BROADSIDE: Enemies of Votes for Women, The.
Broadside: “The Enemies of Votes for Women.” [New York, ND, but ca. 1913].
Broadside: 7-1/2 x 12-1/8,” printed in light purple ink on cream stock; illustrated with a cartoon by Herbert Johnson; the lower margin of the broadside lacking (thus the name of the organization which issued this absent); light touches of overall wear with minor creasing at upper margin; good. The Herbert Johnson cartoon shows Mrs. Anti-Suffrage swooning as five gentlemen representing anti-suffrage interests present her with a large bouquet of flowers; the 'gentlemen' are labeled “saloon keeper,” “child labor exploiter,” “white slaver,” “food doper” and “political boss.” The last is a large, fulsome figure who the caption has saying: “We have called to express our extreme gratichude fer the bee-utiful fight you are making in our behalf.” (The cartoon had appeared originally in The Saturday Evening Post).
The cartoon emphasizes suffragists' repeated assertions that anti-suffrage leaders were usually wealthy women so buffered by their position that they seldom realized the nature of the forces with which they had allied themselves. The body of the broadside asks: “The Liquor Interests Oppose Woman Suffrage Why? / The Vice Interests Oppose Woman Suffrage. Why? / There Are No Anti-Suffrage Societies In The Suffrage States. Why Not?” The thrust of the broadside, however, are the extent of prostitution in New York (especially New York City) and the extent to which corrupt politicians and officials benefit from this evil. The writer finally asks “...are you going to cast prejudice aside and give the women of this land the power to fight for their own protection and to help you in this fight.” Though incomplete, the broadside (likely intact as to the substance of its text) is distinctive for its look, the presence of a graphic and for the tenor of its suffrage argument. The broadside also reflects some less attractive qualities to some suffrage literature during this period, i.e., an anti-immigrant (often anti-German) thread. The rhetoric harks back to the Woman’s Municipal League formed by Josephine Shaw Lowell and Mary Putnam Jacobi in 1894 to educate “the public about corruption, in particular the links between the police and organized prostitution.” Clearly, suffragists thought the need for such rhetoric had not diminished in the following two decades.
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