CATT, Carrie Chapman General Correspondence Adams, John T. Copy. 171 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. January 7, 1924. To the Hon. John T. Adams, Chairman Republican National Committee, Munsey Building, Washington, D.C. Dear Sir: My attention has been called to a column in a recent Republican Weekly Publicity sheet in which your publicity department has circulated serious charges against me while seeming deftly to lay the responsibility for them upon a Republican woman who has seen bogies after one of my speeches. The article is headed "She and Woodrow Wilson are again trying to 'bunk' women into voting the Democratic ticket." I am not a Democrat. I never have been a Democrat. I have no alliance with any Democrat or Democrats nor with the Democratic party. Whoever says to the contrary, circulates a deliberate and malicious lie. For confirmation of these statements, I refer you to the Hon. Cordell Hull, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and to Mrs. Emily Newell Blair, Chairman of the Democratic women. It is no discredit to be called a Democrat, but to charge a citizen with pretending to a non-partisan attitude in discussing a national issue while surreptitiously and secretly serving a political party is, as you must admit, an accusation of malignant character. Further, the inference by the woman critic, and repeated by your publicity department, that the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, of which I am chairman, is supplying the money for "the program Mrs. Catt is undertaking", presumably meaning the plan "to bunk the women into voting the Democratic ticket", amounts to a charge and it is as dastardly as it is untrue. Mrs. Leslie left her residue of her estate to me personally with instructions to devote it to woman suffrage work. I incorporated a Commission to which every penny I have received has been turned over and nothing has been expended without a vote of that Commission consisting of seven women, five of whom are Republicans, one is a Democrat and I, a non-partisan. It is obviously ridiculous that a Republican majority would vote money in the interest of Democratic propaganda, but do not take my word for it. Ask one of the Commission who has served from the beginning, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, National Chairman of Republican women for confirmation of these facts. The article contains considerable misrepresentations, but the reformer is accustomed to give and take. Let that go. I demand that amends be made me for the circulation of those two definite and -2- discrediting charges, by the publication of this letter in your next publicity "clip sheet" which shall be sent to the same papers that received the other. I request any editor who has used the other story to publish this letter. Republicans heretofore have boasted that they stood for a "square deal". Please send me a copy of the "clip sheet" containing this letter. Very truly yours, (Signed) Carrie Chapman Catt. COPY January 14, 1924. Taking up Mrs. Catt's letter seriatim, will submit the following memorandum: Mrs. Catt says we have circulated serious charges against her "while deftly seeming to lay the responsibility for them upon a Republican woman who has seen bogies after one of my speeches". The News Bureau did not seem to lay the responsibility at all. The article it printed was taken from the Topeka Daily Capital of Sunday, December 2nd, where all of the matter quoted was prominently displayed on the first page. I attach herewith for your information copy of the Topeka Daily Capital with the article referred to. This is from our files, but Mrs. Catt can easily obtain copy of paper by writing to the Topeka Capital. Incidentally, this article in the Topeka Capital attracted attention throughout the state of Kansas and elsewhere in that section. Furthermore, the same matter appeared in the Kansas Women's Journal, a publication of wide circulation among women. The Journal is a member of the Kansas Editorial Association, and according to its representation, is the "Women's Republican Official Organ". It seems a little strange to us if this article is as injurious to Mrs. Catt as she claims in her letter that she has not made some demand upon those two publications for amends. Mrs. Catt's objection appears to be set forth in the following paragraph --"To charge a citizen with pretending to a non-partisan attitude in discussing a national issue while surreptitiously and secretly serving a political party is, as you must admit, an accusation of malignant character." Mrs. Catt has made a tour of the United States, speaking in various cities upon national issues and there yet remains to be recorded in any newspaper an account of her speeches which do not show her to have publicly denounced the attitudes of the Republican administration, the attitude of the Republican Senate, and the attitude of the Republican party, and at the same time advocated exactly the same policy which is being advocated by the leading Democrats of the United States. Moreover, Mrs. Catt is at the head of a corporation which publishes "The Woman Citizen". This Bureau obtains regularly the issues of that publication and is prepared to exhibit the news and editorial matter of that publication to prove without the shadow of a doubt that not only upon foreign matters, but upon domestic issues "The Woman Citizen" has persistently and consistently lined up with the Democratic party. The Bureau is stating a fact when it asserts that Mrs. Catt in her public speeches, in her writings and in the publication controlled by the corporation of which she is the head, is advocating and supporting the Democratic party policies. -2- January 14, 1924 Mrs. Catt insists that the article which appeared in the Topeka Capital and was reprinted by us leaves the inference that her actions constitute a reflection upon her administration of the Frank Leslie Foundation fund. Mrs. Catt says in her letter that this fund and the commission financed by it is to be devoted exclusively to woman suffrage work. The advertisement of Mrs. Catt's meeting in Topeka, Kansas, which appeared in the Topeka Capital of November 25 expressly states as follows: "Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who is to speak in Topeka, November 30, among all the other honors and duties attained by her, is president of the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc. Mrs. Catt's western trip is under management of this organization which was made possible by the bequests of Mrs. Leslie." The advance notice of Mrs. Catt's meeting also stated that the Vice President of the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc. was arranging an itinerary and plans for Mrs. Catt's tour of this country. Newspaper notices of meetings held by Mrs. Catt in various sections of the country at which she made political speeches supporting Democratic policies, criticising the Republican Party, the Republican administration and particularly the Republican members of the United States Senate advertised Mrs. Catt not as a Democratic speaker, but as a non-partisan speaker representing the suffrage movement and the head of the Leslie foundation. Mrs. Catt has at no time repudiated being advertised in this manner. She has at no time, so far as we have seen, told her audience that she was speaking not as an official of the Leslie foundation but as an individual; that she was speaking not upon suffrage, but upon politics; and that she was speaking not as a non-partisan but as a supporter of Democratic policies. If Mrs. Catt permits the advance notice of her meetings to advertise her in this manner in order that she may draw a crowd and have her words carry weight among women, that is entirely her affair. But when she does this she cannot justly raise any complaint if the charge is made that she is sailing under false colors when she addressed the women not upon the subject of suffrage or upon matters from a non-partisan standpoint, but delivers a straight Democratic speech espousing the outstanding political policy of the Democratic party, the policy upon which it made its campaign in 1920 and upon which President Wilson and his followers are endeavoring to force the next campaign. -3- January 14, 1924. This memorandum would not be complete if it did not state that the charges made against Mrs. Catt that she is using her suffrage reputation and official position for the purpose of getting an audience to which she preaches Democratic doctrine are the least serious of charges made against her. Newspapers and individuals characterize some of her utterances as being unpatriotic. This Bureau has the personal statement of women who heard Mrs. Catt in Minneapolis that her address there was so violent in its charges against the integrity of our administration and our Senate that women got up and left the hall in the middle of her speech. The Kansas Woman's Journal, referred to before as the women's Republican official organ of that state, quotes a Topeka woman to the effect "if one of Emma Goldman's friends would make such a speech as Mrs, Catt made she would be deported in short order." Her speech in Wichita, Kans., was of such a character that the Vice President of the Wichita League of Women Voters felt called upon to publicly repudiate her in the columne of the Wichita papers. I append herewith the lead and the close of an editorial from the Huntington, W.Va., Herald-Dispatch which speaks of itself and which is of a like character with other editorials which have appeared in various sections of the country. Summed up, Mrs. Catt certainly has no ground for any grievance against the matter sent out by this bureau compared with what might be said and with what scores of publications and individuals are saying. Mrs. Catt is making speeches under the pretense they are non-partisan. She is being advertised as representing the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission wherever she speaks. These speeches are not in support of woman suffrage. They are political. They are not non-partisan. They are Democratic. They are bitterly critical of the Republican party, the Republican administration and the Republican Senate. These are facts. Mrs. Catt is certainly poorly advised to raise an issue that she is being misrepresented by the simple statement of these facts. REPUBLICAN NEWS BUREAU Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.