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cience Explain* & ; %$&&&%* j&tt,, rn& ?ir*rmm - uffragetter " Pa MP 30N How the Attractive Charms of the Suffragettes Were Em phasized in the Recent Parade in New York as Compared with the Hodge-Podge, Badly Dressed, IIl-Assorted Young and Old in the Fl rst Suffragette Parade Three Years A^o Photo &y T H O** f>s O p-f Mrs. Herbert Carpenter, the Charming, Graceful and Attractive Marsh* of the Reccnf Parade. The Well-Recognized Laws of Psychology Which the Managers of the "Votes for Women" Campaign Are Beginning to Learn and to Use with Effective Results. By Dr Ja res L Lough Professor of Experimental Psychology in New Yrr' University. A SOCIOLOGY. o! distinction who fol lowed the rc :T. suffrage campaign with tlie Interest . the experimental scientist remarked to me ? despite our modern at tempts to appeal the logic and the detached jurigment of uu . ilic young and attractive woman was stil) t!r most direct approach to the male voter. The primal r. '.>ul of woman to man through the emotions. I c thinks, has not even been decently veneered by modern society. A jury of men find it increasingly difficult to convict a pretty feminine criminal. Few pretty girls, at tractively dressed, have to remain long tin Heated in a crowded street car. The pretty woman knocks at a self-opening door in most business offices. The best looking and young est recruits are selected ut Christmas to col lect contributions at the street corners. The beautiful applicant with a mediocre voice cap tures the church committee from the ugly duckling with tte throat of angels. The attractivefnurse draws the easiest cases from the doctor, and, last of all, the young and winning girl coyly beckons the suffragist of the old school?gaunt and intellectual? from the prominent places in the campaign, and nonchalantly pokes her pretty face into the fray. ? So, says my friend, the sociologist, we come back again to a contest between man and wom an which finds itself staged with the old fem inine weapons of defense and attack?beauty and the charm of fine clothes. To an interesting extent the sociologist is right. The emotional reaction of man '.to feminine beauty is a matter of common ob servation. it is a primal matter which is only varied and not changed by the evolution of social consciousness. The ancient response was common acceptance In Biblical days. "He ware of the snares of the beautiful woman" has been thrown across the shield of fighting men since the day of Adam. The will of the strong man is still vulnerable in the emotions. Solomon. Hie most profound psychologist of his day, had read the mind of man and the beauty of women and he knew the inevitable result of the one-sided contest. These phenomena are not necessarily acci dental. They may follow well known laws of psychology.* Briefly stated, psychology teaches us that judgment, reason, purposes, prefer ences are swayed and modified by external in fluences. One of the most compelling in fluences on mankind is the influence of beauti ful women. History demonstrates this over and over again. Empires and dynasties have been made and wrecked by the skill and in trigue of feminine charm. Since it is true that the success of the suf frage movement in America depends upon I winning the approval and assistance of the majority of the'male voters, the whole prob lom becomes one of appeal to the individual voter. If, therefore, feminine beauty has such an elemental appeal, it is only the natural thing, says the sociologist, for women to use it in obtaining the vote. Where logic, fails, when your carefully arranged string of argu ments do not convince, why not show a per fectly good smile with a cupid bow mouth and an even row of pearly teeth? when the straight thrust of the cold point of intellect fails to wound, why not fall back on the old surety of feminine beauty? It is so much easier to use and the triumph more im mediate. The problem, therefore, before the suffragists of America is a problem of psy chology. There is evidence tha' the leaders of the suffrage movement in America have" already had this fact pointed out to them and are now endeavoring to obey the laws of psy chology which are applicable to their problem. For forty years very little progress was made by addresses and logical appeals made by elderly women who had little to offer in the way of youth and beauty and charm of per sonality. Until the last year or two the lead ing campaigners in the suffrage movement were, for the most part, women sixty years old or more! There is now evidence that these worthy but unsuccessful leaders are being re tired and that younger and more attractive women are being put forward to win the cause along the easiest way indicated by psychology. What is this way? The simple path to man's emotions. A cartoonist with a genius for mob psychology recently pictured the new technique o:' the suffragists' appeal for the vote. He first drew a sketch of a woman of the old school, a gaunt, disturbing female, ad dressing a street crowd of men. She evidently had vigor and venom, but the reaction of her unattractive personality was evident in the faces of the men listening. The unattractive, the forbidding had worked through to the mental centres and had there registered an tagonism and retreat. The cartoonist then drew a suffrage street, speaker of to-day, pretty, attractively gowned and with an appealing personality. The suc cessful result is reflected in the attitude of the mob. It is not a pleasing thing to think that the intellectual appeal of a logical, homely woman is ineffective. Man has criticised woman as a potential voter because he has believed that this same emotional appeal would guide her ballot. Woman, he has said, through her rear ing and training is an emotional unit?a crea ture of instinct who cannot be trusted with the voting privilege because suffrage must have a cold, analytical intellect behind it to make it significant and vital. Men, they have believed, can put aside their emotions and vote With the right hand of judgment. Woman's mind is a capricious affair with the emotions holding the whip. This has been the charge. It is interesting, because so many men do not seem to realize that they have done much to encourage this attitude of women. They have kept themselves open to the direct appeal of feminine beauty. The psychology of the persuasive effect of a beautiful and talented woman upon a street, mob will supply the suffrage leaders of the old school with plenty of thought-provoking ma terial. At a meeting which I attended in the last campaign 1 found a typical example. A brisk little runabout drew up at the curb and immediately displayed a suffrage banner. The crowd of street men quickly collected with ?curious half smiles. There were two women in the car. One was a young girl of about twenty-two. She was unusually pretty and attractive. She had all the unconscious grace and physical con fidence of a boy. Her place was at the wheel. For the time being she was acti?g as a chauf feur. The second passeuger was an elderly woman with a sour, aggressive face, and a man* ner that would have r&pelled any man with a sense of humor. The elderly passenger soon made it apparent that she was to do the talking. When she mounted the seat a mumble of disappointment and disgust went through the crowd to a man. But there was no escape. We stood heroically tinder the lash of that woman's tongue so long as we could stand it. and then pointed sugges tions began to interrupt the speaker, proposing that she let the "angel at the wheel*' say a word or two to the gentlemen. A cheer of ap proval followed the suggestion until finally the woman was compelled to step down and let the slight, pretty girl have her day in court. To a psychologist the immediate reaction of that mob to the pretty fresh face of feminine youth was doubly interesting. The faces of the men under the former speaker had been a study in tolerant disgust. She could not arouse an emotion strong enough to have been called an tagonism. The mental influence had been negative. But with the first move of the cheery, piquant face of the girl the attitude of the gutter crowd changed like magic. Those men who were leaning lazily against the wall of the saloon nearby, straightened up with interest and respect in every line of their faces. A man rearranged his necktie. One big Irishman took off his hat and cautiously de posited his chewing tobacco for future refer ence in the palm of his hand. We all, uncon sciously pressed close to the machine. The girl's first unconscious appeal of youth and lif<* and beauty was immediate in its effect. There on the street corner by the saloon in a com monplace street a profound psychological law was functioning with as certain and true di rection as though it had been dealing with the minds of kings and scholars. The girl had evidently been brought up In a family of boys, and she had a good wholesome mind. She knew how to handle a lot of men instinctively. That helped her to got results with her tongue. But my immediate interest as an experimental psychologist was the un conscious response of male suffrage to the direct appeal of youth and feminine charm. I say that it would have done the elder states men of the suffrage movement a real good to have been there and analyzed that simple in cident. In it they might have found some sug gestions on how to win the vote by following the simple laws of psychology These venerable ladies might also with bene fit take down their psychologies from their book shelves and study the chapters on mob psychology. They will learn that mob-con sciousness is always deeply stirred and swayed by emotion. The suggestibility of a street mob is a scientific fact. This suggestibility may be the result of visual influence?the effect of ob jects which carry emotional reactions through the eyes, or it may result from any number of approaches. Such a writer as Boris Sidis regards the pos . sibilities of visual suggestion in a mob to amount to hypnotlzation. It extends at times to sense experiences which create collective illusions. Le Bon instinces many examples such as the figure of St. George, who appeared on the walls of Jerusalem to all the crusaders. In discussing this well-known psychological pyright, 1015. by the Star Company. Great Britain R Photo <?> Bv J.Hal. Sr?fP?,v. How Young Women of Attractive Appearance and Attractively Costumed Were Selected for Conspicuous Functions in the Recent New York "Votes for Women" Parade. appeal of feminine benuty and its suffrage application with a well-known woman watcher who worked :is a watcher at the pools at the recont elections, I war told that she had proved the voters suggestibility by exact records. In the voting districts where she placed tin little Kill in the automobile .she received seventy-four votes for suffrage out of a possible two hundred. The old line political observers (experienced politicians) had told her she could noi do better than tbreo votes to the distriet. And all that girl did was to stand on the corner and look pretty and hand out buttons. A number of the ' voters said after the polls were closed that they liked the pluck and the "looks of the kid." They were not analytical. They had not the power to trace the result of that attractive, pretty face upon the persuasive qual ities and functions of their minds-but they voted the way she wanted them to. AND THAT IS THE I'OIXT OK THE MATTER. It is helpful to know just how it is that this appeal lias become so vital to man. We realize that an emo tional suggestion can master and focuB the mind of man ?noro rapidly than can the slow process of logical se quence. The evolution of the race is much con nected with the emotional reaction of man to the appeal of woman. We ran traco It back to the last out Jjjhts Reserved. posts of anthropology. In the study of animal intelligence we lincl parallels. For thousands of ypars before the dawn of modern civilizing forces man's main concern was emotional. 11 is psychology was domi nated by passion, by hope and desire and pride for continuing the tribe: by fear and conster nation in woman's defense; by jealousy and greed in her possession; by cunning and in trigue in iter capture. Man won his woman through his emotions, and kept her. fed iter, pro tected her, and succumbed to her in like man ner. Through the curious laws of instinct and habit iiis whole association of ideas grouped woman i:i the emotional channel. When man grew into a more advanced social conscious ness he maintained this approach. So we have the stab of the primal emotions. This is even sharper when we play upon tho ancient instinct of man to meet the impassioned appeal of woman- beautiful woman?for some hing her heart tnosr desires. The emotional appeal, of course, will not win unsupported. But whether it is chagrining or not we must admit it, a beautiful woman does open up the mind of man to marvelous persuasion. And there the truth lies.