In just over seven years, George had lost much of his family: his father (Oct 1906), Aunt Eunice Story (Jan 1908), his stillborn
daughter (Dec 1910), Marion (Sept 1912) and his mother (Jan 1914). Surely this affected his world view...
Through his editorials, George regularly took on contemporary issues, speaking out for what he believed to be right. One of the
hot-button issues of the time dealt with women's suffrage, giving them the right to vote. On February 9, 1915, he gave an
impassioned speech on the subject to the Political Equality Club, Inc. The text of the speech runs fifteen typewritten pages,
excerpts of which are transcribed below:
"I began casting about for a new viewpoint from which to approach the equal suffrage question, for possible suggestions of a
helpful nature, or a novel presentation of the cause. In this search I have learned a great deal, which before was only
vaguely appreciated...
... I feel that very few people appreciate the power and rapidity of the advance of the equal suffrage idea. Most leaders
in the thought of today afree that its ultimate success is only a matter of time. ...
[Among a group of tourists at Niagara Falls, one man] was lighting his pipe, gazing at the sky and looking off down the river,
seemingly uninterested in any phase of Niagara. "Isn't it wonderful, Pat?" exclaimed one of his friends. "Ah sure and there's
nothing to prevent it coming over." [Pat replied.] It is the same way with suffrage. There is nothing to stop it. ...
The charter of our liberty says governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. It sets forth certain
inalienable rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... Since government is the instrument by which these rights
are safeguarded and protected; justice, reason and experience demand that every person entitled to the rights should be
entitled to a voice in the system for safeguarding these rights. ...
...
It is the inherent right of every being in civilized society to stand upon perfect political, social, mental,
religious, economic, and moral equality with any other human being, wihtout regard to sex. ...
[Your greatest obstacle] is the laissez-faire attitude among women, satisfied because they are well-protected and represented
by the male members of their family, and therefore unmindful that they have any duty toward the eight million wage-earning women
in the United States who are competing in the labor market with men, and in more ways than one need and deserve the ballot. ...
To win in Connecticut you must make suffrage a practical political issue in Hartford. Will you be surprised if I say today that it
is a joke there? When the suffrage bill was introduced a few weeks ago there was hearty laughter in the House. ...
In England, politics is a national sport. ... In America we take politics as a necessary bore. We take is sadly, and that makes
for indifference. We admit that politics need watching, but we fail to see that watching politics can be as entertaining as a
baseball game. ...
[I offer my suggestions here based on the belief] that one person who is convinced by his or her own thinking, that suffrage
is the inherent right of all persons, is of more value to the cause than ten men admitting, more or less against their will,
that perhaps after all suffragists are right. The former is a positive force for the equal franchise."
