News Articles

State Suffragists Prepare For Fight
Unsigned Pamphlet to Be Traced at Once, by Law if Necessary.
BREWERS DENY ALL BLAME
Individual Saloon Keepers Suspected as Working With Vice Interests. War Now May Be Taken From Eugent [sic] Women’s Hands.

Action will be taken immediately, it was decided at the meeting of the state central committee yesterday, to discover the author and the instigator of the pamphlets issued from a Eugene printing office and sent all over the state unsigned by the author. On the other hand local women and organizations refuse to say that it was carried out by the Brewers’ Association, the majority of them saying that it was individual vice interests or corrupt influences, among whom may have been, and probably were, some private individuals who are engaged in the liquor trade.
The Brewers’ Association, through its president, Paul Wessinger, issues the following statement denying in toto [sic] the charges made by the Eugene Suffrage Association that the brewers are responsible:
“In The Oregonian of October 31 we note a charge made over the signatures of certain Eugene women that the Portland brewers have had a large quantity of anti-suffrage literature printed in Eugene and are engaged in its distribution. This charge is unqualifiedly false; we never heard of this literature until we read The Oregonian of October 31. We are not ambitious to dictate the policy of the state on any question. We are busy in the management of out business and will not take a hand in politics unless compelled to do so by a prohibition campaign or other similar attack which we must meet in self-defense.
“OREGON BREWERS ASSOCIATION.
“Per Paul Wessinger, Pres.”

Brewers Not Openly Blamed

The prevailing impression of suffragists are expressed in a general way by W. M. Davis, president of the Men’s Equal Suffrage Society.
“Local suffragists are by no means unanimous in attributing the violent anti-suffrage literature that was printed secretly at Eugene to the brewers,” said Mr. Davis, “for they spoke of the attack yesterday and even on the previous day as one made by the vice interests if not done by the anti-suffragists. The last named, or the officers of the society opposed to suffrage, have denied any and all knowledge of the pamphlets, so that they are freed. This was expected all along, as their matter has been signed by the officers.
“If only everyone would realize that the women do not think or wish to use their votes to carry out suddenly many a startling reform which they are supposed to want, the suffragists would not have such a hard battle.
“All the same, it is perfectly clear that some corrupt influence is at work in printing those infamous circulars, or the author would not hesitate to come forward, nor would the printer refuse to tell the name, as he has been told not to say who gave him orders to print them. That is why we are going after them, and that is why I, myself, am willing to sign a warrant if the people at Eugene do not want to do so.
“I can quite understand that people there, even though they know all about the matter, do not want to make Eugene a hotbed of ill feeling among people at present friends, even though political foes. Yet, though Mr. Yoran is a friend of mine, I shall not hesitate to force him to divulge the name of the author if possible.”
In this connection Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, ablest of campaign leaders though hardly able to hold a quill, immediately penned a letter to The Oregonian in which she states her ideas on the subject clearly and succinctly. These coincide with the views of many of her lieutenants and the rank and file. She, however, is of opinion that the liquor interests are implicated in the matter in some way or other, though not necessarily as an association.

Plans are Formulated.

On all sides yesterday meetings were held and suffragists gathered together to discuss the matter and to formulate plans for counteracting the evil results of the scattering broadcast of these pamphlets. As a whole it was thought that the best refutation of them was to leave them alone, per se, and to trust to the sense of the Oregon voter to consign an unsigned article, which made sweeping statements, to the place where it belonged, the wastepaper basket.
The instigator of the papers, the author and the publisher, however, will be proceeded against, the last-named more to procure the names of the others, either by Eugene members of the Equal Suffrage Association or by W. M. Davis or some other Portland person today. At the meeting of the State Central Campaign Committee in the headquarters in the Selling building, more than one person pledged themselves to procure charges, if Eugene women or men felt it too heavy a matter for a small community.
“Latest advices, however, from Eugene,” said John F. Logan last night, “indicate that the first move will be taken from there, and that one of the members of the league will come forward to sign a warrant. District Attorney Bryson has said that he will act, as the matter is a criminal offense, and he has already warned the printer to stop issuing the circulars on the ground that he was committing an offense against the laws of the state. It is understood that his advice has been taken.”

Suffragists Not Allied.

“Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad is an axiom plain to everybody not blinded by fanaticism or greed,” said Mrs. Duniway yesterday. “As is well known by all who read and think, the State Equal Suffrage Association is not allied and never has been either with prohibition or with whisky. We have always contended when forced to the question at all that the cure for the evils of intemperance and kindred vices could not come to the people through any other channel that through liberty. It is our contention that temperance is an economic question not to be settled by sumptuary legislation or votes, but through equal rights for the mothers of all the people.
“The condition of equal moral rectitude for husbands and fathers as for mothers and wives, which the state needs can only come through suffrage.
“If the brewers were properly posted in current events there would be no need to inform them hat [sic] experience has taught men too. Suffrage states that…York…dley,…ed views as to…has been announced as the…several members of the committee…no effort has been made as yet to settle on a candidate.
The fact that Chairman Hille has delayed the meeting of the National…

…mon Hirsch, will make the few antis of Oregon ashamed of their company.
“Meanwhile, I serenely await the votes of the men of Oregon next Tuesday, who can only do their duty by marking their ballots 300 X Yes.”

FOES MAY GIVE OUT NAMES
Eugene Women Hold Off Warrants Pending Antis’ Confession.

EUGENE, Or., Oct. 31—(Special.)—Satisfied with the warning given the state concerning anti-suffrage literature that was being printed in Eugene without signature would be sufficient and also modified by the efforts of the printers to secure permission from their customers to make a statement to the public of the whole transaction, local members of the Equal Suffrage League decline today to swear out warrants charging violation of the corrupt practices act. District Attorney Bryson said he had had a telephone message from Attorney Logan, in Portland, wherein the Portland man was assured that the prosecutor’s office in Eugene is ready to prosecute whenever evidence is furnished to warrant such proceedings.
“There seems to be a movement,” said Mr. Bryson, “for the people who ordered the anti-suffrage work to come out into the open and acknowledge their literature. If this is done, much of the necessity for prosecution would be done away with. There are, of course, scores of unwitting violations of the law in its strict interpretation. And to start on this case would open up a long line of litigation. However, if there is no effort to make known the authors of these circulars, then their issuance would be a flagrant violation of the corrupt practices act that a test of the law most certainly should be made.”
“We are perfectly willing to let people know about these circulars,” said Mr. Koke, of Yoran & Koke, this afternoon, “in all probability we will be able to make a statement by tomorrow morning. One thing we feel safe in saying at this time is that we are certain that the liquor interests did not order this printing.”

State Suffragists Prepare For Fight
Unsigned Pamphlet to Be Traced at Once, by Law if Necessary.
BREWERS DENY ALL BLAME
Individual Saloon Keepers Suspected as Working With Vice Interests. War Now May Be Taken From Eugent [sic] Women’s Hands.

Action will be taken immediately, it was decided at the meeting of the state central committee yesterday, to discover the author and the instigator of the pamphlets issued from a Eugene printing office and sent all over the state unsigned by the author. On the other hand local women and organizations refuse to say that it was carried out by the Brewers’ Association, the majority of them saying that it was individual vice interests or corrupt influences, among whom may have been, and probably were, some private individuals who are engaged in the liquor trade.
The Brewers’ Association, through its president, Paul Wessinger, issues the following statement denying in toto [sic] the charges made by the Eugene Suffrage Association that the brewers are responsible:
“In The Oregonian of October 31 we note a charge made over the signatures of certain Eugene women that the Portland brewers have had a large quantity of anti-suffrage literature printed in Eugene and are engaged in its distribution. This charge is unqualifiedly false; we never heard of this literature until we read The Oregonian of October 31. We are not ambitious to dictate the policy of the state on any question. We are busy in the management of out business and will not take a hand in politics unless compelled to do so by a prohibition campaign or other similar attack which we must meet in self-defense.
“OREGON BREWERS ASSOCIATION.
“Per Paul Wessinger, Pres.”

Brewers Not Openly Blamed

The prevailing impression of suffragists are expressed in a general way by W. M. Davis, president of the Men’s Equal Suffrage Society.
“Local suffragists are by no means unanimous in attributing the violent anti-suffrage literature that was printed secretly at Eugene to the brewers,” said Mr. Davis, “for they spoke of the attack yesterday and even on the previous day as one made by the vice interests if not done by the anti-suffragists. The last named, or the officers of the society opposed to suffrage, have denied any and all knowledge of the pamphlets, so that they are freed. This was expected all along, as their matter has been signed by the officers.
“If only everyone would realize that the women do not think or wish to use their votes to carry out suddenly many a startling reform which they are supposed to want, the suffragists would not have such a hard battle.
“All the same, it is perfectly clear that some corrupt influence is at work in printing those infamous circulars, or the author would not hesitate to come forward, nor would the printer refuse to tell the name, as he has been told not to say who gave him orders to print them. That is why we are going after them, and that is why I, myself, am willing to sign a warrant if the people at Eugene do not want to do so.
“I can quite understand that people there, even though they know all about the matter, do not want to make Eugene a hotbed of ill feeling among people at present friends, even though political foes. Yet, though Mr. Yoran is a friend of mine, I shall not hesitate to force him to divulge the name of the author if possible.”
In this connection Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, ablest of campaign leaders though hardly able to hold a quill, immediately penned a letter to The Oregonian in which she states her ideas on the subject clearly and succinctly. These coincide with the views of many of her lieutenants and the rank and file. She, however, is of opinion that the liquor interests are implicated in the matter in some way or other, though not necessarily as an association.

Plans are Formulated.

On all sides yesterday meetings were held and suffragists gathered together to discuss the matter and to formulate plans for counteracting the evil results of the scattering broadcast of these pamphlets. As a whole it was thought that the best refutation of them was to leave them alone, per se, and to trust to the sense of the Oregon voter to consign an unsigned article, which made sweeping statements, to the place where it belonged, the wastepaper basket.
The instigator of the papers, the author and the publisher, however, will be proceeded against, the last-named more to procure the names of the others, either by Eugene members of the Equal Suffrage Association or by W. M. Davis or some other Portland person today. At the meeting of the State Central Campaign Committee in the headquarters in the Selling building, more than one person pledged themselves to procure charges, if Eugene women or men felt it too heavy a matter for a small community.
“Latest advices, however, from Eugene,” said John F. Logan last night, “indicate that the first move will be taken from there, and that one of the members of the league will come forward to sign a warrant. District Attorney Bryson has said that he will act, as the matter is a criminal offense, and he has already warned the printer to stop issuing the circulars on the ground that he was committing an offense against the laws of the state. It is understood that his advice has been taken.”

Suffragists Not Allied.

“Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad is an axiom plain to everybody not blinded by fanaticism or greed,” said Mrs. Duniway yesterday. “As is well known by all who read and think, the State Equal Suffrage Association is not allied and never has been either with prohibition or with whisky. We have always contended when forced to the question at all that the cure for the evils of intemperance and kindred vices could not come to the people through any other channel that through liberty. It is our contention that temperance is an economic question not to be settled by sumptuary legislation or votes, but through equal rights for the mothers of all the people.
“The condition of equal moral rectitude for husbands and fathers as for mothers and wives, which the state needs can only come through suffrage.
“If the brewers were properly posted in current events there would be no need to inform them hat [sic] experience has taught men too. Suffrage states that…York…dley,…ed views as to…has been announced as the…several members of the committee…no effort has been made as yet to settle on a candidate.
The fact that Chairman Hille has delayed the meeting of the National…

…mon Hirsch, will make the few antis of Oregon ashamed of their company.
“Meanwhile, I serenely await the votes of the men of Oregon next Tuesday, who can only do their duty by marking their ballots 300 X Yes.”

FOES MAY GIVE OUT NAMES
Eugene Women Hold Off Warrants Pending Antis’ Confession.

EUGENE, Or., Oct. 31—(Special.)—Satisfied with the warning given the state concerning anti-suffrage literature that was being printed in Eugene without signature would be sufficient and also modified by the efforts of the printers to secure permission from their customers to make a statement to the public of the whole transaction, local members of the Equal Suffrage League decline today to swear out warrants charging violation of the corrupt practices act. District Attorney Bryson said he had had a telephone message from Attorney Logan, in Portland, wherein the Portland man was assured that the prosecutor’s office in Eugene is ready to prosecute whenever evidence is furnished to warrant such proceedings.
“There seems to be a movement,” said Mr. Bryson, “for the people who ordered the anti-suffrage work to come out into the open and acknowledge their literature. If this is done, much of the necessity for prosecution would be done away with. There are, of course, scores of unwitting violations of the law in its strict interpretation. And to start on this case would open up a long line of litigation. However, if there is no effort to make known the authors of these circulars, then their issuance would be a flagrant violation of the corrupt practices act that a test of the law most certainly should be made.”
“We are perfectly willing to let people know about these circulars,” said Mr. Koke, of Yoran & Koke, this afternoon, “in all probability we will be able to make a statement by tomorrow morning. One thing we feel safe in saying at this time is that we are certain that the liquor interests did not order this printing.”

Mrs. Belmont Sends Coin

Famous New York Suffragist Joins
Everybody’s Suffrage League.

“Everybody’s Equal Suffrage League” grows and grows, and as it grows it spreads. Saturday there arrived at headquarters, the home of Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy, a modest “two bits,” which was reclining in a coin card. It was from Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, who thereby became one of the vice-presidents. For that sum everybody becomes a vice-president, for there is no other office and no rank and file. 

Mrs. Belmont had heard of the fame of this organization, and she wanted very much to become a member, and incidentally one vice-president out of the 600 which the league has garnered in within the three weeks of its existence. With her “quarter” came a letter wishing for the success of the cause in Oregon, and rejoicing that the prospects were bright.

SUFFRAGE PLAY PLEASES

Bungalow Theater Crowded to Witness “How the Vote was Won.”

Seating capacity at the Bungalow Theater was at a premium Friday night on the occasion of the presentation of the suffrage play, “How the Vote was Won,” by a company of amateur actors and actresses under the direction of Mrs. Emma W. Gillespie. The first half of the programme was devoted to music and recitals, grave and gay, chiefly gay.
Miss Emma Wold, president of the College Equal Suffrage League, the society in the charge of the evening, presided. Mrs. Sara Bard Field Ehrgott related the story of the death of a little child, whose mother was known to Jane Addams, the case being the one which, of all that had come under her notice, was the most pathetic, in mind of the great woman worker and the one which most illustrated the need for equal suffrage. Mrs. Helen Miller Senn gave her recitation, the comedy of the “Anti-Suffrage Woman,” with telling effect and with real dramatic talent, and she later recited some verses of her own composition in regard to Oregon women, the need of the ballot, and what they would do to make home the real home when they had it.
Then came the play, a story of how to win the vote and the mere male at the same time. Briefly the idea was that a husband and a wife, both hating the idea of suffrage, have their home invaded by every possible relation of the former, all of whom demand support from him, or failing this, declare they will take refuge in the workhouse, as they have gone on strike.
They relate how they were told they were unsexing themselves when they wanted to earn their own living rather than be dependent upon their nearest male relation, who, by law, was bound to support them if possible. And then, when they refused to work any longer, mere man was the first to see the justice of the demand to have a say in the business to which they belonged. In the end, of course, husband is first to demand that woman shall have the ballot.

SUFFRAGE IS DEBATED / LINCOLN HIGH SCENE OF INTERESTING ARGUMENT./ Colonel Robert A. Miller Upholds Right of Women to Vote and Judge Corliss Opposes.

The women who don’t want to vote and the women who do each heard their sentiments voiced by their chosen champions at the Lincoln High School last night, when Colonel Robert A. Miller, for the Oregon Equal Suffrage League, and Judge Guy C. H. Corliss, for the State Association Opposed to Equal Suffrage, met in debate. Retainers of both sides of the question were out in force, and the auditorium was nearly filled. The audience was generous in applause, and both speakers, as they concluded their arguments, were given prolonged salvos of appreciation.
Judge Corliss maintained that while women may have a right to vote from a moral standpoint, the granting of equal suffrage would not end to simplify the solution of present political problems, but would add that, much to her duties without benefitting her or the body politic in the least.
“Suffrage is not a question of right at all,” said the speaker. “It is a question of expediency alone. It is a question of whether granting of the ballot will or will not facilitate the business of Government.” Throughout his address Judge Corliss maintained that equal suffrage would involve rather than simplify governmental matters.
Arguing that woman is entitled to the ballot not only as a moral, but as a political and economic right, Colonel Miller made an impassioned plea for the adoption of the equal suffrage amendment in Oregon.
“Women want no privileges that men do not possess,” he declared. “It is simply a matter of justice. Whether women want to vote or not, and my opponent declares that they don’t, is beside the question. I believe that they do want to vote, but they should have the right to vote whether they want to use it or not, the same as men.”
Colonel Miller ridiculed the idea that the possession of the privilege of the ballot will tend to mar the spiritual nature of woman. He declared that women will not be soiled by plunging into the pool of politics, and maintained that the feminine opponents of equals suffrage, by their activity in the present campaign, had either refuted their own logic or else had already suffered the taint that they asserted would ensue in case the amendment carried.
Colonel C. E. S. Wood argued for the election of Woodrow Wilson.