[Women's Suffrage]. Wise, Stephen. Brown, Gertrude Foster

[Early Phonograph Recording of Two Women's Suffrage Speeches]

New York, Paris, London: Pathe Freres Phonograph Co., [1915]. 78 RPM phonograph record, approximately eleven inches in diameter. In plain sleeve, accompanied by later, smaller-format illustrated Pathe brown paper sleeve. Some scratching on both sides, one small edge chip in blank area. Good. Item #3941

A rare phonograph record containing two speeches in support of women's suffrage by two prominent figures in the struggle. Side A of the record records a speech by Rabbi Stephen Wise titled "Woman and Democracy." Wise was a founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage, an American group formed in 1910 with the aim of supporting suffragists through "public appearances in behalf of the cause, by the circulation of literature, the holding of meetings, and in such other ways as from time to time seem desirable.” Wise also helped found the NAACP and the ACLU. Side B contains a speech titled "Why Women Want the Vote," delivered by Gertrude Foster Brown, billed here as “Mrs. Raymond Brown.”

Gertrude Foster Brown was a concert pianist and member of Carrie Chapman Catt's Woman Suffrage Party. She was elected President of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association in 1913. In 1918, following the passage of women's suffrage in New York, she published the book Your Vote and How to Use It. She then served as editor of The Women's Journal for over a decade while remaining active with the League of Women Voters and the New York Women's City Club. The full text of her speech on the present recording is as follows:

"The most important question before the country today is that of women's suffrage. It is not only votes for women but the entire question of democracy that is at stake. Ever since our government was founded, men have been proclaiming a government that should not be for the benefit of any man or class of men, but that everybody should have equal representation, where those who obey the law should have a voice in making that law. Gentlemen, that is the real question in votes for women. Do you believe in Democracy? Do you believe taxation without representation is tyranny? Or is it tyranny only for men? Do you want a government of the people, for the people, and by the people? And aren't women people?

"Women vote already in twelve states, one-half of the total area of the United States. The women of Chicago, of San Francisco, of Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, and Seattle are going to vote for the next President. Aren't the women of this state as intelligent as the women of Chicago? Or, are eastern men less generous than the men of the west?

"Millions of women taxpayers are asking for the vote so that they may have representation. Millions of women housekeepers are asking for the vote that may help men with public housekeeping. Millions of mothers are asking for the vote that they may stop child labor and help men protect the children and give them a better chance. Millions of working women are asking for the vote that they may have the same power to protect themselves that men have. Women should have the vote because it would draw husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, brothers, and sisters closer together, giving them an equal share and interest in important public questions. Women should have the vote because it would compel men in public office to think more of the welfare of women, of the children, of decency and morality. Women should have the vote because it is unjust, shameful, and cowardly for men to deprive women of that which they demand for themselves.

"The home is the bulwark of our nation. Give the home two votes instead of one. Give the mother a vote as well as the father. If the Almighty can trust women to bear children, cannot men trust them to use their vote for the welfare of those children?

"Women's suffrage is coming; everybody knows that. President Wilson and his cabinet, Theodore Roosevelt, W.J. Bryan, Governor Whitman, and Mayor Mitchell of New York City are in favor of it. Gentlemen, women have been working for 75 years for a share in your democracy. Won't you give your wives and daughters, sisters and mothers, the rights you enjoy of enfranchised American citizenship?"

No results for this album on either OCLC or Discogs, though WNYC's NYPR Archives & Preservation division has digitized a copy of the record.

Price: $1,350.00