The sun., 1918-08-19
4 SNAPPY FAREWELL TO
MARSE HENRY.
No Bouquets From Ida Hustled Har-
per, Suffrage Journalist.


To THE EDITOR OF THE suN-Str: Tn,
sufrragists Of tho United States will moi
adopt any resolutions Of regret over the
retirement Of Henry wstterson from
the editorial chair. Not since the early
days Of the movement for woman suf-
frage. over half a century ago, has any
newspaper made such untruthful and
vituperatite attacks on the cause and
its leaders as have been common in
the Louisville Courier Journal. Colonel
Watterson is past master a bitter in
vective and In applying II to them Ire
has outdone himself Here is one of
his latest utterances:
Meanwhile the soul Of Susan q. Anthony
goes marching on toward the feminist
goal OF blatant inndelity, rejecting the re-
lision OF Jesus Christ and Him crucifed
and repudiating the man made Bible OF
Moses and the prophets In favor Of Eliza
beth Cady Stanton's "woman's Bible"
which teaches the religious heresIes of
Voltaire. Paine and 1ngersoli along with
the free love theories of Mary wolistone-
craft, Victoria woodruff and Ellen Key.
Henry stopped for breath at this
point, having proved conclusively that
he never had read Mrs. Stanton's
Bible" whose only object was to show
that woman occupied a very inferior
place in what he called the IMAM made
Bible" As an instance of his own sense
Of fairness he refused to print denials
by the suffragists Of absolute misstate-
mento in his editorials or allow them
| n hat t,, -. -
paper. Last April there was started
In Washington the Woman Patriot, n
camoufiage title for the Official organ of
the anti-suffragists, which was launched
at this particular time to defeat the
suffrage amendment in the United States
Senate. With pardonable pride It an
nouncsd Colonel watterson as a member
OF its stan, and in its first issue he
gave the reason for It in an editorial
leader headed The Combine of
Cowardice." and beginning:
Tho combine Of. shall We not say
cowardice and oupidity. which character
ICES the average American newspaper in
the matter of woman suffrage 10 the most
discourasing. discreditab BILE and dishonor-
Ing feature Of contemporary Journalism
The publishers are afraid OF diminishe ed
circulation. the editors Of feminine nag
Eing. Between them the leading dailies of
the larger cities and towns ignore the
issue for the most part and bar Its dis
cussion. Vital as It IL the press
10 silent!
And then this dean of editors con-
t!nues his lament:
In New York the newspapers burst not
lift pen In opposition. Excepting tho
Ttmes. We fail to discover a single lead
Ing journal which seems willing or able
to call Its soul Its own. II IL the same
In Philadelphia, in Baltimore and IN
Boston. Down the Southern coastal
Richmond. Charleston. Savannah. Mobile
and New orieans-the braves appear to
Dc paralyzed. They that were
rights stand all agape and have never
word to say.
He probably wrote "descanting." but
"decanting' Is more suitable. Even as
news they will not print the truth" he
mourns, "and even the popular preacher
can always and easily be bullied by the
shrfeking sisterhood." Truly" he de-
clares, noise. assertion, impotence 20
long way, for II Is safe to estimate
that not one Intelligent woman any
where has considered the suffrage mat
ter In all its bearings and reached the
definite conclusion that in spite OF all
she wants to vote. while at the South
no intelligent woman can thoughtfully
consider 1t without reaching the con-
clufion that. accomplishing nothing for
women. it can only bring evil upon the
electorate"
And yet only a few weeks after this
pronouncement 10000 women in Arkan-
sas paid a poll tax and voted for State,
county and city officials; and a little
later 100000 in Texas cast their votes
at the Congressional and State pri-
maries. This illustrates how little Colo
mel watterson knows OF the Southern
women OF the present day. The chief
trouble with him is that he does not
realize he Is back number.
IDA Hustled HARPER,
Editorial Chairman Leslie Suffrage
Bureau
New YORK, August II.