Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-10-14
Addresses Luncheon Of At
Ianta Woman's Club and
Gives Experiences She Has
Had in Voting

| Emphasizing woman's response
| tIty under the new order Of things
! brought about by equal suffrage,
| Mrs. William H. FELTON,, of Carriers
vile, junior United States senate"
| from Georgia ad interim, on Tues
day spoke to the Atlanta League Oh
! Women Voters at the close of luncn-
con at which she was the honor
guest. The luncheon, given at the
Ansley hotel, was largely attended
and Mrs. FELTON, was given a rousing
welcome.
"AlI over the United States wcm-
en- can VOTE" said Mrs. FELTON,. eve
in Georgia, could have voted in
1920, but the then governor mad
scruples against letting the fact get
out. He should have issued a pro-
clamatlon. Now however, we are
10 longer officially classed with
idiots, criminals, and the insane in
Georgia, but have been admitted to
equal rights with men at to voting.
The struggle to get the vote IC"
women has covered sixty years III
some parts of the country, though
in Georgia we did not begin the
fight till the '80s. I have had my
part in this. Sometimes, l have
| talked to the legislators like moth
err and sometimes like a Dutch un-
Gle. Since 1890, men have been
able to vote in, this country. Only
a. man with property could vote "a
first, but finally they took in ali
kinds of men. There was one Gle
n.ent of the population which was
oyerlooked-the women. There arc
100000 women in the United
Statesmen all, however, Of voting
age.
II want to give you recent In
stance in my own experience 10
prove to you that we have to watch
out for ourselves. .On september 10
last went to the courthouse of my
county to vote. They unfortunately
had lost the book containing my
registration. I started to search for
it. which covered the clerks office,
the sheriff's office, the tax collec-
TORS office-in fact, every office that
was unlocked and l demanded tnat
tIev produce that book. We could
not find it. I went back after while
and we searched all those offices
IL. u-u
rant. but | had considerable determl-
ration. The tax collector SAD,
This is very strange-your maine
ought to be on that book; II we
could only find the book! L salo
81 signed my name, in a book La
know again when I saw it-Rebecca
Latimer FELTON,, farmer, SO years
old. Where is that book"
She Finds the Book
"Well, we looked and we looked
but nobody could find it. Suddenly
on a corner of a bookcase (Whlch L
had personally searched few min
,tes before) l saw a suspicious-look'
ling book, which had not been there
when l looked. We took it down
lit was the registration book. Oddly
enough, no one knew anything about
it, nor about how it got out--or back.
81 want to tell you that you must
all register, every woman in Georgia,
and vote Go down and look up your
registration, Ind be sure that they
don't lose the book.
There is unrest all over this
country. Don't you know there has
got to be a settlement of this thing,
if we are to preserve the republic?
Women hold the balance Of power.
What do women take the most in
terest in? In the home, in the child,
in peace at home.
We must have the warmeSt SYM
pathy for all the world-but Amer
lea first!
When your boy is of suitable age
to be q soldier, it is hard to know.
as the mothers of our young sol
diers knew, that over a million Amer
lean boys were sent across the seas,
to satisfy the war lords Of Europe.
These women, these mothers, had
this hard thing to face, and they
did it heroically. But it should never
happen again.
Moral ideas are greater than pc.
litical ideas. The child is the cen
ter of interest. 1t is his hand that
ter of interest. 1t is his hand that
it falls from our iifeless hands.
For Clean Ballot Boxes
about law enforcement: unless
you have lived where there is no
law, as [ did just after the Civil war,
you cannot know what this means.
A bad law is better than no law at
all. Women must stand for law en-.
forcement, for clean ballot box,
for an adequate police system, for
decent, upright judges.
Your Atlanta police force is a
good force. But I hear, from one
side and another, that many offend
ers escape, after arrest; that manv
are never arrested; that the record
er lets them go with a light fine:
that when they reach the Judges
court, he let's them off with a fine
SO light that any bootlegger can
afford to laugh at it. 1 know of
hundreds of homes where men get
their liquor just as easily as they
did before the prohibition amend.
ment passed.
You must have judges who will
enforce the laws, who will make pen
altes heavy enough so that they
cannot be laughed at. Make it a
definite proposition. Get men of
character for judges, men who re-
spect the law and will make it re-
spected.
About the poll tax for women,
[ heard that this was to come I'D in
the legislature, and I went down
there and roasted as I do when
things are happengin. Sure enough,
the bill came up to read that women
who did not want to vote, need not
register. I said, Gentlemen, none
of your nonsense. There is no wom-
an in Georgia who will hesitate to