Bisbee daily review., 1917-09-09
Roosevelt Declares That
Dual Suffrage Should
Be Granted Immediately
(By Review Leased wire.)

Women are entitled to the ballot as
a right and not as a favor. Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt told a gathering
of about 500 suffragists at Sycamore
Hill this afternoon. He declared him
self as emphatically in favor of wo-
mems suffrage and was heartily ap-
plauded when he said:
Mother Is Best Citizen.
"On the whole the citizen to whom
| will pay the greatest Difference as
doing the most indispensable of all
duties is the mother. | will put her
ahead of every other human being.
To deny the mother the vote seems
to me something so preposterous that
OUR descendants will fail to under
stand how we could call ourselves
self-governing and democratic and
yet deny ii.
; Urges Full Cooperation.
This is the only meeting dealing
with any matter not directly connect
/ ed with the war at which have con-
/ sented to speak at ALL" said the col
Outl III HIS NOh
i sented in this case because ! wished
to see this war put through to a sue
cessful conclusion at no maximum
cost. | wish to see every man and
every woman in this county devote
every ounce of his or her strength
to that end and when | wish that
demand to be made upon everyone
| wish corresponding justice done
everyone.
What Democracy Means.
During the last three years We
have been in the habit of thinking
about what democracy means and |
believe that we grow wiser We will
. steadily come to the belief that on
one hand we must. in a democracy,
suffer no injustict and, on theother
hand, we must do no injustict. In
other words. democracy must be
type of political organism in which
every right enjoyed is conditioned
upon a duty performed and every
duty performed means the cores
ponding enjoyment of the right.
Duty and Suffrage.
Il wish to state with all the em-
phasis in my power, that if either
man or woman refuses to do his or
her duty, I hold that they have nC
right to the privilege of the suffrage.
do not put it on the ground OF sea.
| put it on the ground of duty. |
do not ask the ballot for women as
a favor. | say II should be given TO
her as a right. People say that il
women are given the ballot they will
fail to perform their other duties. !
notice that the average man who is
apt to say that is the individual who
is not particularly of the duty per
forming type himself.
Pacifists Despised.
People have said to me that we
must not have women vote because
they would all be pacifists. The
Lord knows | despise a pacifist, ani
| have made no special effort to dis
semble my feelings about that. But
| have failed to notice that the shirk- I
ing sisterhood of pacificists outnum-
bers the bleating brotherhood of paci- !
ficists.
"White Rabbits"
This white rabbit special that has
been going around the country has
not found a place for the soles of its
feet to rest. | believe that when the
right appeal is made, the mothers, |
wives and daughters of America will
stand just a trifle ahead of their sons,
husbands and fathers in sacrificing /
everything. even those whose loss
means infinitely more to them than
their own lives. They will sacrifice
everything to a great and lofty ideal. /
Expects Suffrage.
"On general grounds. | have abso-
lutely no doubt that suffrage must /
come. as a matter of right; If We are .
TO continue our democratic experi' /
ment of government. it must come.
Now for the special needs created .
by this war One of the curious /
things of this war is that II has 4
brought much nearer the day in ev-
cry country participating in it and 4
every country adjacent to the parti- /
cipating countries when women will
be given political rights just as men
are given them. because it has been
proved by the actual event that in
this, the greatest and most terrible
war of history. the war in which
greatest demands have been made.
the whole woman force of each coun-
try has had to be put squarely be-
hind the whole an force of that coun-
try.
America Lays Behind.
'It seems TO me that in the last
decade or two we have had a tend