II.  Southern members of congress very generally urge that they oppose the federal amendment because it will confer the vote upon the negro women of their respective states; and that that will interfere with white supremacy in the south.

It is difficult to believe this objection to be sincere, since facts do not support the contention.  The facts are that woman suffrage secured by Federal Amendment will be subject to whatever restrictions may be imposed by state constitutions (provided those restrictions are in accord with the National Constitution) in precisely the same way as woman suffrage secured by state constitutional amendment.  No larger number of negro women can be enfranchised by Federal Amendment than will be enfranchised by State Amendment.  If the women of the South are ever to be enfranchised, it must be by (1) Federal Constitutional Amendment, or (2) State Constitutional Amendment.  If their franchise is obtained by the former method, it will come by the votes of white men in Congress and legislatures; if by the second, they will be forced to appeal to voting Negroes to elevate them to their own political status.  One would suppose the first would be the preferable method from the Southern viewpoint.  It is possible that behind this commonly spoken objection, lies a hope and belief that Southern women will remain disfranchised forevermore.  A man unfamiliar with political history, psychology, and the science of evolution might cherish such a belief in fancied security, but ideas cannot be shut outside the borders of a state.  There is no Southern state in which women of the highest families are not giving their all in order to propagate this cause, and they are doing it with so noble a spirit and so eloquent an appeal that final surrender of the citadel of prejudice is only a question of time.  No one has ever questioned the “fighting ability” of the South.  That ability is not confined to men.  Courage, intelligence, conviction and willingness to sacrifice characterize the suffrage movement in every state, and the South is no exception.  The women of that section will vote; the question is how long must they work, how much must they sacrifice to win that which has so freely been granted to men of all classes?

White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage.  In the fifteen states south of the Mason and Dixon line are: 

  8,788,901 white women,
  4,316,565 negro women, or
  4,472,336 more white than negro women.