I am a member of the Utica/Rome Metro Area - NY chapter of the League of Women Voters (a non-partisan, voter education and advocacy group, fighting for all of us in support of good, responsible government and an effective democracy). In the local newsletter I received this month, the following was included. It's worth the read and needs no embellishment. Clearly, it is directed toward men, as women would still have to wait until 1919 to cast a vote.
The following article appeared in the Nov 1, 1917 edition of the Daily Press, as written by the New York State Woman Suffrage Party:
When you go to the polls next Tuesday, think about just three women – your mother, your wife and your daughter. Remember the time you first discussed something seriously with your mother? Not the funny little problems of your childhood, because wonderful as those talks were, they didn’t show you the mother that you discovered later.
It was when you went to her about your first job, or about your troubles at the office, or a new opportunity in business – that was when you found your real mother. Remember how simply and clearly she talked it over with you – how she put her finger on the important part of it and how it all straightened out in your mind?
Wouldn’t you trust her to make a sound decision on anything that affects your lives?
And remember the first time you ever talked about serious things with your wife? Perhaps you asked her opinion of a man you thought of hiring. Perhaps you were considering a new partnership or an extension of your business. Have you ever checked up on her “woman’s intuition”? Has it ever failed you? Haven’t you often thought that what is called “woman’s intuition” isn’t intuition at all – that it is just a quicker, simpler grasp of a situation than you get from many of the men whose opinions you ask?
Wouldn’t you trust your wife to make a sound decision on any question that affects your lives?
Now think about that daughter of yours. Maybe it seems only yesterday that she was a baby. Before you know it, she will be grown up. She is going to live in this world – in this State – a good many years after you are gone. What kind of laws will govern her life? Is she going to get the square deal that you are fighting today to win for her?
You are trying to show her the difference between right and wrong. You are making her the best woman you know how. And you are going to succeed. When she grows up, you are going to be proud of her.
Won’t you trust her to vote on everything that affects her life? After all, the things you vote on are just questions of making the world a better place to live in. And they affect the lives of all of you together – your mother, your wife and daughter as well as you.
You have heard a lot about the candidates in this Election. You are going to judge them on a good deal on their personalities.
There are three candidates who are coming up for a decision from you - three candidates whose pictures aren’t pasted up on the billboards or in the street cars. Perhaps their pictures are in your watch or on your desk – three candidates who are willing to be judged on their personalities.
How are those three candidates coming out with you next Tuesday? Are you going to vote for or against your mother, your wife and your daughter?
