Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-02-22

rage vote double-crossed that Door girl,
one OF the meanest, most contemplate
things ever done. even in crowd Of
political men, and they voted and put
Big Tim" man who ran a saloon and
house of ill-fame-they put him in Office
in our American city
Again l ask you, would you have the
women vote as they vote in New York?
There you walk up as an American cit
izen, take your vote, pass it to the bar
tender, and he will roll it up and put it
in the ballot box. Would you have that
in our State of Maine?
l ask you, gentlemen, to remember the
words of Miss Anna Shaw, for years the
leader of this suffrage movement in the
city of New York. She made this state
ment, that if all the women voted yes
or no: if all the women. voted on the
wrong side; if. after the women had vot-
ed, they left their husbands, or if the wo-
men, after they had deposited their vote.
whether they had children or whether
they were destitute Of children, deserted
them-she believed in the vote that gave
the women the right to rule this country.
ask the pure-minded women of this
State. Do you. care for such legislation as
that? l ask the men here that ere going
to vote upon this question. you honor
your wife? Do you care for your home
Do you care for your children? If so, I
ask you to denounce this resolution and
to oppose it.
Mr.. GURNEY of Portland: Mr.. Speak
er and gentlemen of the House: 1t was n
startling surprise to me that the distin-
guished gentleman from Bath (Mr Lar
rabee) should say that he did not like
the actions of the suffragettes. I felt
that they had been very meek and mod
est and well-behaved, but l am CRATE
full that the bars Of silence have lain
upon them that they might not tell this
distinguished audience what they feel to-
wards the actions and theories of the
distinguished gentleman from Bath
Naughter).
Judge Dearth, in his usual exhaustive
manner, has pointed out clearly that the
question Is not one of woman suffrage.
1t is more fundamental than that. It re-
lates distinctly to the question whether
or not a pledge made by the Republican
party, after due deliberation. shall be re-
deemed at one hundred cents upon doI-
lar. 1t relates to the question of wheth-
er or not when we make statement in
convention, solemnly affirming it at the
polls, we intend to stand behind that
statement as long as we have a right to
speak and a right to vote.
/ do not agree with my distinguish. ]
colleague from Portland (Mr. Baxter)
that the question is not a political one
for / believe that the Republican party
stands unqualifedly for this measure
taken to establish its position in the eyes
of the voters of this State before they
went to the polls.
If today, Mr.. Speaker, the Republican
party shall lie PROSTATE at the close OF
this hearing. it will be by the knife
wounds of those who professed last Sep
TENDER to love it dearly, for within our
own hands we have the power Of pass
ing this resolution to which we stand I'M
qualifiedly committed and we welcome
the intelligence and the bravery of those
gentlemen of the opposite party who dare
to register today in this House that they
stand forward-looking face TO face with
the rising sun of this new movement.
am not at all deceived in regard to
the effect of woman suffrage upon the
politics of this State. ! do not believe
it will bring to the front the millennium
of pure politics. l do not advocate it
today because / believe that woman is
a political vacuum cleaner, but / do
insist that when you give the vote to
these women, you will place a big
bomb in the front trenches of politi
cal corruption and upon the hills of
good government you will place a sem
tinel who will not sleep and against
whose forces the immoral influences OF
politics will charge to their own death
and destruction.
The history of democratic govern
ment has shown invariably the same
mood. Our ancestors wrested from a
! hostile king their Magma Charta. Roy
atty again usurped the privileges of the
people and they approached Charles
with a Petition for Rights. Again the
King forgot his pledges, and the bloody
, times of Cromwell and the Common
wealth followed, and the next time the
people came to William and Mary, Ii
was not with a Petition for Rights, but
with a Declaration of Rights. 1t seems
to me that the ladies come with pc
tition for rights. defensible upon all the
principles OF logic and of good politics
Their contributions to the political af-
fairs of other states have enriched
gloriously their legislation.
| We are facing, ] say, a crisis. There
ave- royol,tiopr today without blood
shed and bayonets. and discontinued
| citizenship is a thing we must avoid
| in this State if we want to have the
cooperation and confidence and sup
port of all its people in these moment
Gus times.
In the states where woman has con-
| tributed with her vote, l contend, not
withstanding the remarks OF the dis
tinguished gentleman from Bath, thai
she has enriched the legislation. Ir
Colorado she snatched the children
I from the factories and gave them tC
/ the schools. She drew dead-llne
around the mines and said to Capital
Those children shall not descend a
/ shaft" She reached down to the Ia
horer and brought him into the sun
light of a better condition than he hao
ever experienced before. She wrote
upon the statutes of that State laws
.7o,,opdipr p,,ra food She sent into the