The Journal of Mrs.

Thomas Karrick January 5, 1917 After hearing Katharine Batch, President of Massachusetts Womens Anti-Suffrage Association, speak today, I feel more confident than ever in my anti-suffragist stance. With such a divide in our country on regarding suffrage, it is my womanly purpose to leave the voting to men. Mrs. Batch proved to me that Massachusetts is a state of understanding and a key player behind the anti-suffrage push. I am only one of 30,000 women from across the 443 Massachusetts cities that strive for the true progress of women. 1During the meeting today I met women who were homemakers, shopkeepers, social workers, nurses, and cooks. All of these women are very involved in public welfare activities, from being a part of the State Board of Charities to taking part in educational committees.2 As a woman, I believe I am correct in thinking that I am really not losing any rights by not wanting to vote. The majority of the women in this country are mothers, wives, and homemakers, as am I. When I think about adding another task to my busy home life, I feel as though I will have to sacrifice something. This sacrifice will most likely be the duty of being a mother. Suffragists arent just pushing for the vote, but to be involved in politics, which involves the studying, reading, and discussion of ideals that men already discuss. Women dont need the burden of voting and certainly dont need to be involved with making laws or running for office. Women make a difference in public opinion through their duties to the community. My task as a mother

Katherine Tobert Blanch, Anti-Suffrage Essays: Who the Massachusetts Anti-Suffragists Are, (Cambridge Chronicle, 1916), 22. Thomas Karrick is a fictional character created to portray an anti-suffragist in 1917. The journal entry was chosen for informational purposes. 2 Blanch, 22.

is to raise my children in a non-partisan home, with high principles, and in the public spirit. If I do this, then my husband keeps me in mind when voting, I do not need to vote also.3 When I meet suffragist women, they often tell me that they have the right to vote. I respond with, I have a right not to vote, because that is what is in the best interest in the community. Naturally, women find their strength in helping individuals and personal relationships, which are things the government is not involved with. Men, on the other hand, are strong and tend to generalize for the masses and understand what most people want, which aids in law making. Men and women work together as a whole. The radical suffragists are forgetting their half of the partnership. For their half, women are to fulfill the individual education of their own children. No laws or institutions can take the place of home teaching and influence of young people.4 Miss Lucy Price once said, After all, women in big business are not the successes, men can do that work as well and better than they. It is the women in the home, outnumbering all others fifteen to one, who are really the great and typical women of the world. The typical women of the world are being bullied by the bitter socialist women. Our society is not made up of individuals. It is made up of relationships. I often laugh at the fact that suffragists think women are a forgotten class. We are not a class; we are a sex that is distributed throughout the classes.5 I dont want to fight with my husband, father, brother, and government leaders. I want to co-operate with them. It is evil and selfish to want to think only about ones self and not their family and community. Suffragists, who are often bitterly unwed and without children, are constantly selfish in this regard. Why should women be split into class, race,
3

Anne Hathaway Gulick, Anti-Suffrage Essays: The Imperative Demand Upon Women in the Home, (Cambridge, Chronicle, 1916), 129. 4 Anna Hollowell Davis. Anti-Suffrage Essays: The True Function of the Normal Women, (Cambridge Chronicle, 1916), 125. 5 Ruth Whitney Lyman, Anti-Suffrage Essays: The Anti-Suffrage Ideal, (Cambridge Chroncile, 1916), 120.

religion, and political stance? We should aspire for a united American womanhood.6 Women working together as a united front have done more than those separated in the political sphere. Massachusetts gives women the best protection of any state in the Union. It is because of the strong unity of women. Mrs. Batch brought up a number of facts today in her speech that prove this, facts that suffragist leaders tend to ignore. From maternity laws to labor laws, united women succeed in law making. Its not by voting that we succeed. Whenever womens groups bring public conscience to a law, that law gets passed by men. Men have made better laws in our state than men and women have in suffrage states. For example, the Mothers Pension Bill was originated by a man in a male suffrage state. The Equal Guardianship Law doesnt exist in suffrage states. Last year, in 1916, we passed five new laws relating to women and children and Arizona turned down five laws for women which already exist here!7 Massachusetts men are interested in doing well for Massachusetts women. With pride, I can say that we set an example for all other states. Many of these new laws passed by men are related to womens interests outside of the home. As women get more involved in industry, more and more men are fighting for the protection of their women. Women are an ever-growing population in industry, but the idea that they need to vote for fair wages and working conditions is false. In total, there are around 2,500,000 women of voting age employed in industry, however a large percentage of these women are aliens and would not be entitled to vote.8 My neighbors sister, who is newly involved in the garment industry, speaks highly of her work experiences and the protection she

6 7

Davis, 127. Catherine Robinson, Anti-Suffrage Essays: Massachusetts Compared with Suffrage States, (Cambridge Chronicle, 1916), 66. 8 Sara C. White, Anti-Suffrage Essays: The Ballot and the Woman in Industry, (Cambridge Chronicle, 1916), 33.

has as women. She admits that she is physically weaker than a man and because of this and her opportunity to be a mother she is cared for in industry. Massachusetts has laws they provide for a 54-hour work week, one days rest I seven, and prohibit night work. Other suffrage states, like Colorado, only have the eight-hour law.9 Like my neighbors sister, women work in industry until they have the opportunity to have a family. Therefore, women are not as good of an investment for employers as men are. Men are stronger, have a life commitment to industry, and are more experienced. This justifies making their wages higher than women. Women are looked out for with a law in Massachusetts that prohibits the employment of women for a fixed period before and after child birth. This law is not found in suffrage states and didnt stem from the right to vote.10 Voting has never raised wages or shortened hours for men, and it will never do it for women. As we can see from the examples of industry reform, womans suffrage gets in the way of social reform. Margaret Robinson, editor for the Anti-Suffrage Notes, stated, the truth of our anti-suffrage doctrine that woman suffrage will destroy the present non-partisan power of women and give us nothing worth having in its place is constantly confirmed by the current happening in suffrage states. As part of a womens club, I can do more because I am part of a group, but this power will be gone if I am divided into a political party. Mrs. Batch brought up Nevada as a perfect example of what happens when women lose influence in voting. The easy divorce laws of the state were in great debate. The moral ideals of this group of women helped them to repeal these laws. Last fall, womens suffrage was granted in Nevada and immediately the easy divorce laws were re-instated. Women again protested, but did not succeed in repealing them this time.

White, 35. Minnie Bronson, The Wage Earning Woman and the State (Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women, 1912), 9.
10

Women were now voters, and the protesting women were offset by the large number of women votes.11 Miss Addams, a well known suffragist, often boasts of her accomplishment in Chicago with the womens vote. I read about them all of the time in the newspaper. Women in Chicago passed laws for covering markets where food is kept, created a court for boys 17-25, created public wash-houses, and garbage dumps have been abolished. These five accomplishments pale in comparison to the reforms made in Chicago before suffrage. Kindergartens in schools, juvenile courts and homes, parks and playgrounds, vacation school, school extension, the establishment of the forestry department, the welfare exhibit, Saturday as a half-holiday, public comfort stations, the Legal Aid Society, and the Illinois Industrial School are all achievements of women working together before suffrage.12 Not only is the womens suffrage ruining the womens influence in law-making but also their direct involvement in government positions. If women are allied with a political party they are not going to be appointed to any position. Julia Lathrop, the head of the Federal Childrens Bureau, retained her position at the change of administration because she was non-partisan. Every other man at the bureau lost his job. Why should I risk my strong influence with a chance to vote? My husband and I cooperate as partners and, therefore, we should be represented with one vote. My fellow women and I am a unit working for the bettering of our families and communities. We can create more change cooperating, than as individuals. The natural rights are life, property, and liberty not the vote. Men have been given the vote as an instrument for peaceful expression. Women are exempt
11

Margaret Robinson, The Anti-Suffragist Essays: Woman Suffrage a Menace to Social Reform. (Cambridge Chronicle, 1916.), 105. 12 Robinson, 112.

from this to focus on the duties of the home and family. The ballot is not a right, it is a burden removed.13 I feel relieved of the duty and focus on the bettering of my community, which is my natural duty as a woman. Christ himself found his cross heavy let us bear the cross and crown of womanhood in his name.14 Mrs. Thomas Karrick

13 14

Grace Duffield Goodwin, Anti-Suffrage: 10 Good Reasons. (Duffield, NY, 1913), 17. Lyman, 121.