28 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
AN'TI-SUFFRAGE NOTES 
Editor North Shore Breeze: 
A writer, signing herself L. R. 5., 
in the Norra Snore Breeze of April 
23, undertakes to correct some “‘mis- 
statements that are still going about”’ 
and begins by making the flagrant 
mis-statements that the 30,000 mem- 
bers of the Massachusetts Anti-Suf- 
frage Association include both men 
and women, and that only about 1% 
of the women of Massachusetts are 
opposed to suffrage. ‘To be accurate, 
the membership of the Anti-Suffrage 
association is 31,600 and this includes 
no men, a fact which is constantly 
being stated in Anti-Suffrage publica- 
tions—these 31,600 are all women 
over 21. I regret to learn that it con- 
tains the name of one lady who has 
changed her faith, as such names are 
not wanted on the list. If this lady 
will kindly send her name to Anti- 
Suffrage headquarters 687 Boylston 
st., it will be taken off within 24 
hours. These 31,600 women make 
3% of the women over 21 in Mass- 
achusetts, not 1% as L. R. S.. says. 
She considers that a small showing, 
but what can her side show? At the 
1915 legislative hearing on the Suf- 
frage question, the suffragists stated 
that their membership numbered 55,- 
ooo. This includes men and women 
if not children. The number of men 
and women over 21 in this state is 
approximately 2,270,000, estimating 
on a normal growth since the census 
of I910. 55,000 is less than 214% 
of this number. Therefore we have 
the interesting situation that the 
antis have 3% of the women over 21 
in Massachusetts as members of their 
organization, while the  suffragists 
who have been working 25 years 
longer, and take in both men and wo- 
men have less than 214% of the 
adult population enrolled as suffrag- 
StS. 
L. R. S. claims, however, that ail 
the women in the state who are not 
members of the Anti-suffrage assoc- 
jation are Suffragists! If this is the 
case it is certainly amazing that the 
suffragists were so bitterly opposed 
to the Drury Bill which advocated a 
referendum of the suffrage question 
to all the women of the state... It 1s 
because they know quite well. that 
the great majority of the women do 
not want to vote that they fought this 
bill. They are unwilling to have the 
men learn how few women really 
wish to enter politics. 
L. R. S. speaks of “the overwhelm- 
ing testimony as to the tremendous 
numbers of women voting at recent 
elections in Chicago.” Is she not al- 
lowing her imagination a little too 
free rein? The estimated number of 
women over 21 in Chicago is 725,000. 
The largest number voting (and it 
was necessary to arouse bitter race 
and religious prejudice to get even 
this number out) was 243,000. This 
leaves 482,000 who refused to vote 
in spite of every sort of pressure 
which could be brought to bear on 
them. Would it not be more accur- 
ate to speak of “the tremendous 
numbers of women not voting at re- 
cent elections in Chicago?” As to the 
improvement in the orderliness of 
elections she would better read the 
Chicago papers; apparently the last 
election was one of the most riotous 
and disorderly on record. 
L. R. S. says that the National and 
International Teachers Congress have 
endorsed woman suffrage. ‘The 
Massachusetts Federation of Labor 
has recently endorsed the movement 
against Phohibition. Does L. R. 5. 
think this signifies that the rank and 
file of the laboring men in Massachu- 
setts are in favor of the saloon? 
These “endorsements” sound impres- 
sive until one learns of the methods 
by which they are frequently put 
through. A certain labor union not 
far from Boston was said last winter 
to have passed resolutions endorsing 
woman suffrage. As it happens, 
nearly all the members of this union 
are anti-suffragists, but at a very 
small meeting a few suffragists put 
the resolution through. This same 
thing was attempted recently at a 
Grange meeting after most of the 
members had left, but failed. At 
Wellesley College for years, girls 
both suffragists and antis, were invit- 
ed to join a club for the purposes of 
discussion of woman suffrage, and 
then all were counted as members of 
the College Equal Suffrage League. 
Knowing a few facts of this kind 
leads one to discount these “endorse- 
ments.” In Michigan the suffragists 
had “endorsements” from about 
everything in sight, and were defeat- 
ed after a six weeks’ Anti-Suffrage 
educational campaign by 96,000! 
L. R. S. credits Gov. Walsh with 
being a suffragist. An inquiry of 
Excellency’s Secretary at the State 
House brought the reply that this 
statement. is entirely erroneous. The 
Governor’s position is an absolutely 
neutral one. He supports the plank 
in his party platform which advocates 
the submission of the question to the 
people in the form of a constitutional 
amendment. This, however, is quite 
a different proposition from support- 
ing Woman Suffrage itself, which 
according to his secretary, the Gov- 
ernor has no intention of doing. 
L. R..S. is surely right in saying 
‘ 
May 14, 1915 
EQUAL SUFFRAGE NOTES 
On Saturday, May 15th, which is 
“Suffrage Day” in Mass., the Man- 
chester. League will hold a “Spring 
Tea” at the house of Mrs. Charles A. 
Hatch, at 3.30 o’clock. There will be 
a brief business meeting, with speak- 
ing and a report of the Campaiga 
Convention in Boston, and this will 
be followed by music and tea. These 
“Suffrage spring teas” have become 
quite the fashion in New York and 
Boston.this season. 
On that same afternoon in Boston 
the day will be observed with open- 
air speaking and a band concert on 
the Common in the afternoon. All 
men are specially invited to this 
demonstration. : 
The Annual Meeting and Cam- 
paign Convention of the Mass. Suf- 
fragists began on Thursday in Bos- 
ton, and continues through Friday and 
Saturday morning. The delegates from 
Manchester were Miss Stanwood and 
Miss Florence Leach, and other 
North Shore leagues represented 
there were Lynn, Salem, Swampscott, 
Beverly, Gloucester, Ipswich, New- 
buryport, etc. The New England 
Conference came on Friday morning, 
and the great banquet at the Hotel 
Somerset came off on Thursday even- 
ing with brilliant success. The large 
ball-room was over-filled, and many 
were unable to obtain places at all. 
The scene was beautiful with spring 
flowers, yellow and white, and among 
the fine speakers were Hon. Sam. 
Powers and Miss Helen Todd, of 
California, the latter making perhaps 
the deepest impression of all. Miss 
Todd will speak on the Common Sat- 
urday. 
The general reports at the conven- 
tion showed steady increase of inter- 
est and work. In spite of the dark 
clouds hanging over the world at this 
time, Suffragists remain cheerful and — 
hopeful, because they are by nature 
the cheerful and hopeful element of 
the community, and because they be- 
lieve that better times are coming in 
the near future. We hope and believe 
that our country will not be drawn 
into the war. War always interrupts 
civilization. But it is said in England 
that this war has “proved the worth 
of women as citizens.’ Must we 
wait for that, to enfranchise our 
women citizens? Men of Massachu- 
setts, do it now! Sele. Ry 
that ‘there are still some mis-state- 
ments going about.” —J.: W. 
The measure of a man’s life is the 
well spending of it, and not the 
length —Plutarch. 
