The following article titled The Oracle was printed in the Holyoke Daily Transcript, dated Saturday, October 20, 1917.
Miss Rankin passes on to the women of Massachusetts the argument that women of Montana used when they were seeking suffrage. They told the story of the little boy who was being lectured by his father against fear of things, for the little fellow was very timid. Not being convinced he asked his father if he should meet a great big lion. His father said “No.” And then wouldn’t he be afraid if he should meet a great big black bear. Again the father wasn’t afraid. But if he should meet a dog. “No,” the father wasn’t afraid of any dog. ” Well Pa, is Ma the only thing in the world that you are afraid of?”
The article continues the reporting of Jeannette Rankin’s speech before a sympathetic suffragist audience in the Holyoke High school auditorium.
“The men of the nation have given the ballot to the foreigner fresh on these shores, to the Indians, to the native born Chinese, to the negro and he hasn’t been afraid. He hasn’t given it to Ma because he is afraid in that direction.”
Life, one of the four aspects of the Great Principle, is my focus this month. For Life to be life, it has to be conscious of itself.
My love of literature and poetry has aided my personal growth over the years. My love of my family history, my community history, my state’s history, my country’s history and our world history has also helped me understand the moment of time I am now aware of. Many novels are imagined, written and published with the seeds of the moment their authors find themselves living in. Why do I lead off this month with an article from a newspaper from a Saturday in 1917? I simply have a curiosity to better understand past moments in time. I can better understand if that old moment in time has any connection or similarities to this current moment in time. Today, newspaper’s reputations have been tarnished along with other media printed, televised, and downloaded via the internet as mostly “fake news”. In 1917 the newspaper had a much bigger share of the audience. (No competition if you will.) Having the opportunity to read a newspaper about a day in the life of my community over 100 years ago affords me the opportunity to see the issues of that moment more clearly.
An aside here: Newspapers, broadsides and pamphlets have always been subjective to the author’s point of view. Today”s “fake news”, yesterday’s “yellow journalism.”
Back to Jeannette Rankin. She was in Holyoke, promoting the vote for women, a huge social movement of that day in 1917. Miss Rankin had the right to vote. She lived in and represented the state of Montana. When it became accepted as a state in 1893 Montana immediately attempted to constitute voting rights for all legal aged citizens regardless of gender. That attempt failed but it opened the doors to the possibility and in 1914 Montana became the 10th state to allow women the right to vote. In 1916 Jeannette Rankin,representing Montana, became the first woman in our Country to be elected to Congress. The 1917 Holyoke Daily Transcript edition I read and perused displayed many stories of war events in the European theater. It also brought the war closer to home with different stories of support for the Holyoke boys who were overseas fighting against the Germans. Reports of support and rallying cries to patriotically buy Liberty Bonds so Uncle Sam could continue to produce the weapons our troops needed were also printed in the paper. The advertisements were of note too. One ad in particular was poignant, a young man was selling his milk delivery route. He simply gave the reason for the sale as– the Draft.
Three stories of that Saturday edition focused on the social out cry of the day; women’s right to vote. After the Civil War freed former male slaves were given that right. ( Of course the Jim Crow practices in the south made it very difficult for African- American men to get safely to the ballot box with their vote in hand.) The Women Suffragist movement came to fruition in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Congresswoman Rankin’s speeches of support for the suffragist given this day in Holyoke, while announcing another speech soon in Springfield aided the “Cause.” Her written history reflects that she drafted some of the actual language of the 19th Amendment while in Congress. Jeannette Rankin surly helped sway public opinion but she also had help from many other courageous women throughout the 1800s and into the early 1900s. Lucy Stone, the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, Ida B. Wells, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a poet Frances E.W. Harper, Mary Terrell and of course Susan B. Anthony to name a few, were pioneers for the Suffragists.
US suffragette, Alice Paul was a main leader and strategist of this movement during the 1910s. She led many protests and ironically the night of the publication of this newspaper, October 20th 1917, she began a 7 month jail term for leading a Washington DC protest for women’s rights. ( Another side note here, African-American women and men still faced racial terrorism in southern states and had to continue their fight that finally culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. American Native American women received the right with the passage of the 1924 Indian Citizen Act.)
As I visit my metaphorical lighthouse this month, I reflect, as I stated earlier, on Life. Until life is conscious of itself it is not life. Our literature and our history help me be conscious of myself and conscious of the moment I live in- today. Not conscious in a narcissistic selfish manner but conscious of who I can be in a more empathetic and compassionate manner. I am not living this life in a vacuum. I have lived my life surrounded by dramatic scenes that constantly replay themselves. Learning not to take anything for granted helps me stay open to another side, another point of view. From that moment in 1917 the carousel of events has been rotating around, continuing when I jumped on this ride in 1949. Life’s carousal of wars, racism, terrorism, exclusion, privileges, poverty, illness and on and on and on continues. Only positive energy and consciousness of like minded people, acting with integrity and compassion, will knock some of these negative events off our carousal of life.
I end this month with a short poem written by one of those courageous women listed above. Frances E.W. Harper penned this poem in the 1800s. I believe it is relevant today.
Only a Word
Till our world, so sad and weary,
Finds the balmy rest of peace-
Peace to silence all her discords-
Peace till war and crime shall cease.
Peace to fall like gentle showers,
Or on parched flowers dew,
Till our hearts proclaim with gladness-
Lo, He maketh all things new.
Thank you for reading.
Be safe and in peace and joy!
Mark