The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1919-06-24

Of concentrating on the effort to Sc
Cure suffrage by federal amendment.
Yet the workers of that early day
were promptly confronted with the
fact that their demands on congress
men rebounded as from a blank wall
Those demands were not backed by
votes.
There was, therefore, nothing for
1t but to get some votes, and there
upon was projected the supplement
tary plan Of state campaigns until
enough states should have been won
to make the voting contingent back
OF the demand for the federal suf-
frage amendment too considerable
to be overlooked. 1t has been some
times said that the National Suffrage
association has worked for suffrage
only by state referenda. wish es-
pecially to stress the order of the
nationals program:
First--It was organized to work
for federal suffrage amendment.
Second-It supplemented and
! strengthened that work by the win
ming OF states to suffrage, full and
Presidential
| Third-It massed the voting
strength of fifteen and a half mil
lion women over voting age behind
the demand for the amendment.
In all, fifteen states have been
wont to full suffrage, two to primary
suffrage, and the legislatures Of
twelve states have conferred on wo-
J men the right to vote for the next
President of the United States. Only
small part of this great harvest was
reaped during what we may call the
educational period"-the thirty
years which lie between 1880 and
| 1910. That was a seed-sowing time,
and 1t Is the most uninteresting, un-
eventful, and unpicturesque portion
Of the suffrage movement.
| The great educator in the removal
of prejudice proved to be woman suf-
frage in operation. Although the
whole world scorned the little pion-
| eer border settlement of Wyoming
, in its brave endeavor to do justice to
women, it nevertheless carried
| greater influence than it is now pos
| sible to measure. Year after year
| the women voted. The testimony
continued that they voted wisely and
we'll; that they were independent;
! that they were high-minded and
recognized the necessity of contin-
ued Improvement in political meth
| ods.
Wyoming people moved over into
| the adjoining states, a4d by the
! leaven of their influence so strength
ened the popular belief that when
the question was submitted the cam
paigners found a reception to their
views not known elsew ere. From
Wyoming as centre. woman suf-
frage spread over the great West
but met Won Hindenburg line
stretching from the Canadian bor-
der to the southland through North
and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kan.
sas, and Oklahoma.
The Hindenburg line was compos-.
ed of German citizens who had re-.
moved to Russia to escape conscrip-
tion some 23O years ago. They
were iliterate when they migrated
to Russia. and there were no educa-
tionaI facilities in the home of their
adoption. Two hundred years later
IN nj ha1
and the entire colony removed to the
United States, finding homes and
free lands in the great west. In all
of these states men voted on their
first papers, and il was always an
easy matter with little money TO
control any election through these
illitcratc voters. That was repeat
edly done in all of those states. and
woman suffrage in its march east
ward was effectually checked for
some years.
In few instances did any political
party strong enough TO hope for
state control indorse woman suffrage
! in its platform or lend its political
h'"'H'"'lS W 'Ie carrying vi tHt
suffrage amendment at the polls. On
the contrary. these political parties
| as usual thing lent their machin-
cry 70 the opponents. The opposi-
! tion was not. as is ordinarily sup
posed the little group of women who
do not wish to vote themselves, and
who have so peor an opinion OF their
sex that they contend that the entire