Suffrage as a War Measure (2 copies).
[Suffrage]. New York State Woman’s Suffrage Party. Suffrage as a War Measure. New York: Printed by 8N.W.S. Publishing Co., October 1917.
Single leaf, 8 ¼ x 10 5/8”; printed on recto and verso; small closed tear to bottom edge.
This printed leaf was clearly meant to have been folded in half to make a four-page leaflet, but survived, unused, in its hot-off-the-press state. It was part of the campaign for the Woman Suffrage Amendment on the New York State ballot on November 6, 1917.
Just as the Civil War was a stimulant for the suffrage cause in the 1860s, the American mobilization in 1917 offered an opportunity for women to at last gain the vote. “Since the war began woman suffrage has been sweeping over the civilized world,” the text begins in large bold type. Pointing out that women in Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland and Denmark all have the vote, and that similar measures are in the works in Great Britain, Holland, France, and Italy, it continues, “[t]he women of New York State have no less patriotism, courage or ability than the women of England, Russia or Canada,” and calls upon the male voters of New York State to vote for woman suffrage. The inside pages, devoted to advancements in these and other foreign countries, make a powerful point: “In every country at war the vote has either been given to women or is under consideration. Are New York women going to be classed as the only women among civilized nations unworthy of the vote?”
Opposite the cover, on what was to have been the back page, the authors ask the reader to “[g]ive votes to women as part of the nation’s defense,” as “[t]his war has proved that women must serve the state equally with men…. The government is calling on women to help in factories, in the production and conservation of food, to make munitions, and hardest of all, to give their sons to war. Women are responding to the call. They are eager to serve. Either in war or in peace they wish to serve their country.”
Not all suffragists and feminists were comfortable with this linkage between the war effort and the franchise. Jane Addams, a vocal pacifist, parted company with her New York sisters on this point. But the upheavals of the war undoubtedly eased the passage of the 19th amendment. This leaflet concludes,
Men of New York State, don’t wait until the war is over to admit the justice and necessity of woman suffrage here. For the sake of the strength it will add to the nation, vote for woman suffrage November 6th.
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