The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-30
FAIRFIELD COUNTY WOMEN M DECLARE WAR ON JUDGE ).
 WALSH OF GREENWICH

Fairfield county women in the sui fraee movement have declared war on l
 Judge James F. Walsh of Greenwich. They accuse him of holding up an ap-
 peal to the governor for a special session, which he had signed.
 When the news was received by
 Katherine Ludiu. lon, president of the
 Connecticut Woman Suffrage Society.
 she wrote tae following letter and
 sent 1t to Judge Walsh:
 My Dear Judge Walsh.
 Your reply to my letter of Sept.
 17th has just been received, and l
 note what you say in regard to having decided, afr signing the petition to
 the governor, not to send in the slip because of Inc governors refusal to call the session.
 While your letter makes your po- sitton quite clear, I must say that | your reason for failing to help our cause at this critical time will not seem satisfactory to the women of | the state when they remember that | the majority of the IFS men who | signed the petition did so after the | governor had made his adverse state ment The suffragists vii. remember ! that you have always declared your 1 self our friend, but that at no crisis | have you stood squarely by us, and ! that at this time when your influence would be important you have failed us again, although every possible Op- | portunity has been given you to help
 us.
 You accuse the women of your l county of "threatening you'-but have | they threatened except to make your ! record on the suffrage question clear | to the public? If you are satisfied that your position has been the right
 one you must be qr'-e ready to have
 ]. made public. It is the right of a
 democracy to know the attitude of
 Jubuc men on important current
 questions, and we believe that your constituents are entitled to informa- i ticn in regard to this matter. We ] have, therefore, decided to give pub |, Hcity to our efforts to get a public | statement from you.
 "One salient point stands out in | this whole matter. and that Is, that 1t has seemed to you more important | to bow to the governors first decision
 in regard to a special session - made | before he had heard the wishes Of | the legislature expressed through the | petidon-than to give the assistance | which you might have rendered to | the ratification of the Federal Suf- | frage Amendment, which will en- | franchise the women not of Connect | cut only but of the United States. Your position will, l am afraid | be source of deep disappointment | to your women constituents. Be | Hove me,
 " Very sincerely yours,
 Katherine Ludington." Miss LudiuEtOn said today:
 This letter from the President of ! the Connecticut Women's Suffrage
 Association to Judge James F. Walsh ! is the cuImination of a long attempt | on the part of State and County Suf- l rragists to get from Judge Walsh the | active support which he has repeat ! cdly promised them, or, at least. a | public and unequivocal statement of | his present attitude.
 The steadily growing demand for ! a special session to ratify the Fed | eral Suffrage Amendment. which has | recently taken the shape of a peti- | tion from ITS members of the Legfs- | lature to the Governor, to call such | n session has been the occasion of a 1 renewed demand, that Judge Walsh | should frankly declare himself. Public men such as Colonel Isaac | Ullman, Hugh M. Alcoru. etc. who ] have never before come out actively | in favor of suffrage, age giving ! strong assistance to Ae movement, | but Judge Walsh whom. ever since | he was running for the speakership. has declared that he was a friend in 1 suffrage, and would, if he were made | speaker, help them in every way in | his power. has failed them over and | over. Furthermore, there is a grow | ing feeling among the women. that he
 is actually working against them. | Finally, sentiment crystaIized at n | large and thoroughly aroused meet 1 ing Of the Fairfield County Assocfa- ! ton in his home town, Greenwich
 on Sept II, when drastic resolutions | were passed, calling upon Judge ! Walsh 10 prove his avowed friend
 ship, by signing the pe,sr1on for a l special session. or going on a deputa- ! ton to the governor. The resolution | was sent to Judge Walsh.
 | "In reply Judge Walsh has given ! an account of mis-sent and mis-Iafd | correspondence, and when he finally | signed his slip-a slip that bade fare | 10 be successfully mailed, he decided
 not to send it in when he read, that ! the governor had refused to call such
 a session. The disappointment of the ~ women was great at Judge WaIsh's H continued refusal to help them. and Y the attitude of the women of his own
 Acounty, who have a remarkable or | ganization. apparently found expres- | sion in some very definite resolutions 1 that have not been given publfca- | tlon."