Alice Duer Miller

“ I, in my heart, exclaimed: "This is not charm!
This is the merest lack of self-control!"
⁠O, Mabel, learn to mitigate your fear—
⁠At least when any other man is near!
VI
TO HIS LOVE, EXPLAINING THE INDIRECT INFLUENCE
A woman's highest power is to please,
Thus does she rule the kingdom of the soul.
Beauty, charm, grace—when Heaven gave her these
It gave her Life's full, absolute control.
All forms of force are impotent and crude
Compared to this, which bends us to her whim. ”

“ He asked. "Must I learn how to vote from my typist?"
"Well, then," she went on, "all the teachers at school
Are for it."
⁠He laughed. "I have found as a rule
That all of the unmarried women I've known
Want nothing so much as a home of their own;
If all of your teachers were married, you'd note
A striking decrease in their wish for the vote."
"Many teachers are married," she started to say,
But he begged she would not contradict in that way.
"You're growing," he said, "both aggressive and vain. ”

“ Cleopatra:
⁠⁠⁠Why does he not say so?
Pallas:
⁠⁠⁠⁠Because he does not dare.
Cleopatra:
Dares not? Is he a coward?
Pallas:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nay, he fears where he ought.
For as some men think of women they are wise to hide their thought. ”

“ And there can be as little doubt that the suffrage question, in spite of the self-advertising violence of its extravagant section, did contribute very materially to build up the confidence, the willingness to undertake responsibility and face hardship that has been so abundantly displayed by every class of woman. . . . At every sort of occupation they have been found efficient beyond precedent and intelligent beyond precedent. There is scarcely a point where women, having been given a chance, have not more than made good. ”

“ Protect the Shrine
(Mr. Webb, of North Carolina, recently voted against a bill to restrict child labour. But he said in his anti-suffrage speech: "The most sacred and potential spot on earth is the fireside shrine, and over this shrine the devoted mother presides, the uncrowned queen.")
Oh, home is a shrine for a mother, it may be,
But a shrine is no place for a promising baby.
Small children are fond of disturbance and riot,
But a shrine should be sacred and lonely and quiet.
CHORUS
⁠O, come all ye factory owners, combine ”

“ It is the weary things that day by day
⁠⁠⁠I'll have to say;
The things the voters ought to know, and don't,
⁠⁠⁠Or won't,
About democracy, the home, the wife,
⁠⁠⁠The mother's life,
Responsibility, the schools, pure food,
⁠⁠⁠And womanhood. ”

“ He knows that the woman who toils for some one else to be rich
Is no more a queen than the man who digs a ditch.
He knows that the wife at home, whom he does, as he says, revere,
Is not a goddess, or else he would seek her counsel here. ”

“ A Son to His Anti-Suffrage Mother
Mother, dear mother, how could you deceive me!
⁠Where shall I find consolation and balm?
"Willie," you always have taught me, "believe me,
⁠Women who vote never have any charm." ”

“ Couldn't help guard their children's lives;
Glad since everything suited her
That other women should stay as they were.
Which shows that being secure, apart,
Petted and sheltered by every art,
Doesn't develop the human heart. ”

“ The state on the one hand should refrain scrupulously from giving to any individual or association advantages which are denied to others. All should be on an equal plane of opportunity as far as the law can give it. ”

“ Their inability to do or plan;
And then, my darling, you may say your word
In praise of that supreme creation, Man.
⁠What's that you say? That not all men are great?
⁠Your thought, my Mabel, savours of sex-hate. ”

“ Into the office of John T. May
A suffragist came on his busy day.
"I've come to ask of you, sir," said she,
"What may your views on suffrage be?"
The great man scowled, as a great man should,
Facing rebellious womanhood. ”

“ A distinguished opponent has been converted to the principles of woman suffrage. Under the title "Personal Liberty" he writes in Case and Comment: "American freedom is the child of American democracy. ”

“ Women Are People!
"The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government."—George Washington: Farewell Address.
"The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."—Daniel Webster: Second Speech on Foot's Amendment.
"When we say: 'We, the people, do ordain and establish, etc.,' it is not an unmeaning flourish. ”

“ The Safest Place
("No woman in the state has been insulted, beaten, choked or murdered at the polls. Since the vote has been bestowed on the women of Illinois all these things have happened to women in their own homes."—Rheta Childe Dorr, in The New York Evening Mail.) ”

“ The Indirect Influence
("The travelling men of New York are asking for legislation which will enable them to vote—that is to say, to enable them to register although absent from their residence.")
Travelling men, what is the matter? ”

“ The ——— National Bank values the woman's account. True, a woman ordinarily has not at her command and disposition funds in the amount customarily handled by a man, but the aggregate of a number of women's accounts is useful to a bank. ”

“ Added: "There, Willie, run home to your mother;
⁠Tell her that Cave Men are losing their charm."
Ode
Recollection of Anti-Suffrage Speeches Heard in Early Childhood
(With apologies to W. W.)
Admit at the beginning
⁠That woman is no good. ”

“ It is ordained and established by the people themselves."—Judge Wilson, in the Pennsylvania convention to consider the Constitution of the United States.
WOMEN ARE PEOPLE!
Advice to Rebels
("American women will win the vote, because their campaign has been polite, dignified and tactful.") ”