News Articles

SUFFRAGISTS WILL WORK IN HARMONY

Equal Suffrage Advisory Committee Organized — “Get Together” Is Slogan.

To promote harmonious effort in their campaign for the rights of the franchise, 10 or 12 Portland suffragists met yesterday afternoon at the headquarters of the Woman’s Club Campaign committee. 507 Rothchild building, and the Equal Suffrage Advisory committee whose slogan shall be “get together for the cause.”

W. M. Davis was chosen chairman of this committee and the membership is to be comprised of three representatives from each of the various equal suffrage associations. The choice of these memberships will be left open, so that the several organizations may be represented by different persons at different times. It is planned to hold an open forum every other Saturday at the auditorium in the Olds, Wortman & King building, and at these sessions the committee members will get together and discuss ways and means for attaining the best results in the campaign. The first forum will be held next Saturday and will be open to the general public as will be the succeeding meetings.

Each organization will continue to work to the desired ends independent of the others, but at the same time they will stand together on a common ground through the joint committee.

Represented at yesterday’s meeting were the College Equal Suffrage league, the Woman’s Club Campaign committee, the Man’s Equal Suffrage club and the State Equal Suffrage association. Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway was too ill to appear in person, but she was represented by Mrs. A. C. Newell.

The joint committee is left open for further membership so that equal suffrage organizations which may be formed during the campaign may be represented on an equal footing with other associations.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE GETS AID FROM THE W.C.T.U.
State and County Organizations Lay Campaign Plans for Summer and Fall.

State and county organizations of the W.C.T.U. have begun to lay out a definite campaign for equal suffrage to extend through the Summer and Fall.
At the meetings of the state executive committee held yesterday and the institute held today much enthusiasm was evinced over the programme which will include widespread dissemination of literature and a series of lectures in different parts of the state by some of the foremost speakers in the country, among them Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, president of the National body and Miss Anna Gordon, vice-president; Mrs. Florence Elwell Atkins, of Tennessee, one of the finest speakers on the temperance platform; Mrs. Helen Harford, a National lecturer, and the state president, Mrs. Unruh. The latter has just returned from Eastern Oregon where she gave a series of 20 lectures on equal suffrage before large audiences.
“Our arguments, this year, as in the past,” said Mrs. Unruh, “will be along the lines of the moral benefits to be derived from the granting of the ballot to women.”
Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon presented the subject at this afternoon’s meeting of the county presidents and the details of the plans were discussed by the members. The greatest activity will begin in June with the arrival of the National president and another period of activity will be in September following the National convention to be held in this city with the White Temple as headquarters. Eight hundred delegates are expected to attend this convention and as many more visiting workers. Richard Hobson will be one of the prominent speakers.

EQUAL RIGHTS LAUDED

MEMBERS OF WOMAN’S CLUB HEAR SUFFRAGE TALK.

Mrs. M. R. Trumbull Says Granting of Ballot Would Make Voting Result Doubly Cleaner and Richer.

The vote extended to woman would have the same effect in increasing the vote of the country that a pint of pure cream poured into a bowl containing a pint of milk would have in increasing the contents of the dish. Not only would it double the quantity, but it would make it cleaner and richer and more wholesome. This was the simile drawn yesterday afternoon by Mrs. Millie R. Trumbull, speaking at the regular biweekly meeting of the forum of the Portland Woman’s Club in the auditorium of Old, Wortman & King’s store.

The meeting was well attended and several prominent workers in the cause made addresses. The leaders were: Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden, president of the Oregon State Woman’s Press Club; Mrs. Mattie Sleeth, Miss Emma Wold and Mrs. Trumbull.

Several speakers criticized a letter printed recently in The Oregonian and written by an anti-suffragist, who opposed woman’s suffrage by contending that the better class of women did not want it. Mrs. Hidden made a vigorous reply to the communication.

She answered the correspondent’s charge that women with the ballot would not have time to attend to household duties by saying that if women were granted the ballot they would have more time for household work than at present, as they would not by devoting time to the suffrage campaign.

Miss Wold dwelt upon the subject of woman as the natural complement of the man. As such, she said, women should enjoy the privileges of citizenship accorded to men.

Mrs. Millie R. Trumbull, registrar of the Associated Charities, cited factory and shops conditions in various parts of the country that had come under her own observation, where girls and women were compelled to perform work under the same conditions as men, and yet were paid one-half or less than the wages received by men. In the lace factories at Pawtucket, R. I., she said, there were girls whose weekly pay envelopes, after damage for breakage, waste of thread and other minor items had been deducted from their wages, contained frequently 26 and 46 cents.

“These conditions,” she said, “are possible only because we have turned the governing power over to the unthinking half. Giving woman the ballot would speedily remedy these factory conditions.”

Mrs. Trumbull mentioned the International Typographical Union as an example of what organization will do for women. In that union, she said, women have an equal vote with men, and as a result they receive the same wages as men, while in “open” shops they receive just one-half the remuneration that men receive for the same work. When women have been given the ballot, she declared, they will make it their immediate task to see that women working in the department stores and factories would receive a wage that would enable them to live decently.

“We want a law in this state,” she said, “that shall say to the employer, ‘Under a certain wage you shall not employ a woman.’ Such a law has existed in Australia for many years.”

Mrs. Trumbull laid stress upon the necessity of preparing for the opening of the Panama Canal. Labor conditions would, in a short time after that event, she said, be identical on the Pacific Coast with those in the East if preventive measures were not taken. Laws should be made before that time with reference to the employment of women, and proper school facilities for the education of immigrant children should be provided.

“The immigrant child,” she said, “does not want to go to school with the baby class, as would be necessary under the present conditions, and as a results would endeavor to remain out of school altogether. Our schools are not adapted to the immigrant class at present, and unless we insist and make proper provisions that his class may come up to our standards, they may pull us down to theirs.”

WOMEN URGE SUFFRAGE
Campaign Headquarters Opened and Ten Thousand Buttons Ordered.

At the business meeting of the Portland Woman’s Club yesterday the equal suffrage campaign committee reported the establishment of campaign headquarters in the Rothchild building, Fourth and Washington streets, in charge of a secretary, Mrs. W. P. Strandborg. Many business houses are becoming interested in this campaign. The office has been furnished free of charge by a leading furniture firm; one large department store will carry equal suffrage advertisements; another store has promised to devote window displays to the cause.

Ten thousand equal suffrage buttons have been ordered for free distribution. The committee intends to make this new headquarters a sort of clearing-house for the local suffrage movement, and to affiliate with all other suffrage groups and clubs throughout the state.

The programme following the business meeting of the club was enjoyable. Miss Muriel Williams sang two numbers, accompanied by Miss Florence Jackson. In the absence of Mrs. T. H. Edwards, Mrs. Edward Jaeger read a paper on current events. R. A. Harris, state printing expert, Salem, gave an interesting address on the question, “Does the Recall Contribute to Good Government?”

A change has been made in the programme for the next club meeting, March 8, which will be “Greater Portland day.”  The music will be begun at 2:45 o’clock and will be followed be a lecture, with stereopticon illustrations.

 

MRS. COE PRESIDENT OF SUFFRAGE LEAGUE
National College Movement Takes Formal Shape in Meeting in Hotel.

Mrs. Henry W. Coe was elected president of the new Portland chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League, which organized yesterday afternoon at the Multnomah Hotel.  In recognition of her pioneer work in the cause in the Pacific Northwest, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway was made honorary president of the body, after the speech by Mrs. A. H. Borthwick, in which she lauded the work done by Mrs. Duniway for the last 41 years. The officers elected were:

Honorary president, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway;  president Mrs. Henry W. Coe; vice-presidents, Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen, Mrs. Andre Foullhoux, Dr. Mae Cardwell, Mrs. E. T. Taggart, Mrs. J. B. Kerr; secretary, Mrs. E. Wold; treasurer, Mrs. E.T. Taggart; directors,  Dr. Marie D. Equl, Mrs. A. A. Lindsley, Mrs. Henry Hunt, Ms. C. Edward Grelle, Dr. Kittie Plummer-Gray.

The following committees were appointed: Publicity, Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen, Mrs. F. S. Senn, Dr. Marie V. Madigan. Mrs. Margaret Hoge; finance, Dr. Florence Manion, Mrs. A. E. Borthwiok Miss Emma Buckman, Mrs. Sara Ehrgott; literature, Mrs. E. T. Taggart, Dr. Katherine Manion. Mrs N. W. Shaw, Mrs. F. B. Riley; press, Mrs. E. Wold, Mrs. L. B. Trullinger.

Subscriptions were taken at the meeting for the coming campaign’s work, the list being headed by Mrs. L.W. Therkelsen with $100 and the promise of $25 monthly during the campaign.

Membership in the league is limited to women graduates of colleges or universities and women students who have spent at least a year in such institutions, the latter provision being a concession of the National body, so as to make as broad as possible interest in the local campaign. The object of the league is to equip the members to enter actively into the campaign and be ready with arguments and fitted to speak at public meetings. The Portland chapter will hold weekly meetings on Tuesday afternoons, sessions to be held alternately at the Multnomah Hotel and at the homes of members.