Mrs. L. Crozier French's
Views On Equal Suffrage
LOCAL SUFFRAGIST IS INTERVIEWED IN BIRMINGHAM
AND EXPRESSES HERSELF FREELY ON THE NATIONAL AND STATE PHASES OF THE ISSUE.
In the Birmingham Age Herald of
Tuesday, August 18th, there appears an
interview by Dolly Dalrymple, the well
known newspaper writer, with Mrs. L.
Crozier-French who has just returned
from a visit with her son, Mr. William
French, of Birmingham. The interview
is accompanied by a splendid likeness of
Mrs. French and is in part as follows :—
BY DLLY (sic.) DALRYMPLE.
Mrs. L. Crozier French, the distinguished president of the Tennessee Equal
Suffrage associations who has been
among the prominent visitors to Birmingham during the past few days, needs
no introduction to the people of this
community.
Mrs. French is widely known as one
of the most intellectual, one of the most
forceful, one of the brainiest and one
of the most charming women whom the
south delights to honor.
As president of the Equal Suffrage as-
sociation of the grand old state of Ten-
nessee, Mrs. French has become known
not only nationally, but internationally,
and her work in behalf of the cause has
given her precedence and prominence
wherever intelligent men and women
are assembled. Mrs. French is the type
of woman who is distinctly feminine
and insistently human.
With all her splendid intelligence and
learning, she has the warmest note of
sympathy hidden away in her heart—the
kindliest consideration for her fellow-
man—a spirituality that is surpassing
sweet, and a strength which is dominant meeting as she has in the pioneer
cause that she sponsors tremendous op-
position, but always able to cope with
it—always able to win.
One of her greatest admirers, a young
woman of delightful personality and engaging charm, has said of Mrs. French
that "she is made of the finest feminine
fabrics," and that if she were asked to
to sum up her one biggest quality in
the variations of her make-up, in a single short sentence, she would say:—
"She is the most heroic type of moral
courage I have even seen."
Mrs. French chatted interestingly
with me a few days ago about suffrage
and its progress in the south.
She talked of Mr. Bryan's declaration
for suffrage as a distinct forward movement for the cause.
She talked of the "Congressional union
and its position in suffrage ranks, that
the one note of militancy that had ever
been struck in the United States (which
by the way, she declares could never
exist as it does in England, because the
conditions could never by any possible
means be the same) had been sounded
by this organization.
She remarked upon Mr. Wilson's attitude toward suffrage as not surprising
to her in its conservatism, since in his
official position as President of these
United States he has not before been
called upon to inaugurate any measure
so radical, any measure so large, any
measure that meant so much to so many
people.
She spoke of the self-sacrifice that the
women who are espousing the cause of
suffrage are making in order to enable
them to raise funds for the work, and
the tribute of selecting the birthday of
Lucy Stone as "Self Sacrifice Day"—
the day upon which they amalgamated
in this purpose, as timely and apropos.
She talked of many interesting phases
of suffrage, and she was particularly
happy in her delineation of the tense
situation in her own home state.
"As to the opposition," I suggested,
'at the present time in Tennessee, to
what is it mainly attributable?" I
asked.
"The opposition to the enfranchise-
ment of women in Tennessee is mainly
apologetic at this moment. It is not
an apathetic nature, or negative char-
acter. The trite threadbare phrase,
'Woman's place is in the home-' (which,
by the way, no one has ever disputed)
is uttered parrot-like by those who
seem unable to put forth any logical
argument against equal rights. Some
give it as their opinion that the women
who wish to vote ought not to be denied the right. Still others announce
that while they are not willing to work
for the cause they will certainly take
advantage of the privilege of voting
when 'votes for women' is an accomplished fact," Mrs. French answered.
'No organized effort. I understand,
has been put forth by the men of Tennessee for suffrage," I observed.
"Many of Tennessee's leading men
have indorsed woman suffrage, although,
as you have suggested, no organized
effort has been instituted," Mrs. French
replied. "The men of our commonwealth
are not so deadly conservative, however, as are those of some other of our
southern states. A leading politician of
Tennessee in reply to the question,
"When are you going to announce yourself for equal suffrage ?' answered that
he would do so whenever any considerable number of the people of the
state manifested their approval of
'votes for women.' He then added
'Do not try to get an amendment to
the constitution of the United States
passed, hut work only through the
state government.' As this view is held
by many, it seems well to give some
consideration to it now that Tennessee
is on the eve of organizing the forces
for a concerted movement for equal
suffrage."
"For party aggrandizement.'' Mrs.
French continued, "the blunder was
made a half century ago of enfranchising by means of a national amendment
a race born and bred in slavery, the
large majority of whom inhabited the
territory occupied by their former owners.
The people of
this country forced upon the south dis-
advantageous conditions which they
would not themselves share. This conduct is now pronounced by the judicious as most reprehensible. Those who
suffered this great wrong are in many
instances naturally prejudiced against
enfranchisement by amendment of the
constitution of the United States. But
how different is the proposition of enfranchising the female of a race to
that of enfranchising an alien race! The
females of a race are in no sense inferior to the males of the same race,
and the recognition of their equality is
in the interest of justice and therefore
cannot work ill to the community. Class
distinction and privilege by governments- can only work evil to the whole
community—never good. The privileged
class will assume more and more authority, and become more and more
tyrannical, while those who are deprived
of equal opportunities are forced into a
subserviency, detrimental to strength of
character and material interest."
"Do you find any indifference in the
attitude of the women of Tennessee as
a whole toward suffrage?" I asked.
"The indifference today of many
women of Tennessee to their right in
an equal share of governmental control;' said Mrs. Fronds, 'is due to the
habit of submission. Such women seem
to be able to sympathize with men in
their love of freedom, but are as children when the great questions of liberty and equality are argued in connection with the female sex. Thus is
shown one of the greatest injuries that
disfranchisement has inflicted upon women. Lack of self-esteem, a tendency to
be mean in spirit, is a most detrimental influence to character building. The
women of a race lay the foundations of
character in the youth and never will
man be of the highest type until mothers learn the real meaning of freedom
and enjoy it to the fullest extent in all
of its phases."
