Republican farmer., 1919-11-14

present at the brilliant Republican dinner last night at the Stratfield given by the members of the Con- necticut Womans Suffrage associa- ton in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary, and listened with inter- est to the none too complimentary remarks made about his tactics in ex- ercising his will power against the calling of a special session of the leg islature for the ratification of the suf- frage amendment, he would have wondered whether those tactics would ever win him the guberna tOrial chair again. Is 1t because he is so obsti- nate and dares use that characteristic in a matter of such great importance? It is because he really does not feel the necessity and progressiveness of the measure that he refuses to call a special session. or is it because he stands by the will of members of the reactionary wing of the Republican party and does as they say and wish? Those were the questions brought up by the suffragists at the banquet last night and each one was classed as a probable reason, but not one Re 1 publican present who had been called i upon to tell of his sentiments towards woman suffrage, declared 1t justifia- 1 bIe for the governor to be so obdu rate, ODSluldle dnu uIlLllONdDlS tO"dIuS l the passage of the suffrage amend ment in the state.
 | '.J. Henry Roraback and his crowd
 are responsible for this,'' declared | Senator John B. Dillon of Shelton, in | forceful, threatening tones that rang | through the entire hall He is re- sponsible for the defeat of the calling 1 of a special session. As the chair man of the state central committee he
 is the only one who did all in his power to prevent the calling of the
 session.
 q tell you" he continued with l vigor, ''Roraback and his crowd never
 passed any progressive act since they
 were in power, and if you suffragists
 are looking for the truble, and wish
 to find the reason why a session is not l called, turn to Roraback."
 Miss Katherine Ludington, presi-
 dent, presided at the meeting, and ! called on various Republicans for in | formal talks Then came the great 1 event of the evening. Miss Luding- i ton presented ex-President William
 Howard Taft, suffragist. The entire ! audience stood up and loudly ap- plauded the honored and distinguish i ed guest.
 Mir Taft made It plain from the
 beginning that he had always been in 1 favor of woman suffrage, even when ! lad in his "teens.'' He said he was ! brought up in a family atmosphere l favoring woman suffrage and had re- tained that idea through his life. He said he saw no fit reason why a spe- cial session should not be called in Connecticut and good naturedly ad-
 vised the suffragists to keep up their
 work with the hope that perhaps a
 session will be called.
 MT. Taft said in part:
 "In 1915, after I had been heckled
 at a good many meetings as to what
 my opinion was on the subject of
 WS1nan suffrage, I wrote an article
 for the Saturday Evening Post, at
 tempting to define my attitude, and
 in that I reached the conclusion that
 while I saw that woman suffrage was
 coming. and that I believed it would
 have advantages. and that it would
 strengthen the government with all the people by increasing the propor-
 ton of all the people who directed it's
 course, I nevertheless thought it
 would be wiser to delay it's coming
 with a view of securing more educa- tion and better preparation for the exercise of the ballot for the average woman. I have now changed my
 mind on this subject because of the experience of the last four years There are three reasons which led me
 to this change.
 ''tFfrst, the great work which wo- men developed a capacity to do, in this country and in the European countries during the war. It is not too much to say that the women, eN- cept in fighting in the trenches, did their full part in the war women for } men. They did it in the factories; they did it on the farms; they did it ! l in numberless fields of activities, nec- essary in order that the men at the front might have those things without . which they could not live, endure or fight. The women showed a power of , orga nization and executive work and , the qualities of industry and courage and f-forgetfuIness, which earned s for them in England the right of suf-
 frage and overcome all opposition That which was earlier demonstrated
 in England was later demonstrated , here.
 , Second, the war perforce overcame
 a great many foolish conventions
 barring women from avenues of in tdustry and sources of livelihood, many
 of which, they were just as well able
 to pursue as men, and in others of
 which, if they could not do all the
 work of men. they could nevertheless
 supply deficiencies when men could
 not be had to do the work. Thus one
 of real injustices to women, growing out of. convention and prejudice and self:shness of men, has been the crowding of them into a few fields ot activity for making their living. A
 great advantage to be derived from . the war is the disclosure of this in. : justice.
 Performers in recent years have g been busy, and properly busy, find 3 ing ways and means, by which th' l conditions of the labortng classes ant
 of the poor generally may be inlprov t ed by legislation. They have tough , to secure positive law to compel em t ployers and landlords to pursue righ = methods in their dealings with wagt
 earners and poor people who coult l | not bargain with them on an equal e ity So we have had housing laws e safety appliance laws, factory laws t and laws with respect to hours of la = bor for women, and accomplished S much good, but 1t is perfectly eviden ' that under the guise of useful regu