MRS. M'LENDON
SCORES FOES OF
WOMAN SUFFRAGE
President of Georgia Association Pays Her Respects
to Bishop Candler, Senator
Smith and Others
_
Editor The Journal: Hon. William
Jennings Bryan has truthfully declared, "the forces of evil are battling against woman suffrage."
The opponents of woman suffrage
have published broadcast an open letter to that great man calling on
him to substantiate his charges. He
is too big a man to trouble to prove
anything to brewers, distillers and liquorites generally, for the passage
of national constitutional prohibition federal amendment and its ratification by forty-eight states has
set the seal of disapprobation and
condemnation on them forever. The
enforcement of the law is all that
is required now. Neither is it worth
his while to attempt to prove to
men in high places, in church and
in state, that they are playing into
the hands of evil men and women,
when they cast aside all reason and
common sense at the prospect of
losing control of the women people
of this country in the near future,
it is well, however, for the women
of Georgia to know why the Empire State of the South is so backward in advancing the interests of
the women, the other half of our
common humanity and therefore entitled to equal rights with men. For
some reason men fear women.
In 1914 Neil Bonner, president of
the Wholesale Brewers' association,
in his annual speech, said: "We need
not fear the churches, the men are
voting the old tickets; we need not
fear the ministers, for the most part
they follow the men of the churches;
we need not fear the Y. M. C. A.,
it does not do any aggressive work;
but, gentlemen, we need to fear the
Woman's Christian Temperance
Union and the ballot in the hands of
women; therefore, gentlemen, fight
woman suffrage." In the 1915 suffrage campaign in New Jersey, the
leader of the anti-suffrage forces,
known as "Boss" Nugent, who was
then running for governor of the
state on a platform whose main
planks were the support of the
"wets" and the defeat of the ratification of the federal amendment.
James E. Ferguson, who directed
the campaign against woman suffrage in Texas, spent large sums of
money in advertisements over his
own signature in leading Texas papers. They were headed "Again 'Em
All"—meaning the two amendments,
both prohibition and suffrage. These
advertisements were scurrilous attacks on Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the National Suffrage
Woman Suffrage association, and Dr.
Ana Howard Shaw, chairman of the
woman's committee of the Council of
National Defense.
What happened to James B. Ferguson, governor of the largest southern state in the union?
He was impeached, he was beaten
at the primaries by the women of
Texas, who would not endure a man
accused of misappropriating of public funds. Texas women demonstrated what they thought of Jara3S
E. Ferguson in their "Hobby for
Governor" campaign.
It goes without saying that Hon.
Wm. J. Bryan knew what he was
talking about when he said "the
forces of evil are battling against
woman suffrage."
Coming nearer home, let us consider Georgia. We have some in our
midst—some few anti-suffragists
outside that little association—opposed—to further extension—of suffrage to women, headed by Miss
Caroline Patterson, who said she" never belonged to anything but a missionary society until she became president of the Anti-Suffrage association, located in the city of Macon,
Ga. She has received a letter from
Bishop Warren A. Candler. This letter to Miss Patterson was published
in the Macon Telegraph and he thus
declares himself on woman suffrage
in 1919.
