"Is this woodsy metaphor a foretaste of the amenities in which political women will deal?"

That's the daintily phrased question by Mrs. A.N. George of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. She's offended by the reference to "the tactics of the pole-cat when badly frightened" that appeared in a resolution by the New England Woman Suffrage Association.

Cat fight!

The suffragists were denouncing the anti-suffragists for saying that the woman suffrage will lead to loose morals. It's slander! So send out another slander. Pole-cat!

And these are all women. You know, I believe in woman suffrage, but I had thought that women would bring a kinder, gentler tone to politics. George is cleverly demonstrating the kind, gentle tone on the anti side trying to make her point that the woman suffragists really are coarse and low. They said pole-cat. They put it in a resolution. It's bad enough to say it, but what an embarrassing demonstration of lack of understanding of politics to put pole-cat in a resolution.

I'm on the side of the suffragists, you know, so it troubles me deeply to see them look so bad next to the highly refined Mrs. George. But Mrs. George is a woman too, and I have to say that she has some excellent political skill. Women will win suffrage soon enough, I think. And the Mrs. Georges of the country will step up and vote. They can vote for legislators who will pass laws regulating morality if they're worried about morality. Come on, Mrs. George! Wouldn't that be better?

THE YEAR THAT BLOG FORGOT IS: 1922.