Memorial from Alice Wadsworth of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage

by Alice Wadsworth

National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage

PLATFORM—THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OPPOSED TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE—Stands for HOME and NATIONAL DEFENSE against Woman Suffrage, Femininism and Socialism. For MAN-POWER in Government, believing that Democracy must be STRONG to be SAFE. For the PRESERVATION of the established foundations of the American Republic as a Model for the World. For the ENFORCEMENT of the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT of each State to settle the question of Woman Suffrage for Itself. For EFFICIENCY and Progress, without Waste and Duplication in Government. For the CONSERVATION of the best Womanhood of all conditions and stations of life. For the ultimate UNION of Women of all classes and creeds along NON-PARTISAN lines, so that the interests of Womanhood, Childhood and Civilization may be advanced FREE from the strife and division of politics, factions and parties. For the retention of the best IDEALS of the past, adapted to the advantages and opportunities given to women under modern conditions, so that the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES of Morality, of Patriotism and of World Progress may be more firmly established in the present and future generations.

Vice Presidents

Mrs. LOUIS A. FROTHINGHAM.

Boston, Mass.

Mrs. JOHN B. HERON,

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Miss ANNE MacILVAINE,

Trenton, N. J.

Mrs. HENRY B. THOMPSON,

Greenville, Del.

Mrs. N. C. YOUNG,

Fargo, N. Dak.

Mrs. EDWARD PORTER PECK,

Omaha, Neb.

Mrs. JOHN F. A. MERRILL,

Portland, Me.

Board of Directors

Mrs. JOHN BALCH,

Boston, Mass.

Mrs. HORACE BROCK,

Philadelphia, Pa.

Miss ALICE HILL CHITTENDEN

New York.

Mrs. ALBERTAS T. DUDLEY,

Exeter, N. H.

Mrs. C. H. DAVIS,

Washington, D. C.

Mrs. OSCAR LESER,

Baltimore, Md.

Mrs. J. B. GILFILLAN,

Minneapolis, Minn.

Mrs. ROWLAND G. HAZARD,

Peacedale, R. I.

Mrs. E. YARDE BREESE,

Trenton, N. J.

Mrs. H. F. LYSTER,

Detroit, Mich.

Mrs. DANIEL A. MARKHAM,

Hartford, Conn.

Mrs. DAVID CONANT,

Bradford, Vt.

Miss CAROLINE PATTERSON,

Macon, Ga.

Mrs. FRANCIS D. WILLIAMS,

Richmond, Va.

Mrs. H. E. TALBOTT,

Dayton, Ohio.

Miss N. W. BAKER,

Selma, Ala.

Mrs. F. A. MILLARD,

Burlington, Iowa.

Mrs. ERNEST JACKSON,

Dallas, S. Dak.

Mrs. JAMES B. WELLS,

Brownsville, Texas.

Mrs. D. C. GALLAHER,

Charleston, W. Va.

Mrs. C. E. ESTABROOK,

Milwaukee, Wis.

TELEPHONE MAIN 9854

1621 K STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C.

MISS MINNIE BRONSON, General Secretary.

December 11, 1917.

Hon. Chas. E. Fuller, M.C.,

Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

Your attention is invited to the following facts:

1. The proposed Federal suffrage amendment positively destroys the right of the people to vote on the question of woman suffrage, as provided for in their State Constitutions, and allows woman suffrage to be forced on unwilling States by the Legislatures of other States.

2. This proposal is a violation of the present Constitution of the United States, which provides that

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

3. The people, through their State Constitutions, ratified by popular vote, have reserved the right to adopt or withhold woman suffrage by popular vote.

4. This proposal asks you to rob the people of this right; to repudiate your party platform which recognizes the right of each State to settle this question for itself by popular vote.

Every principle of patriotism, every ideal of self-government, and your oath to defend the Constitution, urges you to vote against the attempt to obtain woman suffrage in spite of the expressed will of the people.

Moreover, this amendment, in time of war, would immediately open up a new nation wide suffrage campaign in forty-eight States to secure its ratification.

It would give suffragists and socialists the opportunity to annoy and pester every Legislator in the United States until a majority of the men in thirty-six Legislatures surrendered their judgment and principles to political threats and cajolery.

It would mean that no Legislature in the United States could meet without being surrounded by suffrage pickets.

It would be an official endorsement of nagging as a national policy.

It would give every radical woman the right to believe that she could get any law she wanted by "pestering" her City Council, her Legislature, her Congressman or her President - no matter how the people voted, nor what national crisis existed. And if feminism can be put through by pestering, regardless of the will of the people, so can pacifism, socialism and other isms.

Woman suffrage has been voted upon nineteen times in the last five years. Sixteen times it was defeated by popular vote.

Three times, (in Montana, Nevada and New York) it carried as the direct result of the increased socialist vote. This fact has been demonstrated mathematically.

Will you not defend the Constitution, your party platform and the rights of the people, rather than surrender to the futile threats and impotent dictation of the Woman Suffrage Machine and the Socialists, who are seeking this amendment precisely because they are not strong enough to carry woman suffrage in the majority of the States by popular vote?

Respectfully yours,

President.