I want to start of this speech by introducing myself, My name is Mrs. Maud Preston. I am 35 years old and I am the Marshall of the suffrage faction. I attended Smith College but left after 2 years to marry an upstanding military officer but was soon widowed by 1907 by typhoid fever. For majority of my life, I lived off a small salary from the Women’s Political Union (WPU). Honestly, I must be honest with you all, this is one of the only organizations that knows how to raise funds, provide suffrage organization and promotion, and can take on real challenges with the politicians. I was raised by a political family in upstate New York and my father was a member of the the New York State assembly, so many of our conversation were about legislature and assemblies. Therefore, he turned politics into a game for me and we all know politics in definitely not a child’s game. Being who I am, I don’t like to lose so i’ll play this game until I win or get pretty damn close to it. Needless to say, I will die fighting for what I believe is right.
I am here to bring everyone to their senses to fight a political battle in the real world. Buttons and banners can only get us so far. So I am calling out to all mothers, professional women, workers, scholars, immigrants, and so forth; let us rally and lead a national suffrage parade to pour our beliefs around town and speak out in a strong political manner to get our points across.
As many of you have raised attention to, I am very disappointed in the overtly racist comments made in the NAWSA leader speeches and wish they were more welcoming toward African American Women. These women are americans, after all, and have been very supportive of suffrage. The main goal of this movement is to win suffrage for women overall, a struggle that has been ongoing for over 50 years in the making. We must be practical and do what needs to be done to win. Unity is the only way to get the vote in your lifetime and people are so quick to forget this.
Im calling for the attention of all the women in the room. How is it fair that no married women are allowed to work in the New York’s public school system? How is it fair that no matter how much schooling and no matter how brilliantly intelligent you may be, most law firms will not hire you. How is it fair that if you were hired as a university professor and decide that you would like to get married or have a kid, you are outright dismissed and forced to leave. How is any of this fair? No self respecting woman should wish to work for the success of a party that ignores the fact that she is indeed a woman. I declare to you that women must not depend upon the protection of men, but must be taught to protect themselves, and there I take my stand. Because women are the ones that bring all voters into the world, so why are we limiting them and cutting off their ability to vote? Before mothers can be rightly held responsible for the vices and crimes, for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all possible rights and powers to control the conditions and circumstances of their own and their children’s lives.
So now i’m reaching out to the all men in the room, who wouldn’t be here without their mothers. Who wouldn’t be able to have children if it wasn’t for their wives. Men, you clearly love the freedom which your fathers won for you, pay your debt by winning freedom for your daughters and show some respect for the women who raised you and the women raising your children. I’m going to leave you all with this slogan that Miss Jeanie Rogers emphasized previously, to get this point across to all of you… Suffrage must be our priority, today.
I am here to bring everyone to their senses to fight a political battle in the real world. Buttons and banners can only get us so far. So I am calling out to all mothers, professional women, workers, scholars, immigrants, and so forth; let us rally and lead a national suffrage parade to pour our beliefs around town and speak out in a strong political manner to get our points across.
As many of you have raised attention to, I am very disappointed in the overtly racist comments made in the NAWSA leader speeches and wish they were more welcoming toward African American Women. These women are americans, after all, and have been very supportive of suffrage. The main goal of this movement is to win suffrage for women overall, a struggle that has been ongoing for over 50 years in the making. We must be practical and do what needs to be done to win. Unity is the only way to get the vote in your lifetime and people are so quick to forget this.
Im calling for the attention of all the women in the room. How is it fair that no married women are allowed to work in the New York’s public school system? How is it fair that no matter how much schooling and no matter how brilliantly intelligent you may be, most law firms will not hire you. How is it fair that if you were hired as a university professor and decide that you would like to get married or have a kid, you are outright dismissed and forced to leave. How is any of this fair? No self respecting woman should wish to work for the success of a party that ignores the fact that she is indeed a woman. I declare to you that women must not depend upon the protection of men, but must be taught to protect themselves, and there I take my stand. Because women are the ones that bring all voters into the world, so why are we limiting them and cutting off their ability to vote? Before mothers can be rightly held responsible for the vices and crimes, for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all possible rights and powers to control the conditions and circumstances of their own and their children’s lives.
So now i’m reaching out to the all men in the room, who wouldn’t be here without their mothers. Who wouldn’t be able to have children if it wasn’t for their wives. Men, you clearly love the freedom which your fathers won for you, pay your debt by winning freedom for your daughters and show some respect for the women who raised you and the women raising your children. I’m going to leave you all with this slogan that Miss Jeanie Rogers emphasized previously, to get this point across to all of you… Suffrage must be our priority, today.