MRS. FRENCH, PRESIDENT OF THE TENNESSEE EQUAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION
TALKS OF CONDITIONS IN THAT STATE
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE
Mrs. L. Crozier French, the distinguished
president of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage
association, 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 association of the grand old state of Tennessee, 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 of 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 opposition, 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
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 ever 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) bad been sounded by
this organization.
She remarked upon Mr. Wilson's atti-
ture 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 birth day 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 enfranchisement
of women in Tennessee is mainly apologetic at this moment, it is not of an apathetic nature, or negative character. The trite threadbare phrase, 'Woman's place
is in the home' (which, by the way, no
one has ever disputed) is uttered parrotlike 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 south-
ern states. A leading politician of Ten-
nessee 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, but work only through the state
government.' As this view is held by
many, it seeing well to give some consid-
eration to it now that Tennessee is on the (missing)
of organizing the forces for a con-(missing)
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 large sections of
this country forced upon the south disadvantageous 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 to
an equal share of governmental control," said Mrs. French, "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 chil-
dren when the great questions of liber-
ity and equality are argued in connection with the female sex. Thus is shown
one of the greatest injuries that disfranchisement has inflicted upon woman. 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 foun-
dations 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."
"The argument used by some southerners against 'votes for women' in the
south is that it would increase the
negro vote," I suggested. "What is your
opinion along those lines?"
"This objection is founded on prejudice and not on knowledge or wisdom," was the reply. "The same restrictions which have been found effectual in controlling the negro man's
vote in many southern states, would
lose none of their force when applied
to negro women. Those who know conditions and have the wisdom to make
the proper application, have no misgivings, because the enfranchisement
of the women would give the south
more than 600,000 majority of white
women voters over both negro men and
women. The white race in the south
would therefore gain an added supremacy. Surely we have many men in the
south who are great enough statesmen
to recognize and take advantage of this
situation."
"Conditions are such now that Ten-
nesseeans have the opportunity of taking the lead of the southern states in
doing justice to women," Mrs. French
said proudly. "As you know the National Woman's Suffrage association is
to meet in Nashville in November. That
is two moths before the meeting of our
next legislature. If every man and
woman in Tennessee who favors equal
suffrage would make some pronounced
demonstration of this fact during the
next few months our 1915 legislature
would be forced to favor the proposition. Early in October the Tennessee
Equal Suffrage association will meet in
convention at Knoxville. Every town
in the state of any consequence should
send one or more representatives to this
great gathering, to advocate putting
the women of Tennessee on an equal
footing with those of the states on and
near the Pacific coast. The women of
the south are surely not inferior to
those and do not deserve to be left in
the condition of the old feudal times
because of the apathy, indifference or
ultra-conservatism of the men of the
old Volunteer State."
