Suffrage victory
-
0:06 - 0:10♪I've been down to Madison
To see the folks and sights;♪ -
0:10 - 0:15♪You'd laugh, I'm sure, to hear them talk
About the women's rights.♪ -
0:16 - 0:21♪Now it's just as plain as my old hat,
That's plain as plain can be♪ -
0:21 - 0:27♪That if the women want the vote,
They'll get no help from me.♪ -
0:27 - 0:30♪Not from Joe, not from Joe;
If he knows it...♪ -
0:30 - 0:33Looking back today,
it's somewhat difficult to understand -
0:33 - 0:37the violence of the opposition
to woman's suffrage. -
0:37 - 0:40Conservative opinion in the country was
of course almost universally opposed -
0:40 - 0:43to the idea of women voting.
-
0:43 - 0:45The Church was divided in its position.
-
0:45 - 0:49While some denominations
and individual clergymen -
0:49 - 0:51were among the most zealous
advocates of the movement, -
0:51 - 0:55others took the stand that women's
political emancipation would mean -
0:55 - 0:57the beginning of the end
of the social morality -
0:57 - 1:00which constituted
the moral strength of the nation. -
1:01 - 1:03The enfranchisement of women,
it was feared -
1:03 - 1:06would result in the dissolution
of the home and family -
1:06 - 1:09and the destruction
of the institution of marriage. -
1:10 - 1:14The most pessimistic of the prophets
predicted that the very act of -
1:14 - 1:18women's going to the polls and mingling
with the rough crowds on election day -
1:18 - 1:20would plunge the country into moral chaos.
-
1:22 - 1:26Professional politicians and certain
powerful big business interests -
1:26 - 1:29were just as violently opposed
to vote for women, -
1:29 - 1:30if for very different reasons.
-
1:31 - 1:35Political leaders felt that they knew
how to manipulate men for party purposes -
1:35 - 1:38but manipulating women
was an unknown quantity -
1:38 - 1:40which they wished to avoid
as long as possible. -
1:41 - 1:45The organized liquor industries,
with their fear of women's influence -
1:45 - 1:48on the prohibition issue, spent
countless thousands of dollars -
1:48 - 1:52lobbying against women's suffrage, which
they felt threatened their very existence. -
1:53 - 1:56Add to these elements the fact that
most men of the country -
1:56 - 1:58were understandably reluctant to forego
-
1:58 - 2:01their traditional position
of sex superiority, -
2:01 - 2:05which was in a sense symbolized
by their power to vote -
2:05 - 2:08and the fact that many women were quite
as unwilling to give up -
2:08 - 2:11the protected position in which men's
chivalry had placed them -
2:11 - 2:14and perhaps we can understand why
the battle for woman's suffrage -
2:14 - 2:17was inevitably a long and stormy one.
-
2:19 - 2:23After the disheartening failure to obtain
the franchise by federal amendment -
2:23 - 2:27at the close of the Civil War, when the
Negro was admitted to the vote, -
2:27 - 2:32the suffragists changed their tactics and
began to concentrate their main strength -
2:32 - 2:36on a policy of winning the suffrage
state by state. -
2:36 - 2:40By the turn of the 20th century the
National Woman Suffrage Association -
2:40 - 2:43was a powerful organization with
headquarters in New York -
2:43 - 2:47and an efficiently functioning machine in
almost every state of the Union. -
2:48 - 2:52Four states in the far West had already
granted women full suffrage as a result of -
2:52 - 2:59the Association's work and by 1914 almost
all the states west of the Mississippi had -
2:59 - 3:03joined the ranks of the suffrage states
and the Association was turning its forces -
3:03 - 3:06to the conquest of the traditionally more
conservative East. -
3:08 - 3:14Sinclair Lewis in the novel 'Ann Vickers',
published in 1932, has left an amusing -
3:14 - 3:18account of one of these state suffrage
campaigns during this period. -
3:19 - 3:24In the following incident from this work
one Dr Melvina Wormser of New York, -
3:24 - 3:28purportedly Chief Surgeon of the Manhattan
Hospital for Women, -
3:28 - 3:34President of the Better Obstetrical League,
author of 'Emancipation in Sex', -
3:34 - 3:40Doctor of Science of Yale and Vassar and
an officer in all known birth control
organizations, -
3:40 - 3:45is interviewed by the press in advance of
her scheduled speech at a suffrage rally -
3:45 - 3:48in a city called Clateburn, Ohio.
-
3:49 - 3:53The professional suffragist, says Lewis,
had been cautioned about talking to the -
3:53 - 3:57press since the reporters, or at least
their editors, were always on the alert -
3:57 - 4:02for something scandalous from suffrage
headquarters, some hint that it was a -
4:02 - 4:07free love colony or (what was nearly as
good, says Lewis) a frenzied zoo of -
4:07 - 4:12manhaters, anarchists, atheists,
spiritualists or anything else -
4:12 - 4:15eccentric or discreditable.
-
4:15 - 4:19The workers for the cause might attack the
water or gas departments, -
4:19 - 4:24the city orphanages, President Wilson or
even the Allies in the Great War, -
4:24 - 4:29but they must do so only as Christian
gentlewomen and solid taxpayers. -
4:29 - 4:34They must convince others that the vote
will not lead to moral laxity -
4:34 - 4:39but would immediately end prostitution,
gambling and the drinking of beer. -
4:40 - 4:44But Dr Melvina Wormser of New York,
as guest speaker, -
4:44 - 4:48was outside headquarters discipline and a
law unto herself. -
4:49 - 4:54Here the young suffrage workers in
'Ann Vickers' stand by in shocked silence -
4:54 - 4:59as Dr Wormser delivers her opinions
to the delighted reporters: -
5:01 - 5:04[Dr Wormser, do you believe in free love?]
-
5:04 - 5:08Do I believe in free love? What do you
mean by that, young lady? -
5:08 - 5:14How can love be anything but free? If
you mean, do I believe that any authentic -
5:14 - 5:20passion, not just a momentary itch in the
moonlight, is superior to any ceremony -
5:20 - 5:23performed by some preacher, why of course,
don't you? -
5:23 - 5:25[What do you think about birth control?]
-
5:25 - 5:27[Do you think women are brighter
than men?] -
5:27 - 5:29[Do you think there's any field women
should not enter?] -
5:29 - 5:37Oh, one at a time please! Let's see: do I
believe that women are brighter than men? -
5:38 - 5:44Tut tut, what a question! Not brighter --
just less mean. But don't try to get me to -
5:44 - 5:49riding men. I'm a folorn old maid, but I
adore 'em, the darlings. -
5:49 - 5:53What do you suppose men doctors would ever
do without their women nurses -
5:53 - 5:58and secretaries? I know! I was a nurse
myself, before I became a doc. -
5:58 - 6:04And now my chief satisfaction in life is
that I don't have to stand up when a -
6:04 - 6:05surgeon enters the room!
-
6:05 - 6:13Silly customs like that -- just what a man
WOULD institute -- poor lambs, we have -
6:13 - 6:18to take care of 'em and their little egos!
That's why we need the vote, for THEIR
sake! -
6:18 - 6:19[Do you think there will ever be a woman
President?] -
6:19 - 6:25How do I know, young man? But let me point
out that women rulers -- Queen Elizabeth, -
6:25 - 6:30that lovely rakehell Catherine of Russia,
the last Chinese Empress, -
6:30 - 6:36Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen Anne, and
Victoria -- were better rulers than any -
6:36 - 6:39equal number of kings OR Presidents!
-
6:39 - 6:43[How soon do you predict women's suffrage
will be the law of the land?] -
6:43 - 6:47You boys and girls might as well know that
I don't believe in hedging and pussyfooting. -
6:47 - 6:52This is going to be a long struggle. Not
just getting the vote. -
6:52 - 6:55That's a matter of a couple of years.
Then we've got to go on. -
6:55 - 7:01Birth control. Separate apartments for
married couples, if they happen to like them. -
7:01 - 7:06What women need is not merely the vote but
something more up here, in the head. -
7:06 - 7:12Don't need just exterior opportunity but
something interior, with which to grab the -
7:12 - 7:15opportunity when we get it, and use it.
-
7:15 - 7:19Freedom's no good to a pussycat, only to a
tigress! -
7:19 - 7:25And women have got to stick together. Men
always have had the sense to -- drat 'em -- -
7:25 - 7:30Sex loyalty. We ought to lie for one
another and sneak off and have a good drink -
7:30 - 7:31together, like the men.
-
7:31 - 7:33[Do you want to rival men?]
-
7:33 - 7:36[Do you think there's any field that should
be closed to women?] -
7:36 - 7:41I believe that there is no field that men
control now that women can't enter, -
7:41 - 7:49completely. Medicine, law, politics,
physics, aviation, exploring, engineering, -
7:49 - 7:56soldiering, prize-fighting, writing sweet
little rondels -- only I hope women'll be -
7:56 - 8:02too sensible for either the prize-fighting
or the rondels, which are both forms of -
8:02 - 8:06male escapism, and singularly alike if you
look at 'em! -
8:06 - 8:11Only I don't expect women to imitate or
try to displace men in any of these fields. -
8:11 - 8:16I'm not one of the gels who believes that
the sole difference between males and -
8:16 - 8:21females is in conception. Women have
special qualities which the human race has -
8:21 - 8:26failed to use for civilization.
I know a woman can be as good an architect -
8:26 - 8:32as any man -- but she may be a different
sort of architect. I bring something to -
8:32 - 8:35medicine that no man can, no matter how
good he is. -
8:35 - 8:37[Well, how about the army?]
-
8:37 - 8:43Well, if you think women can't go to war,
remember what the Teuton tribes, marching -
8:43 - 8:47with their women along, did to the
beautiful, virile, professional men -
8:47 - 8:53soldiers of Rome! But the pig-headed
masculine world forgot that lesson for -
8:53 - 8:59fifteen hundred years and never discovered
it till Florence Nightingale happened in -
8:59 - 9:03and bullied the masculine British War
Office into some of the common sense that -
9:03 - 9:05any normal girl would have at seven!
-
9:05 - 9:07[Do you want to rival men?]
-
9:07 - 9:13No, I don't want to rival men. But I don't
want to be kept by the tradition of -
9:13 - 9:16feminine subjection from the privilege of
working eighteen hours a day. -
9:16 - 9:21I'm not much of a democrat. Believe
inferiors ought to be subjected, -
9:21 - 9:27if they ARE inferiors! But if a girl
secretary is smarter than her male boss, -
9:27 - 9:29let HIM be HER secretary.
-
9:29 - 9:36Listen! In 1945, maybe you'll have to go
to England -- that's where they invented -
9:36 - 9:41this Inferior Women myth, so men could
have their clubs -- maybe you'll have to -
9:41 - 9:45go to England to find anybody so benighted
that he'll even know what you're talking -
9:45 - 9:49about when you speak of considering
candidates for a job as male and female, -
9:49 - 9:52or on any other basis except
their ability! -
9:52 - 9:55[Why 1945, Dr Wormser?]
-
9:55 - 10:00I speak of 1945 because I have a hunch
that after we get the vote we'll be less -
10:00 - 10:06ardent feminists. We'll find that work is
hard. That jobs are insecure. That we must -
10:06 - 10:12go much deeper than woman suffrage --
maybe to Socialism; anyway, to something -
10:12 - 10:17that fundamentally represents both men and
women, not just women alone. -
10:17 - 10:23And a lot of suffragists that pretend to
hate men will find the dear brutes are -
10:23 - 10:29nice to have around the house. We'll slump.
But then we'll come back -- not as shadows -
10:29 - 10:34of men, or as noisy professional females,
but, for the first time since -
10:34 - 10:40Queen Elizabeth, as human beings! There!
You ought to be able to get sufficient out -
10:40 - 10:45of what I've said to make trouble enough
for me to satisfy even a suffrage speaker! -
10:45 - 10:46Good-day.
-
10:46 - 10:48[Oh, thank you, Dr Wormser!]
[Goodbye, Doctor, and thank you!] -
10:48 - 10:57This goes on Sinclair Lewis's Ann Vickers
as what the newspapers made of Dr. Wormser's -
10:57 - 11:04interview the next morning: "Love is
nothing but a temporary itch caused by -
11:04 - 11:08moonlight. But even so, it is more
important than lasting marriage. -
Not SyncedBecause marriages are performed by
ministers who are all childish. Free -
Not Syncedlove-that is, taking any sweetheart, any
time you choose is not only permissible -
Not Syncedbut necessary for any free woman. Men are
much meaner than women. Men doctors boss -
Not Syncedtheir nurses around and treat them simply
terrible. The next president of the United -
Not SyncedStates will be a woman and she will be
lots better than any man. Marie Louise of -
Not SyncedRussia was the greatest king who ever
lived. As soon as we get the vote, then -
Not Syncedwe're going on and advocate birth control
socialism, and atheism. All married -
Not Syncedcouples will live in separate apartments
and women will imitate men and sneak off -
Not Syncedand get drunk together. Women must lie
about one another's whereabouts to fool -
Not Syncedthe men. Women will make better soldiers,
prize-fighters, engineers, and poets than -
Not Syncedmen, and men are fit only to be the
secretaries and servants of women. I know -
Not Syncedthat talking frankly like this will get
me into trouble, but all suffrage speakers -
Not Syncedlove publicity and I guess I'll get plenty
on this." Dr. Wormster's interview had the -
Not Syncedeffect of
- Title:
- Suffrage victory
- Description:
-
Produced by Virginia Maynard and Charles Levy.
On the battle for women's suffrage.
From Pop Up Archive »Pacifica Radio Archives - see https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/925/items/6793 for audio + an automatically generated transcript
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Captions Requested
- Duration:
- 28:57
Dara Elmore edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Thea Zurek edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory | ||
Tiffany Pappas edited English subtitles for Suffrage victory |