Votes for Women Amending State Constitutions A Study of State Constitutions Which Lack Suffrage Amendments." leaflet
[Kelley, Florence]. Beard, Mary and Florence Kelley. Leaflet: “Votes for Women Amending State Constitutions A Study of State Constitutions Which Lack Suffrage Amendments.” 803 West Madison Street Chicago: National Office of the Socialist Party, N.D. [ca. 1916]. Issued by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage as “Why Women Demand a Federal Suffrage Amendment”; and here reprinted by the National Office of the Socialist Party.
Leaflet: 10-1/2 x 7-3/4,” folded to 5-1/4 x 7-3/4,” printed black on buff paper. Paper is brittle with some closed tears and nicks along the edges and considerably age-toned. Good to about very good, but a rare survivor.
In 1915 and 1916 President Woodrow Wilson as well as numerous senators and representatives demurred at supporting a federal amendment giving women the vote. They suggested that it was appropriate for each of the individual states to decide the issue. Susan B. Anthony herself had rejected such reasoning more than twenty years earlier as placing virtually insurmountable barriers to the enfranchisement of women. Alice Paul and her Congressional Union pushed for a federal amendment, marshaling succinct, but potent arguments against a state-by-state campaign.
Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958), noted suffragist and historian, and Florence Kelley, here tick off the specifics. Some states have no provision for a voter-initiated amendment to the state constitution; others restrict the number of amendments, which can be submitted at any one election; 12 states have no provision for constitutional conventions. The analysis is delivered dispassionately; the authors allow the facts to speak for themselves. An effective and very scarce suffrage item, written by two of the women’s rights movement most intelligent and formidable proponents. This reprinting of a Congressional Union item by the Socialist Party additionally reflects the Union’s radical leanings and associations. Krichmar 1445.
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