IS MORE BLARNEY DESIRED?
It is difficult for the mere male to grasp the rea-
soning advanced by some of the suffrage leaders
who are urging their cohorts to vote the Democratic
ticket. The problem becomes more disturbing after
reading Mr. Henning's summary of the mental acrobatics indulged in by the administration since March
3, 1913, when the Democracy was ushered into
Washington with a suffrage parade.
It seems that soon after the parade three successive deputations, calling at the White House to
learn when the Anthony amendment would be approved by the new president, were told the tariff
was the supreme issue and must be disposed of.
When the tariff act was passed, in November, callers
were told evasively that suffrage would be given
"earnest consideration." The result of earnest
consideration was to announce that as the Baltimore
platform did not commit him, Mr. Wilson could not
urge suffrage,
In February, 1914, the Democratic house refused
to name a special committee. The next month
twenty-two Democrats in the senate voted against
the amendment, which needed only eleven of these
votes to pass. In June, when the president signally
abandoned the Baltimore platform in the canal tolls
matter, the women visited him again to learn why
he could not abandon it in favor of suffrage, too.
Mr. Wilson "refused to be cross examined."
In January, 1915, the question came to vote in
the house, and of 282 Democrats only eighty-six
voted for suffrage.
St. Louis platform insists on a vote by states instead of federal amendment. The plea is particularly mournful in that Mr. Wilson is the man who
wrote that St. Louis platform and jammed it down
the throat of his party.
The suffrage leaders were lulled to mistaken confidence in 1918 and 1914 by pleasant words, which
have invariably been followed by hostile deeds on
the part of a Democratic president, a Democratic
senate, and a Democratic house. Can it be that
they will continue to credit promises from men who
have invariably broken past promises? Mr. Hughes
favors the amendment and has firmly said so.
There is not one comprehensible reason why a
single suffrage vote should go to the Democratic
party.
Women's Suffrage
