Josephine K. Henry

“ The average woman must be educated in the new school, and man must become possessed by new ideas. "The key to every man is his thought; sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified, He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own." The women of the South are impressing men with new ideas, and hence that ancient spirit of protection which has so long retarded human progress by dispossessing woman of her share of the common heritage, is losing its force as an element in our civilization. ”

“ Then there is another and quite different class, composed of those who stand on higher intellectual ground, who realize their potentialities, and who have the courage to demand a field of thought and action commensurate with their aspirations. These are the New Women of the New South. To them the drowsy civilization of the age appeals for some invigorating incentive to higher aims and grander achievements. They believe with Emerson that " all have equal rights in virtue of being identical in nature." They realize that liberty regards no sex, and justice bows before no idol. ”

“ On the simple ground of justice 1 regard the ballot as my rightful heritage as a citizen of South Carolina and of the United States of America. — S. Odie Sirrine, Greenville, S. C.
It is urged by some that woman may perform her part in public affairs more effectually without the ballot than with it. I shall endorse this idiocy whenever I hear men in politics requesting lawmakers to spare them the "dreadful burden" of voting, and declaring that the right to vote is no help to them in their political work. ”

“ The most chivalrous deference and tender consideration on the part of men, should not be allowed to usurp simple right and justice. An educational campaign for the cause of woman suffrage in the South will so sensitize the public conscience that the disfranchisement of one half the people will reveal itself as a monstrous injustice.—mary Brent Read, Atlanta, Ga. ”

“ In our duality of life there is a unity of purpose. Man and woman bear a relation to each other similar to that of the sides of an isosceles triangle. They are of equal length, and have exactly the same angle of inclination to the base — humanity. If men cannot or will not see these harmonies and purposes of nature, if they will not rise to the "higher eminences of thought" from whence they can look on woman with the eye of the soul, then woe to civilization's tottering fabric. ”

“ Rising above the terrorism of popular ridicule, and fortified by the intensity of their convictions, a few leading women in the states of Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky, directly descended from the founders of the republic, have individually petitioned their legislatures, asking that a power be created to which they can apply and receive their enfranchisement papers, pleading for the restoration of an inalienable right and at the same time testing the honesty of that spirit of chivalry which places much emphasis on the willingness to grant the franchise when women want it. ”

“ Woman's softening influence was demanded and she responded with all the finer impulses of her nature strained to the highest point. She pushed her way to the front, and with her natural tact and matchless skill in using her limited power to the best advantage, she gave to the world a victory which her enfranchised ally would have lost without her aid. ”

“ That the mass of men are always agonizing to keep women out of politics is sufficient evidence that women woefully need to be in them. — II. Augusta Howard, Columbus, Ga.
The women of the South should be the very first to work for the ballot, to preserve its homes, its institutions and its individuality from the great influx of opposing forces from the North, East and West, from the foreigner and negro. The Southern woman has now the choice to inherit her land or pass into a tradition.—Margaret L. Watsox, Beaumont, Tex. ”

“ They find all along the avenues of urban life dens of drunkenness and crime, with wide-open doors ready to receive the bodies and souls of their loved ones, and when they ask by what right these modern Gehennas exist, they are told that it is by a right secured from the same source that denies to woman the power to destroy them. They are excluded from town and city councils, from the higher state institutions of learning, and from boards of education of our public schools, all of which they are taxed to support. ”

“ Woman suffrage will come, let who may try to stem the rising tide. Then those who have been captains on the wave may say when passing to the farther shore, " When I am dead lay a sword on my coffin, for I was a soldier in the war for the liberation of humanity." — Dora RichArds Miller, New Orleans, La. ”

“ She has received thousands of letters from the foremost and best women in the South, and the number increases each day, expressive of their deep solicitude for the success of the one cause that gives promise of release from social and poltiical incarceration. Back of these facts stand in evidence the constitutional conventions of Mississippi and Kentucky, and the legislatures of South Carolina and Arkansas. Whenever the question of woman suffrage was touched by those bodies it met the approval and elicited the applause of thoughtful and intelligent women throughout the entire South. ”

“ As a unit of value in summarizing evidence of existing conditions and tendencies, there is not, nor could there be a fact more potent than the recent congressional contest in the Ashland District of Kentucky. The eyes of the world watched this contest with intense interest. The women of Kentucky forced the moral issue in American politics, and hence followed a political struggle the intensity of which stands unequalled in the history of politics. ”

“ There are many women in the South gifted with genius and endowed with faculties for glorious work, who are struggling to free themselves from the austerity of those environments which " the masses of average men " have fixed for them.
It may be said of the average woman of the South that she is satisfied with her condition. She loves her church and believes in her preacher. ”

“ It is not difficult to recognize in these clubs the primary schools which lead to the university of politics.
Another and higher department in which the minds and hearts of advanced Southern women are earnestly enlisted is the investigation and revision of statutory law, regarding its application to the sexes alike. They find in the established codes enacted by men alone, for men' alone, a most horrible crucifixion of justice. They see themselves taxed without their consent, their property often confiscated for Lase uses, their sex arraigned before judges and juries composed of men alone. ”

“ Enough has been received to fill a volume, and the reasons given by these Southern women why they want the ballot, if compiled, would be a valuable acquisition to the literature of woman suffrage. It ie dogmatically asserted what women do and do not want. The only way to get the truth is to let women speak for themselves. As one letter in each state has brought forth such a response the women themselves refute the assertion that " Southern women do not want the ballot." ”

“ I should like to escape from the degradation of disfranchisement. I have committed no crime, and am loyal to the government. The Indians and Chinese may be indifferent to their privation, but all sensible women, understanding the situation, wish to have a voice in the government.— Caroline E. Mkrrick, New Orleans, La.
I am a heavy tax-payer in Shelby County, Alabama, and I need the ballot to protect my interests. — Minnie Gist, Calara, Ala.
I believe in woman suffrage because woman is equally concerned with man in all the issues of life. — Kate P. Nelson, New Orleans, La. ”

“ Among our representative women there is a class too ethereal to be troubled with affairs, whose mental lethargy is only disturbed by dreams of ante-bellum family legends, and whose thought-power is confined to devising ways and means for retaining their social prestige. ”

“ One letter was written to a prominent woman in each of the Southern states, with the request that if she was in favor of woman suffrage she would put her reason in a short, clear-cut sentence, then pass the letter on to women of intelligence and prominence with the request that every woman into whose hands the letter came, would, if in favor of the ballot, formulate her reason, sign her name to same, and forward to the writer of this paper for publication. ”

“ I am for woman suffrage first, last and .all the time, every part of my being from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, because of the utter failure of a more capable person to answer for me in questions of right. ”

“ Immense and continued impulsions pushing together govern human facts, and lead them all within a given time to the logical state, that is to say, to equilibrium, or in other words, to equity."
The writer of this article has in her possession the most convincing evidence of these immense and continued forces that are driving onward to that logical state, a completely rounded civilization, grounded on equity. ”

“ They have asked that women be placed on boards of all public institutions for the benefit of both sexes, and in many cases sought and obtained the county superintendency of public schools. These departures from the line of established customs show that the apparent contentment with present conditions is only on the surface, and that there is a half realized idea among our women that in our social and political organism there is something out of gear. ”

“ Literature has been exhausted and art despoiled to find names and devices suitable to the taste and purposes of the women who compose the membership of these clubs. The -framing of constitutions and by-laws, election of officers, discussions on ways and means and all the parliamentary usages which cleverness can bring to the aid of mimicry, go to make up this parody on the exercise of individual liberty. ”

“ I want to vote because when men and women work together they build homes, schools and safeguards for the good of society, and men working alone build armies, navies, saloons and dens of vice and perpetuate the same with their ballots.— Mariana T. Folsom, St. ”

“ It is not the purpose of the writer to discuss in this paper woman's right to the ballot or the good or evil results to accrue from her enfranchisement. To argue the question of right is not admissible at this stage of the issue. To forecast results would afford no logical ground to stand on. The article will, therefore, be confined to the limitation of facts and their tendencies as they appear to a Southern woman. ”

“ The idea seems to be abroad that Southern women do not desire the ballot. Considering the powerful influences which operate to suppress an open manifestation of opinion among Southern women on this question, as in fact on many others, it is easy to see ho\v those who have given the subject no thought are led to accept such an impression as correct. The true index of existing facts is not always found upon the surface of things. ”

“ Memphis, Tennessee.
We, the undersigned women of Tennessee do and should want the ballot, —
1. Because, being twenty-one years old, we object to being classed with minors.
2. Being American born, and loyal to her institutions, we protest against being made perpetual aliens.
3. Costing the treasuries of our respective counties nothing, we protest against acknowledging the male pauper of Tennessee as our political superior. ”

“ They have pleaded for admission into state universities, and asked for a division of state funds to establish industrial or reform schools for girls, in states which provide such schools for boys alone. ”