facts leaked out, gave out a statement to the press saying that they had not yielded to Miss Markeson' s wish for a gumshoe campaign, because they believed that the men and women of Montana were too Intelligent to be deceived as to the attitude of the liquor interest on the question, and they thought frank and straight forward A cybt ho1 o hottar oh to xuin Anu one who doubts the support given to the anti.suffrage campaign by the liquor men should have been at the re- cent hearing on the two suffrage bills before the legislature, one to give women the vote on license and the other to give women the vote for presi- dential and municipal officers. The Red Roses and the Red Noses were there together lined up on the minority side of the House. Moreover, the Ii. quor men, when they got up to speak, had each been decorated with red rLse, the anti-suffrage flower. How they got them am not saying, sim- ply state the fact. The liquor men I had one hour to talk against the bill and they fought it on the same grounds that the anti women fought it with the added, and much emphasized, objec- tion that suffrage for women would bring about prohibition. The anti women said, as Mrs. Goodwin says in her letter, "Men have led the prohibit tion fight; women are negligible factors in it." It is always strange to me that any woman can so delight in finding her sex negligible. The liquor men had more respect for the ability and strength of women and maintained that women with the ballot had proved themselves anything but negligible. '' The liquor mems figures were the more accurate of the two. At the present time 72 per cent, of the equal suffrage states are dry. Only 43 per cent, of the manhood suffrage states are dry. There have been twenty five repeals of statewide prohibition but never one where women had the vote. These facts speak for themselves. I will not go into the sopbistical arguments con- tained in Mrs. Goodwin's letter in the support of her argument that women are negligible factors in the fight against the liquor traffic.
 Anyone who is interested in the suffrage hearing before the Connecticut Legislature referred to above should send to suffrage headquarters for the verbatim report of the hearing which we are having printed. They will find the Grange, the Congregational churches of the state, the Prohibition Party and other organizations speaking for suffrage and they will find that the only organization supporting the anti side was the liquor men. Facts are better than theory.
 Mrs. Goodwin objects to our intro. duclng any bills for partial suffrage and says that the anti-suftragists want the decision rendered at the polls, and yet when the hearing on the suffrage constitutional amendment was held and we were trying to get the question submitted to the voters Mrs Goo,1wiu