Colonel Unable to Answer When Woman Asks Opinion of Equal Suffrage Fight
New York, March 25. — In one of six meetings, which Col. Roosevelt addressed on the east side tonight, he faced the situation that had the better of him, and the other leaders at the meeting for at least fifteen minutes. It was all due to a woman. After the Colonel had launched into an attack upon the new primary law, exhibiting the fourteen-foot ballot, which will be used in one election district, as an example of its incumbrances, and began on “The right of the people to rule,” one of the few women in the audience, upset things by crying in a loud voice “How about the woman?” Many identified the interrupter as Maud Malone, a militant suffragette, who has upset similar political meetings in the same way. The Colonel was self-possessed and after the clamor had quieted somewhat he replied:
Would Let Women Vote
“Madam, I have asked that you women, yourselves, be allowed to vote to determine whether you shall vote.” This was greeted with general cheering, but Miss Malone kept her feet and was about to make further interruptions when the Colonel replied “Apparently you don’t feel contented with this. In that case I have a great deal better opinion of your sex than you have.”
Men in the crowd began throwing paper programs at Miss Malone while the Colonel pleaded for courtesy, but the pandemonium continued notwithstanding the Colonel’s shouts, and the efforts of the chairman to rap the crowd to order.
The Cairo Bulletin, Cairo, IL, March 26, 1912