NAWSA    SUBJECT FILE   Hale, Beatrice Forbes-Robertson 

Readings

ILLUSTRATING 
THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN THE DRAMA
BY
BEATRICE FORBES-ROBERTSON 
CHURCHILL HOUSE
MONDAY, JANUARY 27, AT 3:30 P. M.
CARDS $1.00

4
All illogical
would help
Social vice

James Addams

No longer gives of
ethics but administration.
Rockefellers
millions at his 
disposal.
Prohibition - Age of 
do and not don't
Women say put saloons
under control and keep
under

Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robinson Hale. 

Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robinson Hale

[*? speaker for suffrage*]

Success to Rhode Island!
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
Oct. 1912.

117
SUB-PIONEERS

the spirituality of matter;" "When education shall imply a knowledge of nature its universal extension must result in progress:" "The Fundamental distinction between the animal and the human method is that the environment transforms the animal while man transforms the environment;" "Civilization has been brought about through human achievement and human achievement consists almost entirely in knowledge;" all these are gems of wisdom and philosophy imparted by Prof. Ward.

He had no sympathy with private schools of any sort but believed and brought forth a solid array of sociological arguments to prove that education is the first duty of the State and Nation. He was no alarmist but believed that a common knowledge should be shared by all through the common medium of the public school. I find this belief to be shared by practically all lovers of a true democracy. Susan B. Anthony thus lecture Mrs. Stanton because she is failing in her duty to her children by education them at home:

"I am still of the opinion that whatever the short-comings of the public schools, your children would be vastly more profited in them, side by side with the very multitude with whom they must mingle as soon as school days are over. Any and every private education is a blunder, it seems to me. I believe those persons stronger and nobler who have from childhood breasted the commonality. If children have not the innate strength to resist evil, keeping them apart from what they must inevitably one can meet, only increases their incompetency."

Susan B. Anthony and Lester Frank Ward were born teachers. Their authority should have great weight with every parent and teacher of today.

These two thinkers, between whom I gathered from Prof. Ward there was a strong friendship, had one train in common; they did not shrink from the truth. Miss Anthony tells us:
"The fact is women are in chains and their servitude is all the more debasing because they do not realize it."

Prof. Ward recognized the weakness of the female sex but showed how it must be overcome.  Suffragists throughout the country prized this honesty in Prof. Ward and gratefully acknowledged his influence in their own writing and teaching; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Johnston, Beatrice Forest-Robertson Hale and many others recognized and utilized his system of sociology.

Beatrice Forbes Robertson 

WILLIAM B. FEAKINS 
Successor to CIVIC FORUM LECTURE BUREAU 
21 West 44th Street, New York
TELEPHONE: BRYANT, 8317

Beatrice Forbes-Robertson


WILLIAM B. PEAKINS
Successor to CIVIC FORUM LECTURE BUREAU
21 West 44th Street, New York
TELEPHONE BRYANT, 8317

Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale
will make an address Monday evening
at the Mason School hall, Newton
Centre under the auspices of the Newton
Equal Suffrage League.
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale, 
niece of Sir Johnston and daughter
of Mr. San Forbes-Robertson, grandchild
of John Forbes Robertson well 
known as an art critic in London and,
on her mother's side, of Joseph Knight,
F. S. A., editor of the "London Notes
and Queries," and, the foremost dramatic
critic of his day--it was but natural
that this, the youngest member
of a family that for three generations
has held a distinguished place in English
dramatic and literary life, should
find herself on the stage early in life.
Miss Forbes-Robertson was seventeen,
when she first appeared under Sir
Charles Wyndham, Sir John Hare and
Sir George Alexander, and has played
Ophelia, Desdemona and other leading
parts with Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson
and Ophelia with Sir Herbert
Tree. She created the part of Marion
Allardyce in Pinero's "Letty" and
plated Muriel Eden in the London revival
of "The Gay Lord Denex." For
the autumn of 1907 Miss Ellen Terry
brought Miss Forbes-Robertson to
America with her and she returned
during the two following years under
the direction of Mr. Charles Frohman
in "The Mollusc" and "The Morals
of Marcus." She then joined the
new theatre company in New York for
its first season. At the close of which 
she married Mr. Swinburne Hale, a
New York lawyer, and thus became an
American citizen. Since 1910, Mrs.
Hale has ceased tp act and has devoted
herself to lecturing upon poetry, the
drama, English and American politics
with special reference to the rise of
modern democracy and on woman
Suffrage and Feminism in their various
phases.
The summer of 1914 she has spent
in England in writing a book on the
Feminist movement which is about to
be published under the title of "What
Women Want."
Mrs. Hale has been widely identified
with the Woman's movement both in
england and America, where she has
spoken for Woman's Suffrage in twenty-one
states.

A Remarkable Lecture.
An audience of over 500 people
greeted Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson
Hale on Monday evening in Mason
school hall, and went away glad
that they had left their easy chairs to
hear this most witty and convincing
speaker on "Woman Suffrage and Democracy."
Hon. Samuel L. Powers, who introduced
the speaker, first traced the
rise and development of man suffrage
in America, and may of his hearers
were surprised to learn how comparatively
recent full suffrage for men
is. Mrs. Hale then showed in a brilliant
and delightful way the necessity
of the ballot for women today, either
to protect themselves as workers outside
the home, or as homemakers protecting
the home and welfare of the 
children.
Mrs. Hale well expressed the feeling
of most women today who are anxious
to help in working out the great experiment
of democracy in the most
efficient way, and not through indirect
influence. Many who had been indifferent
before hearing Mrs. Hale,
pledged their support to woman suffrage
and the still-uncertain ones came
away pondering.

ADDRESSED BY 
NOTED SUFFRAGIST

Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson
Hale is given Enthusiastic
Reception by
Newton Centre Audience

Mason School Hall at Newton Centre
was well filled on Monday evening
upon the occasion of a most interesting
address by Mrs. Beatrice
Forbes-Robertson Hale, the well-known
English suffragist speaker,
who spoke on "Woman Suffrage and
Democracy."
The speaker was introduced by
Hon. Samuel L. Powers, who spoke
in highest terms of the cause represented
by the speaker and of her
ability to set forth the facts regarding
what is today becoming one of
the great National issues. Mrs. Hale
said that in the past man had borne
 the burden of civilization, but that
woman today was assuming as great
a responsibility in the advance of
civilization as man.
"Some me," said she, "have
moulded masses of people into seeing
great things as they do. Why
has not woman the same privilege
of doing the same thing? Today
there is an equality of opportunity
for man and woman and why should
woman be hampered in her right to
progress and to hold public office.
The wife is an adult the same as her
husband and as such is entitled to
the same privileges. Two chief reasons
advanced in opposition to woman
suffrage are the disbelief in woman
and her ability as a political leader, 
and her disbelief in democracy. Man
is too conservative today in regard
to the affairs of life and woman sees
the fault lying in this stagnation of
policies. Why not progress and better
conditions as woman is striving
to do, both socially, politically and
economically.
"Wage-earners and lending clubs
and associations are endorsing suffrage
today. There are eight million
wage-earning women in America today, 
but let us be thankful that there
are as many more who are not forced
into this channel. It is a great
question today that of supplementing
man's work with that of women and
the trumpet call of democracy is calling
women to the helm of leadership
and the only way that this may be
done is by means of the ballot which
is woman's only means of protection
in more ways than one. This ballot
is a protection against bloody revolution,
as is evident in the United
States today, whereas other countries
are now at ware, where no method of
this kind is used."
Following the address the speaker
was given an informal reception during
which a great many were given
an opportunity to meet this ardent
advocate of the suffrage movement.

Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
Mother, Author, Actress 

Will Speak on Equal Suffrage
At the HUNNEWELL CLUB, Newton
Friday Evening, October 1st [*1915*]
at eight o'clock. 

Admission Free               Music 
Hon. Samuel L. Powers will preside.  1

NEWTON
SEP 24
3-PM
1915
MASS

WEST NEWTON
SEP 25
230 PM
MASS

Mr. & Mrs. Wm Lloyd Garrison
West Newton
[*?*]

CENTRE
Centre at the office of publication, 
ngley road and Union street, 
dman, newsdealer.

[*Newton Circuit May 1915*]

No one will be slighted. The ward
 is to be divided into districts, and 
every house will be visited.
The week of May 2 has been agreed 
upon throughout the city as clean-up 
week. this committee promises to 
make the clean up thorough.
_____
Noted Speaker to be Heard
Next Monday evening at 8 o'clock 
in the Mason school hall Mrs. Beatrice
Forbes-Robertson Hale will speak on 
"Woman Suffrage and Democracy." 
Mrs. Hale is a niece of Sir Johnston 
-------------------------------------------------
MRS. BEATRICE FORBES-ROBERTSON HALE.
----------------------------------------------
and daughter of Mr. Ian Forbes-Robertson, 
a grandchild of John Forbes-
Robertson, well known as an art critic 
in London, and, on her mother's side, 
of Joseph Knight, F.S.A., editor of
the London Notes and Queries and 
the foremost dramatic critic of his day. 
Miss Forbes-Robertson was 17 when 
she first appeared under Sir Henry 
Irving. She has since acted with Sir 
Charles Wyndham, Sir John Hare, and 
Sir George Alexander, and has played 
Shakespeare's heroines with Sir Johnston
Forbes-Robertson and Sir Herbert 
Tree.  She married Mr. Swinburne 
Hale, a New York lawyer, and 
since 1910 has ceased to act and has
devoted herself to lecturing upon 
poetry, the drama, English and American 
politics, with special reference to
the rise of modern democracy, and on
 woman suffrage and feminism in their 
various phases.


[*Hale*]
VOTES FOR WOMEN
Important Suffrage Meeting
FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 9th, 1913.
8 o'clock
at East Side Suffrage Club
86 Orchard Street
Mrs. Forbes-Robertson Hale, Speaker
Come and bring your friends
ADMISSION FREE

LOCAL NOTES.
_____
Mr. Thomas Jenkins of Rockland is the guest of relatives on Hobart Road.
Mr. J. Bartlett Melcher has been enjoying a week-end outing on the cape.
Mr. Ralph Williams of Walnut street has returned from a brief grip to Washington
Mr. Norman Hopewell, now located at Chicago, was the guest of relatives here last week.
Mr. Linnell Wallace and family of Montclair, New Jersey, have moved to Gray Cliff road.
Mr. C.P. Powers of Chase street has been passing a few days at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
Mrs. George S. Worcester is seriously ill at the home of her daughter, Mrs. F.F. Cutler of Hobart Road.
Miss Laura Hammond of New Haven, Connecticut, is the guest of Miss Alice Smith of Beacon street.
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Blanchard have sent out invitations to friends for a musicale at their home on Crescent avenue for next Tuesday evening.
The young ladies of the Methodist church will be entertaining tomorrow afternoon at the home of Miss Barbara Cooke of Sumner street.
Mr. F.W. Stevens is building a modern frame house on Marshall street for Miss Abby Baxter, book keeper at G. Wilbur Thompson's.
Mr. C.P. Clark of Pleasant street has returned from Philadelphia, where he attended the 50th anniversary of the institution of the loyal Legion.
Miss Doris Felton of Waban Hill road, Chestnut Hill gave a little party to some of her friends Tuesday afternoon in celebration of her 10th birthday.
Professor Alaric Stone of Kenwood avenue was called to Roxbury this week by the death of his aged father, who was master of the Mason school many years ago.
Sunday opens the conference year at the Methodist church. Rev. George H. Parkinson, who returns for his fifth year, will preach at the morning and evening services
Rev. Alson H. Robinson will be the speaker in the New Thought  Forum Sunday afternoon in the Old South church, Boston. He will speak on "Democracy and the Melting Pot."
Mr. C.B. Holden's faithful old coach dog "Jack" was caught by the midnight train on Wednesday, and was so madly mangled that Patrolman Bannon was asked to shoot him to end his sufferings.
Misses Alice and Nellie Leary have been the guest of their sister, Mrs.



[*Hale]
VOTES FOR WOMEN
Important Suffrage Meeting
FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 9th, 1913.
8 o'clock
at East Side Suffrage Club
86 Orchard Street
Mrs. Forbes-Robertson Hale, Speaker
Come and bring your friends
ADMISSION FREE

[*4*] [*Hale*]
LOCAL INTERESTS
LADYLIKE WOMAN
GONE FOR GOOD

Conception of Woman Changed by
War from "Weak and Petted"
to "Strong, Hardy and Virile"

MRS BEATRICE HALE
TELLS SUFFRAGISTS

Other Speakers at the Western Massachusetts
Suffrage Conference
Are President M. E. Woolley of
Mount Holyoke, Mrs Charles
Summer Bird and Mrs Anna
Tillinghast

A summons to the women of Massachusetts
to help our state preserve
its traditions of progressiveness and
not to allow ourselves to become reactionary,
and assurance of advance
in the woman movement occasioned
by the war were the messages
brought to the city by Mrs Beatrice
Forbes-Robertson Hale in a forceful
address before the suffrage meeting
last evening in central high school
hall, which was the second of yesterday's
gatherings in connection
with the suffrage conference held
here under the auspices of the education
committee of the Massachusetts
woman suffrage association.
"We have got to be progressive or
things will have to be revolutionized,
and it is the duty of you women wo 
have more time to study than the
majority of men, to keep in touch
with the questions of the day, and
the underground rumblings of the
country and help in their solution,"
she said. "Otherwise democracy will
be overturned by revolution and our 
boys who died to preserve it will
have been sacrificed in vain. Don't
think because we were the most progressive
people when the war started
that we can remain so by taking no
thought of to-morrow. We will be in
great danger of having the Germans
call us mossbacks."
Mrs Hale, always a favorite with
Springfield audiences, spoke with her
usual brilliancy last evening, her
humor, her ready wit, keen observations
and clear presentation of the
situation winning the applause of the
audience. She was preceded on the
evening's program by Mrs Charles
Summer Bird, vice-president of the
state association and chairman of the
executive board, and Mrs Anna
Tillinghast, chairman of the state
legislative committee, Mrs Henry M.
Bowden, president of the local branch
of the state association, presided.

Legislative Bills Indorsed 

The conference opened yesterday
afternoon with a meeting in the mahogany
room of the Auditorium, at
which President Mary Woolley of
Mount Holyoke college spoke on
"Training for citizenship." Indorsement
of three educational bills before
the Legislature was voted at the afternoon
conference, which represented
the suffragists of Western Massachusetts,
the bills supported being those
to provide a general fund of $4,000.000
for teachers' salaries, the bill
for physical education and the bill
to provide $100,000 for teaching English
to immigrants.
"The whole question of woman suffrage
to-day is an anachronism," Mrs
Hale said in remarking how tired she 
was of repeating the old argument
worn threadbare. "What little political
work we now must do for its
adoption is simply a hang-over of conditions
before the war. For most of
use now, as in my case, for I am a
voting citizen of New York, our concern 
is the business of being a citizen,
and we are finding that the vote
is a very useful defensive weapon."

"Privileged Class Alone Opposes Equal
                      Suffrage"

The war, Mrs Hale said, is responsible
for forever wiping out of existence
the class of "woman," who was so
segregated as a class in the minds
of many before the war. "The war
has put out of business the older
centers of civilization the lady-like
idea of woman, the woman who was
weak and petted and has substituted
the old ideal of the pioneer woman,
the woman who is strong and hardy;
not course, but virile; the woman who
can be the comrade of her husband,
have children and contribute something
to the generation. For this reason
I believe that the woman movement
has taken a tremendous stride
during the war, and as much as we
abhor war, the horrors of which nothing
can justify, still we have a right
to say that women have learned what
they can do. It was not men who
put over on you the prewar weakness,
but society and the status that
the human race had reached in the
nation."
Those who have opposed woman
suffrage in this state, in the opinion
of the speaker, are not men or women,
but the privileged people of both
classes, the people who have everything
they want and are comfortable
and think, "why should I bother about
anybody else?" Remarking upon the
epithets that are applied to suffragists
who are called feminists, militants,
pacifists and bolsheviki, Mrs
Hale said that feminist is merely the
[?]
not have been believed possible by any
education or sociological body, and
those girls are now revered at home
as the wounded heroes are revered."
Commenting upon the fact that suffragists
are sometimes classed as bolsheviki,
the speaker recalled that it
was the first respectable Russian
revolution which bestowed suffrage
upon its women.
"After the ballot, what are you going
to do?" she asked. "It is up to
you in the conservative state of Massachusetts
to lead the country, for
you are the natural aristocracy of the
United States. You have a great
chance with your splendid traditions.
And we in America have a great
chance, for the one thing that stands
between the civilized world and chaos,
communism, bolshevism and nongovernment
is a real democracy, and if
we cannot have democracy, we will
have bolshevism, for the war has
taught that labor and the proletariat
are powerful."
The evening meeting was preceded 
by a half-hour community sing under
the leadership of John F. Ahern. Between
the afternoon and evening
meetings, the guests attended a tea
at the Bridgway.

"Americanize Americans," Says Miss
                   Woolley

Miss Woolley, who was the principal
speaker at the afternoon conference
in the mahogany room, spoke on
training for citizenship and emphasized 
that there is as much need for
patriotism now in the time of peace
as in the time of war, a patriotism
which should require of us that we
realize that the need of our democracy
is not only that we shall train the
alien for citizenship, but that we shall 
Americanize Americans.
"Why is this the psychological moment
for such a movement?" she asked. "We have been told so often
that we are living through the most
critical period of the world's history
that there is danger of our failing to
realize the terrible import of that 
statement. In these days that are 
more critical, if possible, than the
days during the war, the women of
America must not fail.
"Our plan is to educate the women
of the state now, before the vote, not
only that we may be ready for suffrage
when it comes, but also that we
may be better fitted to help in the formation
of a constructive public opinion."
Miss Woolley reviewed what
the war has taught us of the country's 
needs from the point of the view
of education, both physical and mental.

Working With Immigrant, Not for 
                        Him

"The spirit of real democracy of 
'getting together' of those who have
many privileges and luxuries and
those who have few that existed during
the war should be preserved." 
she said. "It has been well said that
the 'new ideal of the Americanism means
that we are not to work for the immigrant, 
but with him' There is no
place for patronage.
The plan of group work, she explained,
meets a two-fold need, to
teach aliens English and the a, b, c
of our ideals and civics, and to make
all of us better informed on matters
and methods of government under
which we live. She suggested outlines
for study. "A city like Springfield,"
she said, "has a great opportunity
to help neighboring communities
in the rural section by helping
to organize these study groups.
"Never was there a day of such
perplexity," she concluded, "but never
was there a day of such inspiration.
Alone our individual lives may seem
to count for little; together they may
help to shape the destiny of the
world."

Against "Strict Neutrality"

Mrs Anna Tillinghast, chairman of
the legislative committee of the state
association, emphatically emphasized
the necessity for the suffrage association
in Massachusetts to depart from
its time-honored custom of not indorsing
any bills before the state Legislature
for fear of offending some
legislator, and of following the advice
of Mrs Carrie Chapman Catt,
the national president, by supporting
social and economic bills and needed
legislation for women and children.
"The policy of strict neutrality," she
said, "has accomplished nothing for
us in the way of changing the sentiment 
of the Senators Lodge and Weeks,
or of any state legislator."
In anticipation of the ratification of
the suffrage federal amendment Mrs
Tillinghast said the suffrage slogan
for the coming months should be "organize,
educate, and agitate to ratify." 
Seventeen Legislatures will meet
next year, of which that of Massachusetts
is being looked to as a leader 
in the ratification of the amendment.
She mentioned the successful effect
of the suffrage petitions which have
been signed by women through the 
state, and which 10,000 Springfield
women signed, in pronouncedly
changing certain legislative sentiment,
referring to one Springfield legislator,
who has been converted to the cause
through the weight of those 10,000
names.
Miss Fanny C. Osgood, treasurer of
the state association, told of the plans
of the finance committee. In the absence
of Mrs Charles Summer Bird,
who did not arrive in time for the
beginning of the meeting, Mrs Henry
M. Bowden, president of the Springfield
district, opened the meeting.

CHESTERTON FAVORS
VOTE FOR EACH BABY

Taking Anti-Suffrage Side in
Debate, He Would Give Married
Men Greater Privileges.

MRS. HALE HIS OPPONENT

He Agrees with Her That the Argument
That Women Are Less
Intelligent Than Men Is Silly

Cecil Chesterton, editor of The New
Witness, London, brother of Gilbert
Chesterton, wants to give the babies
votes. This was very much in the nature
of a capitulation to the suffrage
arguments of Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-
Robertson Hale in a debate in which
Mr. Chesterton took the anti side at
the Hudson Theatre yesterday morning.
"I will give as a last sort of a 
sporting proposition that all babies
should have the vote," said Mr. Chesterton
in his closing remarks. "when
a man is married and has eight children
he should have a vote for each
of them, as well as that of his wife.
I don't think it is likely that this will
be carried out. I think fundamentally,"
he said to Mrs. Hale, "we agree quite
a lot."
"If all the anti-suffragists agreed
with us what a happy world it would
be," returned Mrs. Hale.
Mr. Chesterton agreed with Mrs. Hale
in other things. As the speaker in the
negative he followed what he called her
"great speech," but being as he said,
"a debater of reasonable competence,"
he did not intend to be beaten. He
began by agreeing in part with Mrs.
Hale and demolishing a number of the
usual anti-suffrage arguments.
"I am going to throw over the silly
anti-suffrage argument that women are
less intelligent than men." Here the
anti-suffragists on the platform joined
in the applause. "That argument is
only made by very young and very silly
men. By the time a man is 30 years 
old he has become conscious of the 
superiority of women.
"I would also throw over the old argument
of physical force. According to
that cripples wouldn't be allowed to
vote and Jack Johnson would have
thirty votes."
Reading from the Constitution of the
United States, Mr. Chesterton said that
there is nothing in it about votes.
"Democracy is government by the 
general will of the people," he continued,
"and you have got to prove
that the majority of women desire the
vote and that women's interests are not
the same as men's."
It is because he believes that the
family is the unit of society that Mr.
Chesterton believes the man, as the
head, should continue as the voter.
"There are some cases where I would
give the woman the vote - if she was
a widow and the head of the family.
If you should say that a man who is
not married should not vote I would
rather agree with you. Mrs. Hale will
say that women are forced into industry,
and ask how to deal with that
question. If the family is being destroyed 
by the power of the rich, let
us make a new provision for this condition -
give woman the vote to better
safeguard her privileges and have
the family cared for by the State. But
if you do that the end is chattel slavery.
The other way to build up a happy
social state is to reconstruct society.
If there is a maldistribution of wealth,
this must be changed and the family
given what it should have. We must
protect the family, which was before
the State and for which the State laws
and civilization exist."
"The family is the unit of society
but not of the State," said Mrs. Hale.
"When the man and woman are married
they become one, but which one?
According to the old English law, the
man and wife were one, and that one
was the husband. The only way is to
consider marriage a partnership. Men
are expert upon some subjects and women
upon others. Currency, if any one
knows anything about that, is a subject
for the man, while the woman
knows more about the schools. Mr.
Chesterton wants the things that the
man knows about attended to directly
and the interests of the women indirectly.
The things in which the women
are concerned will be considered -
after the man's business."
Everett P. Wheeler, Mrs. Arthur M.
Dodge, Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, and
Mrs. A. J. George were among the anti-suffragists
on the platform, and Mrs. 
Raymond Brown and Mrs. Charles L.
Tiffany among the suffragists. Alexander
Irvine presided.

[*000012*]

here under the auspices of the education committee of the Massachusetts woman suffrage association.
"We have got to be progressive or things will have to be revolutionized, and it is the duty of you women who have more time to study than the majority of men, to keep in touch with the questions of the day, and the underground rumblings of the country and help their solution," she said.  "Otherwise democracy will be overturned by revolution and our boys who died to preserve it will have been sacrificed in vain.  Don't think because we were the most progressive people when the war started that we can remain so by taking no thought of to-morrow.  We will be in great danger of having the Germans call us mossbacks."
Mrs Hale, always a favorite with Springfield audiences, spoke with her usual brilliancy last evening, her humor, her ready wit, keen observations and clear presentation of the situation winning the applause of the audience.  She was preceded on the evening's program by Mrs Charles Summer Bird, vice-president of the state association and chairman of the executive board, and Mrs Anna Tillinghast, chairman of the state legislative committee.  Mrs Henry M. Bowden, president of the local branch of the state association, presided.
Legislative Bills Indorsed
The conference opened yesterday afternoon with a meeting in the mahogany room of the Auditorium, at which President Mary Woolley of Mount Holyoke college spoke on "Training for citizenship."  Indorsement of three educational bills before the Legislature was voted at the afternoon conference, which represented the suffragists of Western Massachusetts, the bills supported being those to provide a general fund of $4,000,000 for teachers' salaries, the bill for physical education and the bill to provide $100,000 for teaching English to immigrants.
"The whole question of woman suffrage to-day is an anachronism," Mrs Hale said in remarking how tired she was of repeating the old argument worn threadbare.  "What little political work we now must do for its adoption is simply a hang-over of conditions before the war.  For most of us now, as in my case, for I am a voting citizen of New York, our concern is the business of being a citizen, and we are finding that the vote is a very useful defensive weapon."
"Privileged Class Alone Opposes Equal Suffrage"
The war, Mrs Hale said, is responsible for forever wiping out of existence the class of "woman," who was so segregated as a class in the minds of many before the war.  "The war has put out of business in the older centers of civilization the lady-like idea of woman, the woman who was weak and petted and has substituted the old ideal of the pioneer woman, the woman who is strong and hardy; not coarse, but virile; the woman who can be the comrade of her husband, have children and contribute something to the generation.  For this reason I believe that the woman movement has taken a tremendous stride during the war, and as much as we abhor war, the horrors of which nothing can justify, still we have a right to say that women have learned what they can do.  It was not men who put over on you the prewar weaknesses, but society and the status that the human race had reached in the nation."
Those who have opposed woman suffrage in this state, in the opinion of the speaker, are not men or women, but the privileged people of both classes, the people who have everything they want and are comfortable and think, "why should I bother about anybody else?"  Remarking upon the epithets that are applied to suffragists who are called feminists, militants, pacifists and bolsheviki, Mrs Hale said that feminist is merely the French term for woman movement and means the belief in the human potentialities of the woman.
Militant Suffragists Are Fanatics
Regarding the accusation of suffragists being classified as militants, she said that every movement has suffered from a certain temperamental type known as fanatics, which, in the case of the militant suffragists here, as in England, only includes a small minority, but whose doings are featured in the press.  Refuting the accusation of being dubbed pacifists, Mrs Hale called the attention to the fact that the women who served the government most conspicuously in war work were suffragists and mentioned Dr Anna Howard Shaw and the chairman of the woman's committee in Pennsylvania who was responsible for raising $391,000,000 in Liberty bonds.
"The war has shown heroism to be a common virtue of the human race," she said.  She mentioned the English "Tommywaacs" and a group of their telephone girls at the front who kept on plugging in at the switch board when under heavy shellfire.  "Those girls felt it the greatest compliment," she related, "when their captain refused to cite them in the orders of the day, because he said he would not think of citing any of his men who kept in the trench when it was being bombed, which indicated that he considered courage a human trait and not a man's trait."
English Girls Make Enviable Record in France
She paid high tribute to the moral resistance of those 50,000 women who were sent to France in the "W. A. A. C" to work alongside of the soldiers, as only four out of every 1000 were sent home from any cause whatever.  "Before the war such a record would

that there is danger of our failing to realize the terrible import of that statement.  In these days that are more critical, if possible, than the days during the war, the women of America must not fail.
"Our plan is to educate the women of the state now, before the vote, not only that we may be ready for suffrage when it comes, but also that we may be better fitted to help in the formation of a constructive public opinion."  Miss Woolley reviewed what the war has taught us of the country's needs from the point of view of education, both physical and mental.
Working with Immigrant, Not for Him
"The spirit of real democracy of 'getting together' of those who have many privileges and luxuries and those who have few that existed during the war should be preserved," she said.  "It has been well said that the 'new ideal of Americanism means that we are not to work for the immigrant, but with him.'  There is no place for patronage.
The plan of group work, she explained, meets a two-fold need, to teach aliens English and the a, b, c of our ideals and civics, and to make all of us better informed on matters and methods of government under which we live.  She suggested outlines for study.  "A city like Springfield," she said, "has a great opportunity to help neighboring communities in the rural section by helping to organize these study groups.
"Never was there a day of such perplexity," she concluded, "but never was there a day of such inspiration.  Alone our individual lives may seem to count for little; together they may help to shape the destiny of the world."
Against "Strict Neutrality"
Mrs Anna Tillinghast, chairman of the legislative committee of the state association, emphatically emphasized the necessity for the suffrage association in Massachusetts to depart from its time-honored custom of not indorsing any bills before the state Legislature for fear of offending some legislator, and of following the advice of Mrs Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, by supporting social and economic bills and needed legislation for women and children.  "The policy of strict neutrality," she said "has accomplished nothing for us in the way of changing the sentiment of Senators Lodge and Weeks, or of any state legislator."
In anticipation of the ratification of the suffrage federal amendment Mrs Tillinghast said the suffrage slogan  for the coming months should be "organize, educate and agitate to ratify."  Seventeen Legislatures will meet next year, of which that of Massachusetts is being looked to as a leader in the ratification of the amendment.  She mentioned the successful effect of the suffrage petitions which have been signed by women through the state, and which 10,000 Springfield women signed, in pronouncedly changing certain legislative sentiment, referring to one Springfield legislator, who has been converted to the cause through the weight of those 10,000 names.
Miss Fanny C Osgood, treasurer of the state association, told of the plans of the finance committee.  In the absence of Mrs Charles Summer Bird, who did not arrive in time for the beginning of the meeting, Mrs Henry M. Bowden, president of the Springfield district, opened the meeting.

CHESTERTON FAVORS VOTE FOR EACH BABY
Taking Anti-Suffrage Side in Debate, He Would Give Married Men Greater Privileges.
MRS. HALE HIS OPPONENT
He Agrees with Her That the Argument That Women Are Less Intelligent Than Men is Silly
Cecil Chesterton, editor of The New Witness, London, brother of Gilbert Chesterton, wants to give the babies votes.  This was very much the nature of a capitulation to the suffrage arguments of Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale in a debate in which Mr. Chesterton took the anti side at the Hudson Theatre yesterday morning.
"I will give as a last sort of a sporting proposition that all babies should have the vote," said Mr. Chesterton in his closing remarks.  "When a man is married and has eight children he should have a vote for each of them, as well as that of his wife.  I don't think it is likely that that will be carried out.  I think fundamentally," he said to Mrs. Hale, "we agree quite a lot."
"If all the anti-suffragists agreed with us what a happy world it would be," returned Mrs. Hale.
Mr. Chesterton agreed with Mrs. Hale in other things.  As the speaker in the negative he followed what he called her "great speech," but being, as he said, "a debater of reasonable competence," he did not intend to be beaten.  He began by agreeing in part with Mrs. Hale and demolishing a number of the usual anti-suffrage arguments.
"I am going to throw over the silly anti-suffrage argument that women are less intelligent than men."  Here the anti-suffragists on the platform joined in the applause.  "That argument is only made by very young and very silly men.  By the time a man is 30 years old he has become conscious of the superiority of women.
"I would also throw over the old argument of physical force.  According to that cripples wouldn't be allowed to vote and Jack Johnson would have thirty votes."
Reading from the constitution of the United States, Mr. Chesterton said that there was nothing in it about votes.
"Democracy is government by the general will of the people," he continued, "and you have got to prove that the majority of women desire the vote and that women's interests are not the same as men's."
It is because he believes that the family is the unit of society that Mr. Chesterton believes the man, as the head should continue as the voter.
"There are some cases where I would give the woman the vote - if she was a widow and the head of the family.  If you should say that a man who is not married should not vote I would rather agree with you.  Mrs. Hale will say that women are forced into industry, and ask how to deal with that question.  If the family is being destroyed by the power of the rich, let us make a new provision for this condition - give the woman the vote to better safeguard her privileges and have the family cared for by the State.  But if you do that the end is chattel slavery.  The other way to build up a happy social state is to reconstruct society.  If there is maldistribution of wealth, this must be changed and the family given what it should have.  We must protect the family, which was before the State and for which State laws and civilization exist."
"The family is the unit of society but not of the State," said Mrs. Hale.  "When the man and the woman are married they become one, but which one?  According to the old English law, the man and wife were one, and that one was the husband.  The only way is to consider marriage a partnership.  Men are expert upon some subjects and women upon others.  Currency, if any one knows anything about that, is a subject for the man, while the woman knows more about the schools.  Mr. Chesterton wants the things that the man knows about attended to directly and the interests of the women indirectly.  The things in which the women are concerned will be considered - after the man's business."
Everett P. Wheeler, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, and Mrs. A. J. George were among the anti-suffragists on the platform, and Mrs. Raymond Brown and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany among the suffragists.  Alexander Irvine presided.

000013

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.