Maryland suffrage news., April 06, 1912, Image 1

About Maryland suffrage news. (Baltimore, Md.) 1912-1920

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
MARYLAND SUFFRAGE NEWS
VOL. I No. 1 SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1912 FIVE CENTS
OUR DEDICATION.
To the poor women without
homes, to the little toilers who
should be in the schools and play
grounds, to the white slaves in
their tragic bondage, and to the
children who die, these pages are
dedicated! May every woman who
is not too idle to have a thought, or
too vain to have a soul, or too rich
in gold to have a heart, join in the
great struggle for women’s free
dom!
Purity, Liberty, Justice these
we must work for!
THE LAMP OF SACRIFICE
Have you ever thought how
much money has been spent by
men in their great wars for politi
cal freedom? No great revolution
ever has or ever can be carried
through successfully without
money to sustain the soldiers and
to pay for the supplies. We need
$30,000 this year for the work in
Maryland. Our woman soldiers
cannot enlist unless a living wage
is insured to them. Traveling in
the counties is expensive. Print
ing and advertising cannot be done
for nothing. Meetings must be
held, and they cost money. Sacri
fice, personal sacrifice, has been at
the root of every great social re
form. What will you give?
Our task is to educate one-quar
ter of a million voters in the prin
ciples of Justice and Righteous
ness. What will you contribute
toward their instruction?
Give to the Suffrage work now,
and we can win the battle quickly.
Wait, and the work waits with
you.
Every penny counts. Give what
you can. Give the most you can.
Give until you feel it. We want a
contribution from every Suffragist
in the State in our war chests, and
we want the gold sanctified by the
spirit of self-sacrifice.
Give to the Suffrage work now
to the end that you may give ef
fectively to the philanthropies
when the vote is won. Many of
the charities we are now support
ing will not be needed when the
humanitarian instincts of women
have full scope in the government.
To give to the Suffrage work now
is the surest, safest, most effective
way of giving to the poor.
Acknowledgment of gifts to the
cause will be made from time to
time in this column, but the true
reward to the givers will be writ
ten in the happier world history
that can only come as the result
of Votes for Women.
Please send all contributions to
the Just Government League of
Maryland, 15 East Pleasant street,
Baltimore.
NOTICE.
By special arrangement the
Woman’s Journal with the Mary
land Supplement is being sent
from the Baltimore and not from
the Boston office.
All changes of address, com
plaints and money for renewals
and new subscriptions should be
sent direct to the business mana
ger. This will save complications
and delays.
Address
DORA G. OGLE,
1516 Mt. Royal Avenue.
THE HEARING
On Which Side Do You Stand?
THE HEARING AT ANNAPOLIS
Suffragists and Antis Should Read This Report Carefully. It Will
Help the Former to Understand the Opposition and Will
Convert the Latter Into Suffragists
The complete stenographic re
port of the proceedings on the floor
of the House of Delegates when
the State-wide Bill was voted
upon will be published serially in
the Maryland Suffrage News,
with a running commentary by
way of explanation of certain
moves and counter-moves on the
part of the Delegates.
In this first number attention
must be called especially to the
preliminary words of Messrs.
Campbell, Waters and Cummings
because of their bearing on the
trivia], but somewhat notorious,
event known as the Waters epi
sode. The daily press has already
given an account of the way in
which Mrs. Hooker rudely refused
to shake hands with Mr. Waters
after his speech on the floor of the
House. It has been explained that
this arbitrary action on the part
of Mrs. Hooker was at least due in
part to the fact that Mr. Waters
spoke with some vehemence against
the Suffrage bill after having said
that we would vote against the
bill, but that he would otherwise
maintain an “impartial attitude”
toward it.
It will be seen in the report that
Mr. Campbell, by a very clever
move, threw the opposition into a
quasi-panic when the report was
brought in. The members of the
committee had refused, to report
out the bill providing for an edu
cational qualification, and Mr.
Campbell, by making a motion
that the minority report be ac
cepted for the majority report,
frustrated their plans. Mr. Waters
and Mr. Cummings and a number
of other delegates had apparently
thought that the bill providing for
an educational qualification, other
wise known as the Campbell i
Amendment, had a far better j
chance of passage than the origi-1
SUPPLEMENT TO THE WOMAN'S JOURNAL
nal unlimited bill, and it was prob
ably for this reason that they did
not wish to have that amendment
reported out. As soon as Mr.
Campbell’s motion was before the
House, Messrs. Cummings, Mar
bury and Waters were seen hastily
to get together with the obvious
purpose of determining upon some
counter-move which would put Mr.
Campbell at a loss. Undoubtedly,
it was then decided that Mr.
Waters should take up the cudgels
against the bill, and it is at least
reasonable to suppose that he may
explain his apparent lack of faith
by the fact that, when the bill
came up for discussion, it was not
the bill that he had anticipated
having before the House. Possibly
he meant in his previous statement
that he would simply not oppose
Bill No. 13, since he thought it
had no chance at all of passage.
The first remark of Mr. Waters—
“l do not so understand the minor
ity report”—was made in a very
heated manner, and with apparent
confusion.
With this note and with the ad
vice that Suffrage speakers should
all read Mr. Campbell’s speech
for the purpose of gleaning much
good material from it for subse
quent use, we may take up the
proceedings:
Report of Proceedings on the Floor
of the House of Delegates, An
napolis, Md., February 29, 1912.
In re Bill No. 13 and the substi
tute therefor, Bill No. 325.
(After the transaction of routine
business Mr. Campbell’s substitute
Bill No. 325 was read by Reading
i Clerk Wolfe at 5.45 P. M.)
Mr. Campbell: I move that the
minority report be accepted for
j the majority report. I would like
| to explain now with regard to this
{Continued on page 3.)
MEETING AT WEST PARK
RECREATION CENTER
The meeting at West Park
Recreation Center, March 25, was
a thoroughly enthusiastic one. Dr.
Anna H. Shaw made the speech of
the evening and was at her best.
Her remarks teemed with wit and
her audience, though for the most
part Suffragists who are accused
by the Antis to be woefully lack
ing in the much-to-be-desired sense
of humor, was thoroughly appre
ciative.
At the beginning of her talk Dr.
Shaw was presented with a hand
some bouquet of white roses aud
carnations. In accepting it she
remarked that in the earlier days
of woman suffrage it was not
bouquets that usually came to the
platform. She pointed out that a
common criticism of Suffragists
was, that they wanted to be like
men, though just why they should
want to be like them she could not
understand.
Later on in her remarks she
brought out the fact that, when
ever men wanted to decide a very
important question or be extreme
ly dignified, they first put on a
gown, adding that no sculptor
would think of carving a man in a
statue without putting his wife’s
cape or a bed-quilt over his
shoulders.
The men in the audience took
these little sallies in the spirit in
which they were intended and
laughed and applauded vigorously.
After Dr. Shaw’s speech Mrs.
Hooker made a few remarks. A
good collection was then taken up
and a number of new members
added to the Suffrage ranks.
There were one hundred and
sixty people present, and alto
gether the meeting was considered
very successful. In the interims
between the speeches old-time
songs were sung by members of
the Suffrage Chorus and Dramatic
Club, under whose auspices the
meeting was held.
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
ENLIST IN THE SERVICE.
Bv this time we have had ample
opportunity to learn that there is
no use in trying to persuade the
delegates to give votes to women.
We must force them to do what we
know to be right, and the only
way in which we can do this is
to organize a strong “Woman’s
Party,” that will first pave the way
to votes for women, and which will
serve afterwards as a strong,
closely-welded force for civic right
eousness. Once organized, Ave can
get behind all sorts of good move
ments and hasten their success.
And so, if we spend the next tAVO
years in perfecting our political
organization, we need not Avaste
sighs over our recent defeat. We
can make up for lost time through
our organization when the vote is
Avon.
The plan is extremely simple:
The legislative district or county,
the ward and the precinct are the
units. There must be a chairman
for the legislative district or
county, a ward leader for each
Avard or district in the counties,
and a precinct leader for each pre
cinct. When the work in the pre
cinct developes Ave can arrange it
according to the block system, as
the political parties do. Each pre
cinct leader or captain must keep
a complete list of the Suffragists
in her precinct, and give a dupli
cate of this list to the Avard lead
er, who, in her turn, will send du
plicates to headquarters for proper
filing. The ward leader must have
as many little books as there are
precincts in her Avard, and keep
her lists each in its OAvn precinct
book. Each precinct leader must,
of course, have her own duplicate
book. Then, every month a meet
ing of the ward and precinct lead
ers must be held in each Avard to
report progress and to initiate
plans of campaign. The progress,
of course, will be dependent en
tirely on the number of voters se
cured aaJio are Avilling to sign
pledge cards stating that they will
vote in the primaries only for suf
frage candidates. The district
chairman and the Avard leaders
will act merely as the organizers
of the work, and do no personal
canvassing themselves. The pre
cinct captains will do practically
nothing but canvassing. In this
way Ave can arrange a chain con
sisting of State Chairman, Dis
trict Leader, Ward Leader and
Precinct Captain, and Avord can be
sent down the line as to Avliat can
didate to work for and whom to
oppose. The Precinct Chairman
in campaign time can also show
the people how to scratch the bal
lot and work to get out the vote.
After careful thought Ave have
decided to select Ward No. 13 and
Montgomery county as our first
points of attack. After these are
completely organized we can move
on.
Now, it doesn’t matter Avhere
you live, so long as you are willing
to work. Volunteer for Ward No.
13 or Montgomery county. What
Ave need now is people Avith initia
tive and zeal, even if they haven’t
(Continued on page 3.)