These Things Can Be Done1

Virginia Suffrage News October 1, 1914, page 22

To-day all Europe is plunged into a wretchedness of shipwreck of all humane and cultural life.3 Death and misery and poverty are abroad, and hatred is in the saddle. Men have made war upon each other; they have stood Friendliness and Common Weal against a wall and shot her down. The resulting unhappiness is not alone for Europe; it is spreading to this country. No country to-day liveth to itself or dieth to itself.

No woman in any country has had a voice as to whether that country should go to war or remain at peace.

No woman has helped to choose Parliaments and Chambers of Deputies, and Reichstags and Councils and Ministers. No woman has voted armaments and dreadnaughts and war funds. No woman has had a voice as to peace or war. If she had had a voice—if for generations the mother of the species had been able to make her will known and her Yea or Nay counted—we might see Peace to-day.4 War need not be.

In this country, as in all countries, there is huge poverty and exploitation. Millions of women suffer, millions of children. Child labor, sweated work, unemployment, low wages, wretched housing, long hours, lack of comfort, lack of leisure, lack of opportunity, lack of the brightness and strength of life—such conditions are the lot, not of a few, but of the majority among us. These things need not be.

In this country, as in all countries, there is commercialized vice. It draws into its den the feeble-minded, the underfed and underpaid, the helpless, the young girl hardly more than a child, ignorant and tempted. Women see women by the thousands betrayed, traded in, sold and dragged under. This need not be.

In this country, as in all countries, women suffer huge injustices—legal, economic, social and political. In all but ten States of the Union they have no voice in the laws whereby they are judged.5 They receive unequal pay for equal work, and they see honorable professions closed by law against their entrance. They see existent everywhere a double standard of morals. They are treated as political inferiors, and in a self-styled democracy the ballot box is closed against them. They are taxed without representation and they are governed without consent. These things need not be.

In this country, as in all countries, there are great public wrongs to be righted, and there are great public opportunities of true growth and ennoblement to be seized. There is to be brought about a greatly higher and more far-reaching education, and public health and clean living. There is care of the Future Race to be upheld with both hands. There is to be recognized the responsibility of the individual. There is to be uplifted and maintained true democracy. There is an end to be put to exploitation. There is a world to be lifted into the sunshine of right thinking and right acting. These things can be done.

Women of Virginia, awake!

MARY JOHNSTON

Footnotes

  1. The inaugural edition of the Virginia Suffrage News, published monthly by the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, featured this essay by Mary Johnston, noted at the end. The essay provides an impassioned call to action that transcends the goal of suffrage to include sweeping egalitarian social transformation. ↩

  2. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Social Welfare History Image Portal. ↩

  3. World War I had begun in Europe in August 1914, just a few weeks before this speech. ↩

  4. Johnston, like many pro-suffrage activists, was also a member of the Women’s Peace Party, which would become an international organization. ↩

  5. In 1914 the following Western states had woman suffrage: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. ↩