Agnes E. Ryan

“ Since the Woman's Journal is the organ of the movement, since it gives the news of the movement, voices the wrongs of women, and furnishes data as well as inspiration with which to work, it is important that it reach the largest number of women possible each week with its message, and so far as is possible for a paper, convert them into efficient, consecrated workers, possessed with the ideal of equality and justice for women. It is, therefore, obvious that, however good the editorial output, it counts for comparatively little if it goes to only a small number of people. ”

“ So wonderful are the days in which we are living and so rapidly is the canvas being crowded with the record of achievement in the woman's movement that it is time for readers of the Woman's Journal and for all suffragists to know somewhat intimately and as never before what goes on in the four little rooms in Boston where the organ of the suffrage movement is prepared for its readers each week. ”

“ Many people would find it hard to believe, but it is true nevertheless that a paper needs to consider itself something of a business matter. This is particularly true of propaganda papers in spite of all that has been said to the contrary. In the case of the Journal, we need to plan to produce an article that cannot be excelled; we need to manufacture a product so useful, so valuable, so indispensable, that there must be a market for it. ”

“ Material for debates, speeches, articles for the press, chapters in books, copy to be read into the minutes of the Congress of the United States, refutation of anti-suffrage articles, answers to hundreds and thousands of objections to equal suffrage, questions of how it works, what women have achieved in science, art, literature,—to meet these with the least waste of time and energy is the end and aim of "The Graveyard." ”

“ Capturing the imagination for equal suffrage or for the Woman's Journal is another way of saying "getting so many inches or columns of free advertising in the papers." Each week for some time we have been watching the Journal's columns to see whether, by sending an advance clipping from the week's paper, we could not get a certain amount of free publicity in the daily paper. ”

“ Another reason given by those who refuse to advertise in the Woman's Journal is that the advertiser or the advertising agent does not believe in equal suffrage, or to use his own expression, he is "not a suffragette." He is sure that no one would ever advertise in the paper unless he believed in votes for women, and frankly, he does not want his friends to be given a chance to tease him about "this suffragette business." ”

“ But when a publication has to be put to press on the same day every week, when one feels almost instinctively that each issue must be better than the one before, and when each week of the world every worker in the department carries a double or triple load, some of the pleasure of writing and editing and planning is worn away. ”

“ The Woman's Journal is the connecting link between the individual suffragist and the movement itself, and a certain thrill and delight and marvel get hold of me when I realize how wonderful each year is and how full of prophecy and promise and marvel is the cause for which we all work. ”

“ How then shall a propaganda paper make itself so interesting and attractive that those outside its fold will want it and want it badly enough to pay for it and read it—when there are so many attractive and interesting publications to read in busy days? ”

“ If a diagram could be shown of the number of letters we have answered during the year, the amount of time it has taken, and the number of writers who do not even send a postage stamp to carry information back to them, and the consequent deficit the paper incurs in this way alone, the result would shock the average suffragist into a new attitude toward the paper, which she has called upon as freely and thoughtlessly as a girl in her teens calls upon the time and resources of the mother who has always stood near and ready to meet her every need "without money and without price." ”

“ Suffrage literature divides into two kinds: that which must be inexpensive and very easily read, for the voter; and that which is designed for women who, like conservative college graduates and many other women, will be surely impressed with a more weighty, more obviously expensive-looking argument. We find that many want good-looking, well-prepared, convincing literature to send to those whom they are trying to convert. Practically all of the literature which the Journal has printed belongs to the second class. ”

“ But advance work requires funds. No matter how necessary to the cause of equal suffrage it may be to enroll those 68,000 suffragists as readers, the United States Post Office will not sell us stamps for writing to them unless we can make cash payments. Funds for other parts of the work of increasing the circulation are equally necessary, and the work halts for lack of that which reformers always lack.
The Woman's Journal can make suffrage speeches every week in the remote parts as well as in the crowded cities, and it can do this more cheaply than can any other agent of equal quality. ”

“ They have the faith but not the knowledge to make converts, to answer objections, to write "copy" for the newspapers, to make addresses, to take part in debates, to write articles for the magazines, and to do the thousand and one things that suffragists must do if the present generation of women is not to go down to the grave unenfranchised as their mothers and grandmothers did.
Think of it! Nearly 70,000 known suffragists who do not subscribe. In the interest of efficiency they ought all to be constant readers of the paper. ”

“ Miss Foley's work is proof positive, if such were needed, that it pays to mention the Journal at suffrage meetings and to have it on sale and to take subscriptions. The results she has had can be duplicated at every suffrage meeting in the United States where 100 or more are gathered together, and a word spoken in time at suffrage meetings saves much of the more expensive converting and canvassing to bring out the vote when election time comes. One of the greatest wastes of the movement today is the failure of those in charge of meetings to make provision for this part of propaganda work. ”

“ Who was the first woman doctor, what college first opened its doors to women, what was the date of the first suffrage convention, how many times was equal suffrage submitted in Oregon before it was granted, what States in the Union have no form of suffrage for women whatever, who are the most distinguished men advocates of woman suffrage today, how many believers in equal suffrage are there in this country? ”

“ What, then, can suffragists do for the advertising department? They can do three things.
(1) Increase the number of readers of the paper.
(2) Read the advertisements we print and patronize every advertiser possible, letting him know why they do so: and
(3) Unite to bring pressure to bear on advertisers so they will advertise with us.
Imagine what would happen if twenty suffragists in each city in the country were to call on the advertisers doing business there and urge them to advertise in the Journal! They would simply put the Journal on the advertiser's map! ”

“ Accordingly, we decided that if we must "raise money" each year in some way or other, we must go about it in a well thought out way and not leave such an important matter to haphazard uncertainties. We have, therefore, formed a small Finance Department and have studied all of the ways of raising money that are known to us, trying of course to make out which ones are particularly adapted to our needs. ”

“ Doing it is bound to mean more education and more organization. For the Journal fills its readers with zeal for the cause; it makes them want to work for it; and it makes them well informed, efficient workers. ”

“ There are hundreds and thousands of advertisements of women's products for which the Journal ought to be an excellent medium." In answer to this one might almost say that the better the grade of advertising the harder it is to get. The better grades of advertising require a much larger circulation than we have and a better grade of paper on which to print their advertisements; they naturally want their advertisements to be shown in the most attractive manner. ”

“ Other suffragists adopt other methods of making the paper known to the public. Some make a point of earning a copy to read in the street car or train whenever possible. Anyone who tries this will find many and many a pair of eyes diverted to the picture or the appearance of a publication with which the onlooker is not familiar. Ardent partisans of the Journal always mention it in reports and speeches at meetings and even in debates. They are usually persons who have been converted to the principle of equal suffrage by a stray copy of the Journal sent to them by ardent friend! ”

“ Because of the vitality of the paper through the barren pioneer days, through the days of ridicule and up into these times of great numbers, splendid prestige and backing for the whole movement, we have faith that our hopes are not in vain.
[Illustration: Mrs. David Hunt A Generous Supporter of the Woman's
Journal]
One proof of our faith is that we find working in the Woman's Journal office year after year is in some ways like living in a fairy story. ”

“ When a subscription is sent in by some suffragist who is acting as agent in forwarding subscriptions for other people, we acknowledge the order only to the sender, thinking that receipt of the paper by the subscriber is sufficient acknowledgment. ”

“ Many people want personal notices and trivial articles in the paper; some wish long manuscripts published; others think their league meetings should be more fully reported. The paper must, therefore, be so edited and the letters of the department must be so written as to make every one feel that the Journal is fair to all and that whatever it does is done with no personal animosities, with no biases, and purely for the welfare of the cause and in accordance with the best ideals we have been able to work out. ”

“ And because some men are opposed, secretly or openly, to its righting is no reason why we should be silent. Before the women of this country are fully enfranchised, a hard fight, an almost life and death struggle for liberty, must be fought, and it will be a shorter fight the hotter it is. ”

“ One of our tasks is to make all realize that in editing the organ of the movement a great responsibility must be met and that mean or small things cannot influence us.
All daily papers, all periodicals and magazines that live and become powerful relate their editorial policy very closely to their business plans. ”

“ In this connection, one of our worst problems is to learn from those who mail us subscription orders whether they are simply forwarding for other people or are sending the paper at their expense in the hope of making a convert or of introducing it to someone, with the hope that she will want to continue the subscription. The trouble comes in the question of knowing whom to ask to renew. Sometimes the sender means to renew for the person, and sometimes she means to have us ask the person to renew for herself. ”

“ But its circulation is scattered over the whole country, and while this spoils it for local advertising, its circulation is not yet large enough to enable it to get much national advertising.
To an advertising agent who has seen in a suffrage parade in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, or Washington from 10,000 to 50,000 suffragists, it is hard to explain why the national paper going to forty-eight States, has less than 30,000 subscribers. He expects that the organ of the movement has at least 75,000 subscribers. When he learns the truth, it is impossible to talk with him further. ”

“ Now, because the Journal has survived the times of no organizations, the times of few and weak organizations, it is thoughtlessly expected to go on as it has since 1870, paying its bills as best it might. In the meantime, its work has increased so that it is large enough to be unwieldy without being self-supporting. (Self-support cannot come until its paid circulation is about 50,000.) ”

“ Bills were sent out only twice a year, and hardly any work was being done to increase the subscription list or any department of the paper. Office administration was then a very simple matter—whereas now the Subscription Department alone requires the full time of more than ten workers.
The result is that office administration now is a very different matter. It has become a question of holding the reins of twenty-four young people, all of whom have special work to do, but all of whom need almost constant direction. ”

“ Another difficulty we have to combat is the fact that our paper is not well known to men; it is not advertised anywhere, it is not displayed anywhere; they rarely see any one reading it; they cannot get it on the newsstands, and, in short, they cannot imagine who reads it. ”

“ Hundreds of papers have gone each year since 1870 through 1915 to campaign states, to legislators, to libraries, to newspapers, to ministers and teachers, in the attempt to make converts, and every suffragist having any perspective of the movement knows that such propaganda work by the Woman's Journal is to a great extent what has advanced the movement to its present status. ”

“ Besides the absorbing task of keeping the whole staff busy, there is always the exhausting and important matter of mapping out the work, laying plans for advance work, originating and initiating, and making decisions that involve more or less risk. ”

“ The second is in a greater or less degree usually one of the comforts of life. The third kind is neither a matter of physical necessity nor of physical comfort; it is usually something that feeds the mind, diverts the mind, or kindles the emotions. Obviously the manufacturer of the third kind of article must mind his P's and Q's or he will not sell his product at all. ”

“ The paper is only five cents a copy and you can get a full year's subscription for $1.00. Do not fail to get a copy from me before you go."
The Woman's Journal has many field workers who do in connection with the regular suffrage work what Miss Foley has been doing for the Journal as an experiment. For the vitality of the movement every locality which holds suffrage meetings should have a Journal field worker for every occasion. A word in time saves an endless amount of converting. ”

“ We have also experimented to some extent to see if we could get publicity for the Journal aside from what appears in its columns. The result has been that such stories as the analysis of the source of income of the anti-suffragists has had very wide publicity. It has even been published in country weeklies and monthly magazines. In the majority of cases, the Journal has been credited, and in this way much free advertising has been secured. ”