The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-23
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATEON BUREAU
ny FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
WashinEton, d. q.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
IA Story of Snubs.

ed fact that woman suffrage Is III
evitable; not because of the recent
action of congress on the amendment
to the constitution, but because the
movement has now gained such force
of momentum that it is not to be
checked
woman suffrage" said President
Wilson in his speech to women sur
fragists at Atlantic City. us going TO
prevail, and that is a very SUPERFICIAL
and ignorant view of 1t which attrfo-
utes it to mere social unrest 1t is not
merely because the women are dis
contented.> 1t is because the women
have seen visions of duty, and that is
something which we not only cannot
resist but, if we be true Americans,
we do not wish to resist"
The fact that suffrage has already
been granted to women in twelve
states appears to afford the best hope
for the passage of the federal amend
ment. 1t is, not what women have
done for the nation but what they
have done for themselves that has i'm
pressed congress. For they now cast
electoral votes in a fourth of the states
"a circumstance which no political
party can afford to ignore. Neither
Democrats nor Republicans will care
to have the woman vote against them
in another presidential election. AT
least. that is what the women are
counting on, and they have not been
at all backward in bringing this as
pect of the matter to the attention of
party leaders.
eff the women of the country are
not enfranchised by 1920" Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Gait, president of the Ma
tional American Woman Suffrage as
ISOLATION, told the congressional COM
mittee on woman suffrage, mo polit-
ical party can control congress, or
occupy the White House, that is not
pledged to the federal amendment"
Mrs. Gait did not say this with an
air of bravado; but as one stating
fact. In spite of the nervous tension
incident~to the passage of the amend
ment, the suffragists are curiously
calm. They pray that the amendment
may go thru, but one gathers that
they would not be overcome with dis
couragement if it didn't. One gathers,
in fact, that a good suffragist is never
confused or disconnected a snub or
disa the woman suf-
frage movement has been raised on
snubS.
Mrs. Abigail Adams was the first
American woman to be snubbed on
tho question of woman suffrage on
which she took a somewhat coura-
geous stand as early as 1876. Ladies
did not make public addresses in those
days, and the best Mrs. Adams could
do was to demonstrate with her huS-
band-one of the fathers of democ-
racy-
Il long to hear that you have de-
clared an INDEPENDENCE" wrote Mrs.
Adams to her Spouse land, by the
way, in the new code of laws which 1
suppose it will be necessary for you
to make, desire you would remember
the ladies and be more ge 4erous and
favorable to them than were your
ancestors. Do not put such unlimited
power in the hands of husbands. Re
member all men would be tyrants if
they could. If particular care and at
tention are not paid to the ladies we
are determined to foment rebellion,
and viii not hold ourselves bound to
obey the laws in which we have no
voice or representation"
Mrs. Adams's letter was not made
public, and the fathers in drafting the
constitution carefully ignored the
ladies, who were not told that they
could not vote but were not told that
they could. New Jersey alone gave
the franchise to all inha bitants worth
$3.50" regardless of sex, but in 1907
this was changed so as not to apply
ny had permitted women holding
property to vote, but the privilege was
rescinded after the revolution.
Occasionally, from this time on an
early feminist rose up and declared
her rights, but women as a whole did
sentation in the government until the
Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention was
held in London in 1910. Women in
this country had been very active in
working for the abolition of slaves,
and women delegates went to London
to attend the convention. But the con-
vention refused to admit them. 1t was
one thing for women to work for a
cause, but quite another to speak
for it.
not hesitated to accept their help and
cooperation at home, not only filled
the women themselves with indigna-
ton, but so disguised William Lloyd
Garrison that he also refused to at
tend the convention and retired to
the galleries with the women. This
disappointment was the jolt that gave
the woman movement its start.
When the women returned to this
country they started diminutive but
forceful campaign to arouse the rest
of their sex. and in 1S48 the first
women's rights convention was held
at Seneca Falls. New York, where the
delegates proceeded to draw up a
declaration of independence. Curl
ously enough, the convention was
who quite seriously and earnestly
signed the document drawn up by
the women, which said:
1.-THE history of mankind is a his
tory of repeated injuries and usurpa-
tons on the part of man towards
woman, having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny
over her. To prove this let facts be
submitted to candid world"
Followed an enumeration of the
tyrannies of man, in which the with
holding of the franchise was claimed
to be the most inexcusable.
After the Seneca convention many
women's rights conventions were held.
In addition to working for their own
rights the women also worked for
the freedom of the slaves, to the detri-
ment of their own cause. Then came
the Civil war, and the women forgot
about their rights in the emergencies
of the moment. There were wounded
to be cared for, and a hundred diff
ferent calls from their country Then,