be done but are left undone for want of money.
State committees grow timid because they do not see the money in
sight and naturally trim their budgets to the point which renders
defeat inevitable.
Iowa, like every other State, showed opposition from the "wets,"
tricks of politicians and the rounding up of every drunkard and
outcast to vote against the amendment. The unprecedented result
was that 35,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage proposition
than on the Governor. This could only have been brought about by
inducements of some sort which were made to the lowest elements
of the population. This story differs in coloring and detail with
each campaign but varies little as to general fact. It must be
borne in mind and our campaigns must be so good that these
purchasable and controllable elements will be outvoted.
A number of men worked against the amendment in Iowa and men are
working at this time in South Dakota and West Virginia. Who
employs or pays these men we have never been able to discover.
Their ordinary method is to secure strictly private meetings of
men only, where they spread the basest of untruths. All past
campaigns point to the necessity of waging those of the future
with a distinct understanding that the worst elements of the
population will be lined up by this unscrupulous, well-supported,
combined opposition of men and of women. The women appeal to the
respectable elements of the community; the men make little
pretense in this direction. There is a sure alliance between the
two.
The first public session was held Thursday afternoon and the delegates
looked forward with keen enjoyment to the "three-cornered debate" on
what had become a paramount question. Mrs. Catt was in the chair. Each
leader was to have ten minutes and her second five minutes to speak in
the affirmative only; when the six had presented their arguments there
was to be free discussion from the floor, and, after all who had
wished had spoken, each leader would have ten minutes to answer the
opposition to her point of view. The program was as follows:
Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work on
the Federal Amendment and confine its activities to State legislation?
Leader, Miss Laura Clay, Kentucky; second, Miss Kate Gordon,
Louisiana.
Shall the National American Woman Suffrage
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