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


all that it should be-and expert in NOR
ais. manners, hygiene and many other
things. 1t is not fair to her to put an
added burden on her shoulders, one
which she does not want and for which
she is untitled.
Again, women are peculiarly fitted Tor
philanthropic work; and in this work also
she will have much greater influence
without the ballot, for disinterestedness
will not be called in question SO long
as she refrans from politics.
II ask YOU gentlemen, not to impose
upon us an additional burden; ask you
to hermit us to conserve our time and
strength for burdens that are not less
important to the world than yours. but
which are along absolutely different
lines"
Mrs. Clarence Hale
The great gathering was bit sur
priced and hardly knew what was
corning when Mrs. Clarence Hale be-
gan with a graphically worded descrip-
ton of the invasion of Belgium ana
with the horror which this invasion
caused throughout the civilized world
"A horror llIeHSlIleu Ny tiiC AoaIt eiiNN
the Belgians were neutral people.
Now, we women are neutral peo-
pie she continued. answering the UNI
spoken questions, Eve are not only
neutral people but we are a weaker one
proud and fine in spirit it may he.
but limited physically by nature. So
ciety has always held us exempt from
bearing arms and I declare to you gem
tlemen we are no better qualified for
political strife. We ask to be allowed to
he permitted tc preserve our neutral
ity."
= Then. while the suffrage section
rumbled with Indignation, Mrs. Hale
went on to pay her respects to the
Congressional Unon-the organiza-
ton. she declai ed. which is RESPONSE
hle for the picketing of the White
White House and whose leader is an
ardent disciple of Mrs. Pankhurst She
had read. with horror. she added. that
suffragists in England have even been
accused of conspiracy to assaSinate
/ LLOYD George-at which the rumblings
of the suffrage section SWelled to an
/ open chorus of disa pproval. She quoted
a letter by Mrs. Whitehouse, the suf-
/ frage leader. in which the writer had
declared that she had found grave in
difference to the suffrage cause in
many parts of the State: the women
seemed more Interested in their clubs.
their children and their social duties
than in the ballot and ARE still loyal
to their beautiful faith in man"
| Daughter by the anti-section). She
quoted Mrs. Whitehouse also as say
4 incr in LOT from, ITyoy1oinu
women there have 50 long had the bal
! lot they have become Indifferent to it.
4 where. tell me-" questioned Mrs
! Hale. lis the demand for a referen-
dunn >"
4 Discussing the suffrage resolutions
passed by the Grange and other State
organizations, Mrs. Hale declared that
nothing is easier than passing reso-
Understand very few things mean less
! Resolutions are framed in committees:
they ore passed indifferently, aften-
times. by small gatherings whose MEM
herS have given the subject matter no
consideration and they emphatically do
not represent the sentiment of any
body as a whole. In proof OF this she
nointed to the action of the Grange
in passing the resolve against preDar-
edness and repudiating it ever after
wards
+ Then Mrs. Hale came to a vitally in
teresting part Of her address. the con-
nection between suffrage and temper
ance.
Our suffrage friends have long
claimed, said she. that suffrage and
temperance are interviewer. This is not
only untrue-it is illogical. Changing
the relation of woman to the ballot
does not change the relation of man
to the liquor bottle.
Until the year 1914 not single SUI
frage state had adopted prohibition.
One by one, to be sure, the suffrage
states have adopted it as the wave of
prohibition has swept over the cOun-
try-but they have followed. not led
| am not a young woman but Maine
was for prohibition long before ! was
born. Wyoming has been suffrage
state for 40 years-and it is still wet
And she went on to quote other exam
pies, including West Virginia, which
she said, is one of the three bone dry
states in the Union and yet defeated
suffrage by a vote of three to one.
enforcement of law and publication
/ vi pOllliCS oIc no SIcdbe III SuIll age
states than anywhere else. she de-
clared. Man can and he will settle not
only the liquor problem but other
great questions affecting the uplift of
human kind. DO not, gentlemen of the
committee, force the ballot upon
women in an attempt to solve the
problem that is being solved now-not
without their aid but without their
votes"
Miss Margaret Ogden
/ Miss Margaret Ogden of Portland,
unlike the others, made no emotional
or sensational appeal. She dealt who'll
! ly with statistics-an imposing array
of them which prove, she said, that
meritorious legislation is just about
equally divided between suffrage and
anti suffrage states. In general, speak
ing broadly suffrage and anti suffrage
states have adopted worthy legislative
measures at approximately the same
time and in about equal degree.
THE mothers pension act, for exam
pie. was adopted in Utah, Idaho and
California, double suffrage states, in
1915; it was adopted in Ohio. Wiscon-
sin South Dakota and Massachusetts
male suffrage states in the same year
Wyoming. double suffrage, adopted it
IN 1915: New York, male suffrage, did
7 a ~