^~WETOTI>  A     POLITICAL EQUALITY ULVBIX GENEVA.
Several Beasons"m"venl)y Anne Fitz-hngli Miller at the Organ-jzation Meeting1
The following is the address delivered at th! Y M 0 A., on Tuesday evening, Nov 30,'by Miss Anne F. Miller:   Gen-£en and Gentlewomen! I wanted to saT'Swcitizens-Mbut all of us are not yet citizens Really speakmg-Weareheretobrfak ground foi' the Coming Club.   During the recent convention we were often asked  Have you Ipolitical Equality Cub  m  Geneva? Some of us were sorry to say "no" and made haste to add, "But we hope to have one soon "   And now while the inspiration   of   those   noble  women,   those prophets, those torchbearers, is with us, it is time to be up and doing.    Your presence is evidence that we are already up;—of the doing, I should like to say a few words.
It may be that some of us are still asking: "Why should we have this club? Of what use will it be?" Let me tell you briefly, why I, for one, want a Political Equality Club in Geneva, and of what use I think it will be.
There are two chief reasons why, to my mind, we should have this club:1
The first is the fact, that there are very many people in our town who believe in the principle of Political Equality and who will be glad of this chance to hasten or to help to hasten, its realization. The Club will give us an opportunity to work for the cause in which we believe.
¦   The second reason, which seems to me of equal importance, is not based on any consideration of good to the cause.
It is for our ohm good, I want this Club. I have the strongest faith in the benefit that we, as individuals, shall derive from such an organization as I trust this is to be.   Our need of a more intelligent understanding of public affairs and a keener sense of responsibility in regard  to them, is apparent.—I know that an undefined but real sentiment of horror ex-Hsts in the minds of many,   when  anything public is  suggested.    Especially tre all gentlewomen supposed to shrink xom anything of a public nature -.    As jln illustration of this feeling I have in /nind some remarks of Horace Greeley's son-in-law, Col. Nicholas Smith, himself a semi-public character.
To fully appreciate what the Colonel said, one must know something of him. He was a southerner who possessed an ambition to marry   Horace   Greeley's daughter, whom he had never seen.   He came north, he saw, he conquered, and subsequently claimed and gained public recognition- on two grounds. First—He was Ida Greeley's husband.  Second—He was a great beauty.   The  public  honored both these claims, and recognized Col. Nicholas Smith when it   saw  him; even turned its head to look after him as he promenaded Fifth Ave.   It was my fate to know the Colonel.and on one oc-1 casionhe said to me in entire seriousness: |'A woman's name should never appear in public print but once during her lifetime, the permissible Exception being in the announcement  of   her   marriage, when a new name is conferred upon her A married woman's name should never appear in any notice save  that  of  her death!"   But this is digression.   I  only wanted to show ho-vy  some people feel about anything public, and how those who seem most anxious to shelter others from     publicity,   ¦will    often    seek ^i^vu^^^hr^0    me,    the almost as respeptabll as  Republic-l'm sure it's anearl-elation-and we are all proud enough to be clriiareh. of the Republic.   It is our fondness for and faith in the Republic, that has brought us' 'to-
¦ gether to-night, and I'trnst it will keep us together in this club until we walk together to the ballot box, there to dew our respeots to a teener Republic
I was recently asked by a lady: " Would you give the ballot to all women?"—I woul.d give the ballot to no woman on the sole ground i that she is a woman--- I would give the ballot to no "manon the so/e~groun<l that ho is a man. j But I would give the ballot to every man and to every woman who is individually competent to use the ballot, and my chief reason for working for political equality, is the fact that it is not on the ground of incompetency in the individual, but solely on the ground of our womanhood that we are now debarred from the use of the ballot. There are many who will agree that this individual competency is the ideal basis of the franchise but they say it can never be realized. "Never" is a long time, and ideals are sometimes realized, or at least aproximated, and I am sure that if we hitch our political wagon to a star (thanks to Emerson) our machine will run no risk of being mired, and we shall progress in the right direction.
There are some who regard our sex as inherently incompetent to deal with public affairs. I do not agree with them and I think there is sufficient evidence to the contrary. There is however much to be done before we go to the ballot box, and individually I should be exceedingly sorry to find, at the present moment, a ballot in my own ignorant hand. The fact that many men are more ignorant does not encourage me to wish to rush boldly in. But, for all of us am I happy in the thought, expressed by Shakespeare's Portia. We are" not yet so old but (We): may learn," happier than this (we) are not bred so dull but (we) can learn," and happiest, in my faithj that we shall learn—learn with our brothers in the coming club, the meaning and the practice of true citizenship. True citizenship in its broadest sense, as well as in its particular duties.
Speaking of particular duties, I was recently reminded that we have no time to lose in preparing for them. One of our newly elected Aldermen informed me that women owning property in Geneva would soon have a chance to vote on the question of appropriations. This seemed an opportunity for the proposed club to be of use by gathering the property owners to-gether in preparation for the exercise of their privilege. The first step was to discover how many women would be entitled to vote. Fortunately my mother, who is fond of preserving, had preserved a record, made in the Constitutional Convention year, 1894. At that time the number of women who owned property in Geneva was 449. The value of their property was nearly $900,000, ($871,710). This seemed quite enough to begin upon, so I went to a well-known townsman, a public spirited citizen, who (has always been a true friend of woman. He believes not only in the ^justice but in the expediency of giving her the franchise. _When I told Mr. Ver Planck that I wanted his advice and help to the end, that the women should vote intelligently at the next tax meeting, he smiled and said he remembered an occasion on which a number of Geneva women tried to express their desire in regard to some local improvement, by voting at a J tax-meeting. At that meeting before I the voting took place a statement of the ! matter to be decided was read, it was then amended, reread and reamended, until its meaning became so obscure that the women were confused by it, and when they voted (they wished, it seems, : to vote "as one man") they voted for ' the measure they wished to oppose— "and"—added Mr. VerPlauck "men were present who could have set them right with a word,"—but the word was not spoken.
This sad exhibition of defective human nature is exactly the object-lesson that should make it plain that we need a Political Equality Club in Geneva for the men as well as for the women.
Mr. VerPlanck did not know wliat possibilities for woman, the new charter contained, so I went to the genial editor of the Geneva Advertiser, who is always ready to lend us a helping hand. "Yes," he said, referring to the incident described by Mr. VerPlanck "that was so, but I believe the new charter does away with the women's chance to vote at tax meetings." This was a blow, but I clung to my straw and said, "An alderman told me we are to vote." A copy of the charter lay upon the editorial desk and to this Mr. Parker turned for authority but he searched the leafy document in vain for the place where the women appeared to disappear from Geneva's political arena. Then he most graciously presented me with the volume which I accepted in the name of the coming club and bore away to peruse its precious pages in private.
Of course everyone in this room knows the charter by heart,but for my own satisfaction I will read what I found on page 77—lines 6 to 9 concerning special elections: "Every taxpayer male or female who shall have been assessed and taxed upon the last assessment roll of the city before such special election and no other person shall- be entitled to" vote at sucli election!" My search was rewarded! I thought of the antis who cannot see why a woman wTho pa}rs taxes should have a vote. They even assert—I am now quoting Mrs. Craimell —"We assert that the women who pay taxes do not want to vote." I wonder what the beings mentioned by Mr. Ver Planck could have been? He thought they were women who paid taxes, but they certainly wanted to vote, so according to Mrs. Cramiell they must have been something else. Whatever they were, I am glad to be that kind myself, and I rejoice that the new charter gives us a chance to prove that the women of this town whether they ¦ are taxpayers or not, do vunt to make use of every fair and beneficent means— the ballot included—to express their individuality and the truth that is in them.
Those who understand the practical part of club-building will now proceed to lay the corner stone.
EQUAL with Man
Enthusiastic Gathering Last
Evening at the Y.M.C. A.
Hall.
Miss Julie E. Jenuey and Miss H. M. i Mills  of Syracuse   present—S. H.    J YerPlanck    Presides.—Officers       i Elected   and   Organization Perfected—Political Equality Club the Name. Ever since the meeting of the Woman Suffrage Association in this city   a few' weeks ago, there has been a   desire   on j the part of many Genevans for the formation of   a   Political   Equality   club. Last   Saturday evening a preliminary meeting was held at the home   of Miss. Elizabeth Root to consider the best way of forming such a club and last night its organization was perfected.    In response,' to a call Signed by a number of our leading citizens a goodly number interested ! in the subject of equal rights assembled in   y. ' M.   C.   A.   hall  last   evening. The meeting was called to order by Mis.S: Mills, the brilliant state organizer of the Woman Suffra»e,associatioii, who n<mi.«