Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost AdvocatesJohnson, Helen Kendrick
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Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates
Johnson, Helen Kendrick
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
The instinctive alliance of the Woman Suffrage movement with the uncertain
and dangerous elements in our political life is well exemplified by the
campaign in California in connection with the late presidential election.
Mrs. Barclay Hazard, who was almost the sole woman to express publicly the
opposition which the majority of women felt, to the Suffrage idea, has
given me the following clear account of the conditions and result. She
says: "If the advocates of Woman Suffrage give a really frank and truthful
answer to the question, 'What caused the defeat of the movement in the
late campaign in California?' they must reply, 'Public sentiment was
against it.' In all fairness, there is no other reason. Let us consider
the conditions under which the campaign was carried on. In the first
place, the Suffragists were most fortunate in choosing a time when the
whole country, as well as the State of California, was torn by a question
of such vital importance to continued life and well-being that all other
matters were in danger of going by default.
"Second: They were extremely well organized and had command of a campaign
fund of no mean magnitude, which enabled them to keep in the field such
able and experienced agitators as Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna
Shaw, to say nothing of numerous lesser lights.
"Third: There was absolutely no organized opposition to the movement. The
women who disapproved were as a rule entirely unaccustomed to public
speaking and were averse to coming forward in any way. They remonstrated
in private but would not express their views openly.
"Fourth: Last but by no means least, our Suffrage friends may be said to
have had the press of the State with them. The 'Los Angeles Times' (the
most influential paper in the southern part of the State) cannot be said
to have aided the movement, neither did it actively antagonize it beyond
admitting to its columns occasionally letters from the 'Antis.' Yet for
this small opposition I heard an ardent advocate propose that the
Suffragists should boycott the paper!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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