xt70rx937t9n_470 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. The Southern Review text The Southern Review 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_17/Folder_30/Multipage20402.pdf 1920 May 1920 1920 May section false xt70rx937t9n_470 xt70rx937t9n  

MAY, 1920

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HOW THE SOUTH REALLY FEELS ABOUT WOMAN
SUFFRAGE

x

AN INTERVIEW WITH jOHN DRINKWATER ABOUT
HIS FORTHCOMING PLAY, “ROBERT E. LEE”

0. HENRY AFTER A DECADE
By Dr. Archibald Henderson

REUBEN’S ALIBI
By Sarah Johnson Cockc

A POSTHUMOUS STORY
By Will Harben

BIRD CONSERVATION IN THE SOUTH
By H. H. Brimley

THE SPIRIT OF BALTIMORE
By Wilbur F. Coyle

THE HERDER 0N STORM MOUNTAIN
By Charles Egbert Craddock

 

 

 

 

. I. The National. Southern Magazine.

 

  

 

5
)
I
Y

HOW OUR READERS FEEL

Washington, I). C.
“l waiit to congratulate you on your excellent.
magazine. It is a credit to the South. It should go
to every Southerner. Your 1’)rospectus is extraordi-
narily fine. ‘It is weakness to accept the present
turmoil as occasion for alarm. It must be accepted
as a challenge to responsibility, a noral obligation
which no enlightened man cr woman can evade.’
Suptrtine! IIerewith is my check for three dollars
for one year’s subscription. Best wishes for your
success."
Cordially,
CLAUDE KITCHIN,

Chapel Hill, N. C.
“Your magazine gets better with each number.
I am glad to ace that you are carrying fiction,
skttch's, etc.. in considerable proportion. I read
the editorial on sectionalism with great interest and
approval. Much that. is healthy may be said along
that lion 1 have written and spoken no little on
the subject. And many people really need to have

their ideas on the subject properly oriented.

It you l-‘eep up the standard and vary the numbers
as you have done so far, I prophesy steady success.

Ancnnmm I’IENI'WERSON.

Anderson, S. C.

“I enclose my subscription to THE SOUTHERN RE-
VIEW and am doing something I never did before in
my life, writing to a magazine to t.‘ll them what I
think or" the editors and of the publication. How—
ever, as magazines are made for me and people like
me, that is the reading public, perhaps cncc in a
while the reading public may say what they like.
I am a Southerner first, last and always, and from
a sense of duty and an ardent wish to have in the
South a first—class literary magazine, I have consist-
ently subscribed for Southern publi 'ations, and this
is the tirst time that I have had the hope that at
last the Southern magazine has appeared that people
who l'ke such periodicals as the Atlantic Monthly
and llarpers Magazine, can be proud to have and
know it is a Southern production. I like it, every
-bit of it. :‘rd hope it will keep up the standard it
has set with its first. number. . . . I am so glad
'to see a Southern magazine that does not tell women
how to paint their faces so it can't be told, or how to
give ‘lovely’ parties, or how to (ll‘tSS the baby or feed
the t‘rmilv. but providrs 'eal literature, that l want
to tell you so."

IiorisE AYE': YANDIVER

Macon, Ga.
“Tun Sor'rurznx REVIEW is before me. I want first
to thank you t'or filling this long-felt need of mine.
A Southern magazine! A little bit of personal his-

tory is necessary to show you why I am so thor-
oughly interested and delighted. I was born in
Tennessee, educated in Mississippi colleges, married
and moved to Arkansas, later lived ten years in
Florida, spent several years in Texas, have visited
in Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and South
Carolina. I feel the great desire to let the world
know just what our beautiful ‘Southland’ stands for
and how many worth—while men and women we have.
Is the above not enough to warrant my pride in a
magazine all my own? Is it not true that anything
we dearly love and are deeply interested in becomes
our very own? So THE SOUTHERN REVIEW belongs
to me. Please see that it comes regularly to my
desk.”
NEAL WYATT CIIAPLINE.

University of Cincinnati.
“I wish you much success in this noble undertak—
ing.” CHARLES WM. DABNEY.

Tacoma, Wash.
“If only Southerners in the South would support
it. I find the real true Southerners who have left
the South are more anxious to support any period—
ical from there than those living there. They do
not realize the importance of hdping their own sec-
tion.” MRS. A. W. OLLAR.

La Mesa, Cal.
“I have received two copies of the REVIEW and it
is a real delight to read the Southern View on the
public questions that are of such vital interest to
us all. We are all enjoying the REVIEW and the ex—
pressions of ideas that agree with our own. Yours
for success in a most worthy enterprise.”
RoSE IVIILLER PARKS.

Pueblo, Colo.

“The name at once appealed to me. . . . have
for years been hungry for th's very thing.
Just hurry it up, that's all. E. R. CHEW.

Columbia, S. C.
“I wish to say that I fully sympathize with the
purpose of the magazine and trust that it will have
the very greatest. success which the purpose of" it
certainly deserves." IRVIN I”. BELT’IIH

Eyromville, (la.
“I am delighted with the two numbers I have
received and I shall do everything I can to give it a
broad circulation in the community and elsewhere, if
possible' I shall send in a list. of names of possible
subscribers at an early date.”
Mus J. W. SMITH.

l

 

hf.“

 

  

 

 

 

 

Mooresville, N. C.

“Last week I saw the January number of your
valuable paper. At once I placed it in our thirty-
four-year-Old magazine club.”

Mas. GEORGE C. GOODMAN.

_ Louisville, Ky.
“I am with you in the movement, and as a full-
blooded son of the Confederacy, I will try to find
other subscribers.” DR. F. W. SAMUELL.

Knoxville, Tenn.
“We are just today in receipt of a copy of THE
SOUTHERN REVIEW. It looks good and the reading
material is live matter. There is no reason why this
journal should not flourish in the South. You not
only have a splendid field, but we believe you will

have eager listeners and splendid support.”
SAM Y. ADCOCK,
Editor Progressive Teacher.

Burton, S. C.
“The paper is an excellent one and I am very
much delighted to add it to my reading matter.”
J. S. SHANKLIN.

Hollins College, Virginia.

“With a great deal of pleasure and no little satis-
faction . . . I have enjoyed the first two issues of
THE SOUTHERN REVIEW. When with each succeed-
ing session it becomes necessary to allow the class
in American literature. ‘discover’ in their study of
the American magazine the scarcity of magazine
literature in the South, I feel inclined to call upon
the shades of E. A. Poe, Henry Timrod, Joel Chan-
dler Harris, Sidney Lanier, 0. Henry, and all the
rest of the galaxy and to ask why some group of
progressive spirits hasn’t risen to the occasion and
taken steps toward putting our Southland once again
upon the magazine map of the United States. With
The South Atlantic Quarterly, four times a year,
and THE SOUTHERN REVIEW every month, we may
now be justified in hoping for a return of the flavor
and spirit of the Southern Literary Messenger. Not
only as a pedagogue but also as a student of Ameri-
can literature, I heartily congratulate you upon your
undertaking. Long life, the best and the highest
success to the worthy enterprise.”

JEAN WITHERSPOON.

Richmond, Va.

“It gives me pleasure to enclose herewith check
for my subscription to your magazine in the success

of which I am very much interested, because it
should fill a long-felt want among Southerners. If I
can assist you in giving you the names of prospects
for your subscription list, please command me.”
RICHARD CUNNINGHAM,
Vice-President, National State and City Bank of
Richmond.

Durham, N. C.
“I am greatly pleased with the initial copy of
THE SOUTHERN REVIEW. I believe that there is a
field for such a magazine, and surely the merits of
the publication entitle it to a sustaining patronage.
You have for this most admirable magazine my best
wishes for success.” -

JULIAN S. (hunt,
President Durham Hosiery Co, etc.

Melrose, La.
“How proud I am we are to have a Southern maga—
zine. Send us number one, volume one. We don’t
want to miss a number. We wish to have them
bound.” MILToN DUNN.

Asheville, N. (I.

“I do not know whether anyone else. has voiced a
disappointment, or even experienced a sense of dis-
appointment, in your March cover design. 1 must
confess to a very decided feeling of disappointment.
I suppose my subconscious mind must have. unwit-
tingly decided that the cover of your first issue was
adopted ‘for keeps,’ probably because it was so dis-
tinctive, as well as attractive in its conventionality.

“It is a magazine which is going to be so chock-
full of good things always, judging from the first
two issues, that we of the South especially, will be
its regular readers. It always gives a thrill, not at
all a bad thing for the magazine, when we are able
to recognize it, even across the room, when we can—
not make out a letter on it, just recognize the cover
and instantly say, ‘Oh, there’s THE SOUTHERN RE-

VIEW, already out; let’s have a copy.’
“As to its contents—I want to express my appre—

ciation in every way for everyone connected with
the giving to the country such a magazine, and
pride in being one of that part of our country which
makes such a magazine possible.

“Wishing you every success to our own Southern
magazine, and thanking you for the great work you
are doing, I am, very sincerely yours.”

Miss CHEM BUCKNER.

Are you one of those who should read THE SOUTH-

ERN REVIEW regularly? Why not fill out this blank
and mail today? You ought not to miss an issue.

THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, INC., Haywood Building, Asheville, North Carolina.
GENTLEMEN: Please enter my subscription for one year to THE SOUTHERN REVIEW at $3.00 per

annum, for which I am enclosing check.

.

Address ........................................

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

ooo€}oo

 

THE SOUTHERN REVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

MAY
_ Page

’l‘I—IE PUI SE OF THE SOUTII~—How the South Feels About Woman Suffrage. . 3

EDITORIAL—Violence at Its Source .................................... 8

ROBERT E. LEE—An English Estimate ................................. 11
By Leo H. Joachim.

PEACH BLOSSOMs—A Poem ............................................ H
By Janie Screven Heyward.

O. HENRY AFTER A DECADE ............................................ 13
By Dr. Archibald Henderson.

BIRD CONSERVATION IN TIIE SOUTH ..................................... ,1!)
By H. H. Brimley.

BALTIMORE .......................................................... 22
By Wilbur F. Coyle.

PARTNERS, SUCCESSORS To EMPLOYERS AND EMrLOYEs .................... 26
By George '1‘. Holmes.

AN OLD-TME NEGRO SOLDIER .......................................... ‘21)
By May 'I‘eressa Holder.

“UNTO ONE OF TIIESIG""—A Posthumous Story .......................... 30
By \Vill Harben.

REUBEN’S ALIBI ..................................................... ii-L
By Sarah Johnson Cocke, with illustrations by John Bennett. ‘

THE UNEUILT HOUSF—A Poem 39
By Mary Jasper Willis.

NATURE’S BACK-YARD ................................................ 40
By Ida Morris J ervey.

TIIE HERDER ON STORM MOUNTAIN—A Story, Part 2 .................... 4-2
By Charles Egbert Craddock. ‘

TIIE DRAMATIC STORY OE KENTUCKY TOBACCO ....................... .. . . . 43

By James M. Ross.

 

 

Published Monthly by THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, Incorporated
Asheville, North Carolina, U. S. A.

Application for entry as second—class matter is pending.
Vol. 1 No. 4

TERMS:—Issued monthly, 25 cents a number, $3.00 a year in advance in the United
States, Porto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. Elsewhere $4.00.
Subscribers may remit to us by post-office or express money orders, or by bank check,
draft, or registered letter. Money in letters is sent at sender’s risk.

THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, Incorporated, Asheville, North Carolina

Copyright, 1919, by The Southern Review, Inc., Asheville, North Carolina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

THE PULSE OF THE SOUTH

 

 

 

 

 

“M y faith in the perpetuity 0f the Republic rests largely with the South”—Vice President Marshall

 

 

 

 

HOW THE SOUTH REALLY FEELS ABOUT
WOMAN SUFFRAGE

No more rigorous censorship existed during the
war than seems to obtain in the country at large
with regard to the real sentiment of the South con-
cerning woman suffrage. In an effort to arrive at
the genuine opinion existing upon this question
which presses so closely, T1112 SOUTHERN lhcvncw
wrote to one hundred and fifty of the leading papers
in the Southern states, asking them to state their
position on the suffrage question. With the excep-
tion of an occasional "anti” the Southern editors
were overwhelmingly in favor of woman suffrage as
a principle. Most of them believed that \voman
suffrage was not only a matter of simple justice but
that it would prove a great national benefit. Where
there was objection it was not to suffrage per se but:
to the method of imposing it upon the states by
federal amendment. The Richmond News-leader
takes a vigorous stand in the matter, recalling by

its intensity the controversy regarding statcs’ rights

during the sixties. It exclaims:

“This amendment was conceived in a spirit
contrary to the constitution, is being urged
for a purpose subversive of the constitution
and will have an effect inimical to the gov-
ernment established under the constitution. .
“The federal constitution never contemplated the grant
of suffrage in any form by the United States. For the
best and most necessary of reasons, suffrage was left ex-
clusively to the states. The founders of the con-
stitution knew that the unimpaired and exclusive determi-
nation of suffrage by the states was essential to the sepa-
rate existence of the states and that the separate existence
of the states was essential to the maintenance of the fed—
eral government. To impair to the slightest the exclusive
right of the separate states to control their franchise is
to weaken the dividing walls that bear a great part of
the weight of the Union. Once those are removed, the
whole fabric is supported only by national sentiment, by
the outer walls—by whatever may be left of the constitu-
tion. And who flatters himself those walls can stand
without the support of separate states? The fail-
ure of the federal government to control by centralized
administrative effort strikes in key industries, the high
cost of living and kindred problems of reconstruction is
evidence enough that the states are still needed and that
without them the compounded ‘common mass’ will take
its cast and color from the worst of its elements. From
the extreme centralization of the war, America must re-
turn to the older decentralization. How can there be de-

The States’
Right
Objection.

centralization without separate authority, how separate

authority without states, how states without control of
the suffrage? To destroy the states is to destroy the
Union of states.

“Because the Southern states did not approve the amend-
ments granting suffrage to negroes, they evaded these
amendments until they could invalidate them. Because
some of the Eastern states would not endorse the pro-
hibition amendment, the commissioner of internal reve-
nue has already found it necessary to announce that en—
forcement is hopeless without the support of the states.
In case the nineteenth amendment is adopted over the
opposition of Southern states, it will not have a like fate.
But it should be evaded and, as respects negro women,
everyone knows that it would be evaded under the same
provisions of the state constitution that keep negro men
from voting as was contemplated by the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments.”

In the same tenor ’l'hc (.‘olumhiu NIH/o sounds a
warning against federal imposition, believing that
“signs are observable in many parts of the country
of the new vitality in the doctrine that the right, of
a state to define and limit its electorate may not be
modified by any act, or concert of action, of or by
other states.” And it goes on to ask, “Why do not
the women of South Carolina, if they crave the bal-
lot, go about getting it, by asking for it in the man-
ner that will certainly not be refused?” The, chain
of papers under the Dallas Nears- stated its editorial
position thus: “\thn the subject: of suffrage via
the federal route assumed importance we felt; con-
strained to object" to this, believing that; it was un-
necessary.” The Virginian, I’ilot mnphatically op-
poses the ’l'ede'al imposition and takes occasion to
remark that “it: is poor policy to usher in a govern—
mental reform through the violation of a vital gov-
ernmental principle,” and stigmatizes enfram-hise-
ment by federal. enactment as “repugnant to the
states’ right principle, the preservation of which is
more important than the delay woman suffrage
would suffer in the individual states if each were
left to decide the question for itself.”

Federal Grant

Will Complicate
the Race Question.

Tn addition to objecting to suf-
frage imposed by federal enact,-
ment on principle, many editors
feel that the amendment: will aggravate the race

 

  

4 THE SOUTHERN REVIEW

question, and that individual states are in a better
position to handle the suffrage locally for that rea-
son. The Bristol IIera/(l-(Jouricr in this connection
believes “it: is quite likely that all the colored
women who can qualify will exercise the elective.
franchise.” This it feels “will compel the
white women to vote for the good of the state, those
of them who do not wish to vote, as well as those
who have fought for the ballot.” The Raleigh News
«ml Observer explains the opposition of the Southern
states to the amendment on the ground that it would
further “complicate the vexing race question.” The
(,‘lmllmioogu Times is bitter, and concludes:

“When this unholy trafficking in spineless, irresponsible
congressmen and legislators has had its full fru1tion in
giving women the vote, the only hope left for the tran-
quility and future maintenance of Republican principles
will lie with those women upon whom the ballot is to be
forced against their will and in defiance to their solemn
wishes.”

The ll'hceling Register publishes a letter of de-
spair from a business man, who asks, “What’s the
Ilse in voting now that: equal suffrage has been
granted, when some illiterate. negro woman in the
southern part of' the state knocks out your vote?”
To which the ('lurlrslmrg Telegram replies: “There
is no need for alarm that what illiterate votes may
be brought into the ballot-boxes by reason of the
enl'ranchisement‘ of' women will endanger good gov-
ernment any more than good government has been
heretofore endangered by the illiterate votes de-
posited there by the males.” The Newport News

Times-Ilcruld echoes the fear nevertheless that “it ‘

would admit. a large number of negro women to the
suffrage and open up anew a situation which was
settled by the Constitutional Convention of 1901-
1002.” And it continues, “\Ve stand unalte’rably
with those who hold that the regulation of the suf-
frage is a matter to be determined within the. sev-
eral states. \\'e are still apostles of Jeffer—
son, holding to the. doctrine of 10 ‘al self-government
and the reserved rights of the sovereign states.”
The .Tllucon Daily Telegraph minccs no words and
charactm-izes federal enactment “as a reckless han-
dling" not “adapted to the exigencies.” \Vith ref-
erence to the negro aspect: of' the question. it holds:

“There are some states where the negro problem is
such that it is dangerous to upset the election procedure
by any innovation. Under the circumstances the privilege
of woman suffrage should be adapted to the exigencies,
and worked out carefully by those who have in hand the
affairs of government. It is not a matter that permits
of precipitate action, or such reckless handling as will
be made necessary under federal enactment. Oregon
knows nothing about the difliculties of the Caucasian race
in Georgia.

“No one can legitimately question the importance of
having the state’s affairs managed by the most intelligent
citizens of each state. We may say a great deal about
the human being and his right to participate in the affairs
of his government, but the negro is only 300 years in con-
tact with civilization. His natural instincts lie along the

lines of the lower animal. The vaccine of civilization has
not thoroughly taken, and he will have to be kept in school
or process of cultivation for 300 years before his moral
fibre will have become sufficiently stabilized to permit
his participation in government. Of course, there are a
few exceptions, but these exceptions should be used to
prove the possibility of consummation of the qualifications
of the negro as a citizen.”

On the other hand, the Mobile Register, though it
would have preferred to have seen the suit" 'age han
dled by the states, “cannot oppose the grant because
it happens to be made in another way,” while The
Arkansas Gtwette, The El Paso Herald, and The
Republican (“Huston—Salem) approve the. amend
ment without qualification.

Influence

of Suffrage
on Politics.

As to just what influence suffrage will
have on politics most papers concede.
that it will be appreciable and whole
some. Holland’s JIt/fjtlfi'lllb’ (Texas) looks “for per-
manent cumulative benefits, not for an avalanche
of improvement,” while the Fort lVorlh Record as
sures us that woman is “opposed to the saloon,”
that “she believes in righteous law, is for the pro-
tection of childhood and the uplift of the race.” The
Tinms—Picagune predicts that “the women will go
to the polls far better informed as to the political
and civic questions before them than the average
young man who is a maiden voter,” and the Atlanta
Constitution hopefully affirms that “in every state
in which woman suffrage has been tried it has oper-
ated for the public good,” and consoles those who
believe women will lose their feminine charm with
the assurance that “in those states it was found that
after suffrage had been given a thorough test women
still were women, with none of the attributes of
their domestic virtues in the slightest degree im-
paired.” The Meridian Star (Mississippi) antici-
pates consider-able improvement through suffrage
and thinks “women usually are blessed with good
memgries. They have an inherent knowledge of what
is right and what is wrong. “'hen they get the vote,
as they will soon, they will exercise this gift for the
good of the connnunit'y in which they live, for the
good of the state and the nation.” The Louisville
(f'ouHer-Journal refutes with some sarcasm the as-
sumption that Women will not vote as intelligently
“That the new
voter is less well qualified than the regular voter, in
so fa ‘ as ability to analyze platform pledges and the
issues they touch, nobody will believe who is not
animated by the },)retentiously but patronizingly
chivalric theory that woman’s intelligence is highly
specialized and narrowly limited, and that she can-
not acquit herself creditably save as a mother. a
ministering angel or an entertainer of men.” The

as men and concludes with this:

Netts-S’cimihn' reiterates, “the purifying influence

 

 

 THE SOUTHERN REVIEW 5

of woman‘s presence has been felt in every activity
in which she has engaged." And adds the .\’u.vhrillc
,’I’cnncsscun, “They are more inclined to vote for prin-
ciple than for personalities. It is only the
poltroon, the misguided fool and the man with a
sixteenth century mind who opposes their entrance
into the political arena." The ('onuncrciul tMcm-
phis) .lppcul, which has been a consistent advocate
of suii'rage since 1912, holds to the justice of the
question and brielly declares that" “In these days
many of the responsibilities of life. are thrown upon
women. This being true, they by light must be per-
mitted to share in all the privileges of citizenship."
Making Preparation

to Comply with
the Amendment.

Notwithstanding the opposition
of so many of the newspapers to
the federal grant as opposed to
state action, it is urged on every hand that state
legislatures should prepare to comply with the
amendment. The Birmingham Ledger urges that.
“Where required to adapt state suli’rage laws to
the amendment special legislative sessions should
be held to that end.” “\Vhen the sutl’rage amend-
ment,” it continues, “shall have been adopted it will
be part of the Constitution of the United States.
States as well as the nation rest on that constitu-
tion. There should be no delay in adaptation of
state requirements to the basic law.” And it also
reminds us “that Kentucky, Mississippi and Ten-
nessee have taken steps that will enable the women
of those states to vote in case the national sull'rage
amendment is adopted.” The Raleigh,- i\'ews and
Observer takes stock on the whole question and sums
up the situation thus:

“Arkansas and Texas have ratified the amendment and
there is no construction of the word ‘Southern’ by which
those two states could be left out of the category. Okla-
homa was not one of the states of the Confederacy, for
it was not formed until after the war, but it is generally
referred to as a Southern state, and a recent Southern
veterans’ reunion was held there; and Oklahoma has rati-
fied. West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, while not
among the seceding states, nevertheless have always had
many sympathizers with the South and they have all three
ratified. In Tennessee the women have presidential and
municipal suffrage and the Legislature would have rati-
fied suffrage before now but for a provision in the con-
stltution prohibiting it to vote on ratifying an amend-
ment to the federal constitution unless the legislature
was elected after the amendment was submitted. The
same is true of Florida. Both of these states are counted
as certain for sufl’rage when the new legislatures meet
next January. In Louisiana a full suffrage amendment
to the state constitution received a majority at the polls
outside of New Orleans, but the bar room and machine
combination in that city defeated it. The new legislature
which will meet in May will doubtless ratify. The suf-
fragists claim that Alabama on a private poll came with-
in one majority of ratifying. In Mississippi, South Caro-
llna, Virginia and Maryland the amendment was voted
down, but Mississippi and Virginia submitted to the elec-
torate an amendment to the state constitution for full
suffrage next November, by which time the women will
be. voting under the national amendment.

“The Georgia legislature (lid not vote for suffrage but
bungled the matter so that they did not vote against it."

The (lrccnrillc .\'cu's goes further than merely to
suggest that South (‘arolina adapt: itself within the
state to the federal amendment, and asks, “South
(‘arolina is an integral part of the l'uited States.
Will she lineup against a national policy? She is
a democratic state: will she repudiate a policy of
the Democratic party 2’ She: has taken a great part
recently in world atl'airs: will she go against the
judgment and conscience of the world?"

Preéldential The Houston l’osl prophesies the cll'ect
Politics. . . . . . - -
.. the. slow rattlicatiou III the South 1S

likely to have on the presidential election. lt re-
views the progress in ratiticatiou and goes on to say:

“Upon this record, the republicans are going to go
bcfore the country with the claim that it was the re-
publican party that brought about the extension of po-
litical rights to women, and it is upon this record that
they are going to make a strong appeal to the women
of the country, particularly to those in doubtful states, to
favor them in the coming presidential election.

“Notwithstanding it was President Wilson’s influence
that forced the passage of the resolution submitting the
amendment to the people through congress, the republi-
cans are clearly going to attempt to claim all the credit
for this essential political reform, and democratic legis-
lators in the South are helping them to make their claims
seem plausible.”

The Jilontgmncrj/ Journal sees a feather in the Re-
publican cap because it was a republican who turned
the wheel in \Vest Virginia “The
Journal congratulates the Republicans. It was a
political card well played and cost didn‘t count; in

for sull'rage.

the game. All of this could have been reversed and
the Democrats given credit: for the victory it the
two democratic senators who held out against ratiii-
~ation had heeded Mr. Wilson‘s app*al to them."
The Surround/1, A'cuw sees the two major parties,
“both claiming that their records on the great vole
question -will win support for them among the
women.” And it adds, “The made a.
straight-out appeal for a pro-sull'rage vote in West;
Virginia and the, Republicans there. t'ought, it.

l’resident

Re-
publican governors in crucial states have refused to
'all special sessions of the legislatures to dispose of
the matter." And it laments, “the far greater part of
the anti-sull'rage light. the part that has counted in
making state votes against sull'rage, was waged l'roni
rock-ribbed democratic states, the very heart of the
solid South.”

The Sun .lnlonio I'}.I'/))'('ss secs political dickering
in the attitude of utter
warning l’)elaware that history imposcs Hoh/cssc
"The

Republican legislature of Delaware is involved in a

the “crucial states,” and

oblif/c, ends an editorial with the pcroration:

test of its spirit; a test in which it must choose

between the. way of great right and the way of petty
expediency. And it: should not heed the example

of the Washington legislature so to determine its

 

  

gr

 

 

6 THE SOUTHERN REVIEW

choice that it will be respected by all true Ameri-
cans.”

gfitIOfo In a very dramatic speech which was
elr wn . .
Mouths. characterized as, next to Mrs. Catt s,

the most eloquent one delivered at the
recent national sull’rage convention at Chicago, Mrs.
Solon Jacobs (Alabama) \vent into the suffrage situ-
ation in the South at length from the point of view
of the Southern suffrage worker, painting a some-
what gloomy picture. We will quote at length from
this speech, which created such a sensation:

“If these men who invoke the doctrine of states rights
when it suits their purposes and who are still nominated
by those old, unhappy, far—off memories of fifty years ago
were sincere, we who live in the present might more
readily forgive them. If they really wished the ballot to
come to the Southern women by the state route, we would
have had more referenda. The test of their sincerity has
been in repeatedly declining even that medium of relief
to the voteless women. They are opposed to justice, not
merely to its method of attainment. It is the habitual
attitude of the professional politician, until surrender is
exacted by overwhelming public opinion. ’

“There is a certain tyranny of tradition which is diffi-
cult to explain and for which it is impossible to apologize.
Men seem peculiarly susceptible to its dominance. If
the presiding officer of a woman’s club were to terminate
a meeting by merely putting on her hat, what ridicule
would be meted out to her! Yet the time-honored way
for the speaker of the French chamber of deputies to close
a final session is to put on his hat, and when recently
he neglected to perform that sacred‘rite, p‘andomonium
reigned. Thus do customs handed'down from age to age
acquire almost the force of law.

“ ‘Traditions in themselves have no dignity. our only
interest in them is the fruitage they bear,’ and while many
of the traditions of the old South were gracious and kind-
ly, beautiful and honorable, if their product is injustice
they are no longer admirable.

“The old South was an aristocracy, if you will, but
many years ago we began the reconstitution of an aris—
tocracy under the democratic conditions. Now democracy
is a thing of growth, by its very essence it must proceed
from within and it is but natural that the democratiza-
tion of the South should proceed more slowly than in
other parts of the country, for we had farther to go.

“The old heritage of guardianship toward the unprivi