Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
With votes as with most of the dollars--they were not coming
unsought, and in order to make sure of them they must be looked for in
their own habitat. This the women did on horseback, in wagons,
carriages, steam cars and automobiles. They were found in the shops,
offices and stores, at the fairs, conventions and Chautauquas, at the
theater and the circus, on the farms and the highways, at the fireside
and in the streets. One automobile trip covered a part of the same
route travelled by the Rev. Olympia Brown and other suffrage workers
in the campaign of 1867, when they often rode in ox-teams or on Indian
ponies, stopped over night in dugouts or sod houses and finally were
driven back by hostile Indians. This mental picture made the trip over
good roads and through villages of pretty homes seem like a pleasure
ride. Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky; the president, Mrs. Johnston; Mrs.
Kimball and Mrs. Hoffman, who furnished the car, made one trip of
1,000 miles in the fifth district and Miss Clay was then placed in
charge of the sixth district offices, where she rendered valuable
service for two weeks longer, all gratuitous.
Arthur Capper, owner and publisher of the Topeka _Daily Capital_, and
L. L. Kiene, editor of the _State Journal_, were most helpful. The
favorable Catholic vote was largely due to the excellent work of Mrs.
Mary E. Ringrose and her sister of California and to David Leahy of
Wichita, an active worker in the Men's League. W. Y. Morgan, member of
Congress from Kansas, and Professor S. J. Brandenburg of Oxford, Ohio,
looked after the voters in the colleges and universities.
Four-year-old Billy Brandenburg came with his mother to help in the
automobile tours and was adopted as the "campaign mascot." At the
street meetings his little cap was often heavy with nickels and
quarters when he helped take collections. Kansas had often stood in
the lime-light, but while the women avoided the humdrum, all
spectacular methods were discouraged and they won by keeping their
efforts on dignified, conservative lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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