Transcription
Mrs. Frank Seiberling,
Akron, Ohio
My dear Mrs. Seiberling: -
Probably you will be surprised to hear from me, but I wanted to send you just a word and enclose a pamphlet, which I hope you and Mr. Seiberling will be interested in reading.
I believe that the question of “Woman Suffrage” is to come up in Ohio again this fall and you must not let it carry. There is great need that people should be alive to the calamity which such a law would eventually bring. The mere dropping of a ballot, in the ballot-box, by a woman may sound harmless enough; but when one couples socialism with suffrage, it is serious indeed.
Since you and Mr. Seiberling stand for so much in the life of your community, I feel that you may be able to aid greatly in averting the disaster woman suffrage would bring. I am sure that after the wonderful work which Mr. Seiberling is known to have done and is praised for having accomplished during the strike in Akron, he will be more than anxious to help stamp out the very foundation of strikes, “socialism.”
The women of Akron, in all walks of life, should start anti-suffrage societies and see that they are extended to every part of the state, and it would be a capital idea to have such societies formed among the men also. You are such a sweet, cultured, refined woman that you could do much to down “Woman Suffrage”. Let me repeat that suffrage means socialism, and socialism means the co-operative commonwealth, and the co-operative commonwealth means doing away with capitalist, large and small. The Initiative, Referendum and Recall together with woman Suffrage, generally adopted, would mean the downfall of the home, the church and the nation.
The address which I enclose, was brought to the attention of the United States Senate by Senator Martin of New Jersey and was ordered printed as a public document, by that body. Some twenty-five or thirty of these pamphlets were sent to prominent men in Akron, franked [sic] for me by Senator Martin. As they, of course, bore no stamp, it is possible that some of them may have been thrown into the waste basket by hurried business men. [sic] Thinking that this might have been the fate of the one sent to Mr. Seiberling, I am taking this method, knowing that it will surely be brought to his notice.
Very Sincerely,
Annie Bock
“Hotel Imperial”
Broadway and 32nd St.,
New York City
September 16th, 1913.Transcriber
Roberta Searle, Barb VargoLanguage
English
