A Word to the Wise

New York: Empire State Campaign Committee, 1 East 41st St., [1912]. Circular, 10” x 7”. CONDITION: Good, toned, light chipping to edges. A circular printing excerpts from a speech by women’s suffrage advocate and Congressman Edward T. Taylor, issued in connection with the 1912 suffrage campaign in the state of New York. At the time of publication, the women’s suffrage movement was in its final decade, leading up to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Congressman Edward T. Taylor (1858–1941) of Colorado delivered his speech in the House of Representatives on 24 April 1912. In 1893 Colorado had granted full suffrage to women, and Taylor had lived (truncated) in Colorado for thirty-one years. He poses such rhetorical questions as: Do women vote? Do the bad women vote? Has the criminal vote been doubled? Has equal suffrage increased divorce? Do husbands and wives vote alike? What good has woman suffrage done? Has women suffrage increased corruption in politics? Taylor expounds: “I personally know the condition of politics before and since women were granted the suffrage, and I can honestly and conscientiously say that I do not know of any bad effects whatever that women suffrage has had in the State of Colorado, and I do know of enough good that they have accomplished to fill volumes.” (Inventory #: 6963)