A committee of women interested in the equal suffrage movement, have translated an anonymous circular appeal to Germans, to which they reply.

The statement of the women is as follows:

The following appeal is being circulated among the German voters of this city as representative of the sentiment of our American-German citizens:

To the German Voters of the City of Wheeling.

Dear Fellow Citizens:--There is a movement on foot which threatens the proud motto of our state that “the mountaineer will always be free,” and which is successful will make of its meaning a mere phrase.

In the state legislature representatives are trying to issue a license law that will ruin many businesses and threatens the very existence of many.

In the city of Wheeling it has come to that pass that next Thursday a vote will be taken in regard to woman’s suffrage. Some may have at first regarded this as a kind of sport, but as the English press of this city has now in part given the movement its support, the question becomes more serious.

The Germans can if they vote against this measure in a solid phalanx, decide it. The German man and the German woman are as one in that they do not want to know anything about woman’s suffrage. And in this they are right. The German woman and mother regards the home, the conduct of the household, the education of the children, and a cheerful, cultivated family life their greatest happiness.

On the other hand, who are the women crying themselves hoarse for woman’s suffrage? They either have no children, or if they have they neglect their education and neglect the care of their homes. They decry it as beneath their dignity to be mothers and home-makers.

The great majority of English-Americans do not want woman’s suffrage. Those desiring it are generally fanatics, hypocrites, who would like to bring their fellow citizens under a puritanical yoke. To show the character of the advocates, here is one of their main arguments: “That ignorant, vicious foreigners have suffrage after a few years in the country while native born American women have not the privilege to vote.”

President Roosevelt, in his message to congress, December 6, 1904, speaks the golden words: “the principal duty of man is to work and win bread; the principal duty of woman is to be a mother and housewife. All questions of tariff and finance sink to absolute nothingness compared to the momentous and essential importance of the daily relations of life,”

The appeal closes with the information to the German voters where to find the amendment; what ratification means and what rejection, and to vote against it, it is necessary to strike out “ratification.”

The appeal of the German voters of the city of Wheeling which by chance came to the attention of the women of the Municipal League, may will [sic] be disposed of by criticizing point by point this German’s appeal to the prejudices of his sex.

Woman’s Suffrage in his opinion threatens the proud motto of our state, and will if successful make a mere ph[r]ase of its meaning. Is that not what it is already in the one sided interpretation given it? Liberty knows no sex. Women are mountaineers as well as men, and we cannot have a free race of men without a free race of women. Second, in regard to the license law in the state legislature he forgets this is not a woman’s measure but a man’s measure. Women have nothing to do with the case. Third, the appeal speaks of woman’s suffrage as having “come to that pass” that next Thursday a vote will be taken and that what was first regarded as soprt [sport], has due to the English press, giving the movement its support, now becomes serious.

It claims that the Germans can vote against this measure and decide it. Is it good policy for any class of citizen to hold a monopoly of influence? We Americans do not care to be ruled by any one nationality whether it be the English vote, the Scotch vote, the German vote, the Italian vote, the negro vote. We offer as an American government the privileges of our government because of the principles upon which it is founded—the principles of taxation and consent, and these nationalities vote because we are generous enough to so extend liberty to them. When their prejudice is so keen that it cannot see the justice of American women having an equal right to say who shall govern them, they show t[h]emselves totally unfit to appreciate self-government. We do not believe that this represents the sentiment of the so-called German vote. The German-American like every other sort of an American, will see the justice of our demand.

This appeal, says the German man and the German woman, are as one in that they do not want to know anything about woman’s suffrage, and further claims that in this they are right. A man who undertakes to grant or deny the right of suffrage to any human being and does not want to know anything about it, stamps himself both knave and fool. Concerning the German woman and mother regarding the home, the conduct of the household, the education of the children and a cheerful cultivated family life, their greatest happiness, we would remind Mr. German that they have not a monopoly of this idea, but we believe it perfectly compatible (as proven where women do vote) and more apt to be realized when the wife and mother is regarded as an equal and not allowed to be classed without resentment with the idiot, insane and criminal.

The influence that his dictated this appeal for the German vote declares that the women who are crying themselves hoarse are either Childress or those who neglect the children’s education, as well as the care of their homes, and who decry as beneath their dignity as wives and mothers to be home makers. This statement is easier said than proven. The demand being made by women for the suffrage is made because women are realizing that without the vote they are helpless to influence the education of the children, the moral lives of the children as well as being able to throw around their physical lives the protection which a board of health in politics deals with. It isn’t a question of whether Childress women are taking part in it and making the demand or not. Many a Childress woman has a good deal more of the mother instinct than those women who under a subjected motherhood have cursed this world with their progeny.

The article continues to say that the great majority of English-Americans do not want women’s suffrage. Those desiring it are generally fanatics and hypocrites, who would like to place their fellow citizens under a puritanical yoke. Speak for yourself, Mr. German, and let the English-Americans then settle this question, because such sentiment never found its birth in America or could live long in any one with the American spirit.

Your appeal in order to reach class prejudice quotes as the main argument of the advocates “that ignorant, vicious foreigners have suffrage after a few years in the country, while native born American women have not the privilege to vote.” Unquestionably the ignorant, vicious foreigner has no more right to vote than the ignorant, vicious native born American. Ignorance and viciousness should be two qualities to disbar anybody, male or female, from having a vote. This clause of your appeal should be a pretty good vote gainer for every decent American voter, no matter what his nationality may be, and I daresay that our fair-minded German men will resent such a statement coming from and representing the German sentiment upon the question.

It was an unfortunate thing that Mr. German quoted from President Roosevelt to support his prejudiced view of the case. President Roosevelt and President Lincoln are the two Presidents of the United States who have never hesitated to declare their belief in equality of rights for men and women. When President Roosevelt was Governor of New York he embraced the opportunity to recommend in his message the right of women to vote. The very message quoted says “that all tariff and finance questions sink into absolute nothingness compared to the momentous and essential importance of the daily relations of life.” Municipal suffrage deals with the daily relations of life. The influences surrounding the home, the children and the bettering of conditions for child saving. It is only logical, therefore, that if the home and children even in this prejudiced German’s point of view is the woman’s sphere that she be given the ballot which would make her a power for the protection of that home.

We are sorry that we have not more time in which this man could compose some more letters. American men will not want to follow the advice of a man who hasn’t sense enough to see that every reason he has advanced for women not having the ballot is just the reason why she should. A few more such letters and we would catch the full American vote, which would include the German-American, who forms as fine a liberty-loving constituency as any of our worthy foreign voters.

[Woman's Municipal League]

The board of managers of the Daughters of the Revolution in West Virginia desire to add their unqualified endorsement of the cause of Woman’s Suffrage.

ADELE JELLIFFE HUPP.
Regent.
FRANCIS J. JORDAN.
Secretary.