Dear Readers,
      I am writing to you as Clara Morris, (an actress of the 19th century who I have chosen to portray in the program Stage Struck).  Mark Twain, the legendary American humorist, was a fan of mine. He introduced me at a lecture event where I was talking about Life on the Stage when the original person assigned failed to appear.  He was extremely complimentary and I was very grateful for his ability to improvise on the spot without rehearsal.  Mark Twain loved the theatre and those who were a part of it.

He loved women and indeed was an advocate for women's rights.  On January 21, 1901, he spoke to members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at their annual meeting on the issue of female suffrage.  I am pleased to share with you what he told the packed audience.

"I know that since the women started out their crusade they have scored in every project they undertook against unjust laws. I would like to see them help make the laws and those who are to enforce them. I would like to see the whiplash in women's hands.  The suffrage in the hands of the men degenerates into a couple of petrified parties. The man votes for his party and gets the city in the condition this one is in now - a disgrace to civilization.  If I live seventy-five years more - well, I won't - fifty years, then, or twenty-five, I think I'll see women use the ballot. It's the possession of the ballot that counts.  If women had it you could tell how they would use it.

Bring before them such a state of affairs as existed in New York City today and they would rise in their strength at the next election, elect a mayor, and sweep away corruption.
                                              True, they might sit ten years and never use it, but on such occasions they would cast it. Or in the case of an unjust war. Why, war might even pass away and arbitration take its place.  It never will so long as men have the votes.
                                           
                                             The contention that only vicious women would vote is absurd. How many of our 600,000 women are vicious?  Not enough to amount to anything. If women could vote, each party would feel compelled to put up the best candidate it could or take the risk of being voted down by the women.  States are built on morals - not intellects And men would never get any morals at all if the women didn't put it into them when they were boys.  If women could vote the good women would all vote one ..Men won't do that. It's a choice of evils with them."

According to  President Nathaniel Myers who introduced Mr. Twain, the Hebrew Technical School for Girls (2nd Ave. and E. 15th St.) was in the midst of ongoing expansion. He explained that the unique purpose as the single society in New York City was to offer a vocational education to Jewish girls.  He declared the work of the school to  be vital in a world where girls were too often forgotten.   (Reference:  www.jfew.org/?history_mark_twain)

Dear Mark Twain, he passed away from us on April 21, 1910 just nine years short of its passage by Congress and ten years short of is ratification as the 19th Amendment.  But I feel he was smiling on high for the women finally getting their right to vote.

                                                                 Respectfully,
                                                                                                   Clara Morris Marriott