Document 11B: "Women Pack Big Hall in Brooklyn," New York Call, 28 February 1910, p. 3.WOMEN PACK BIG HALL IN BROOKLYN
_______________________ Brooklyn celebrated Woman's Day by a mass meeting at Congress Hall, Atlantic avenue and Vermont street. About 500 men and women filled the hall, and enthusiastically cheered the various speakers.
Jacob Panken gave a stirring talk upon the suffrage question, in which he said that the only way in which suffrage could be obtained was through the working class women, and not by the aid of so-called "rich society ladies."
"There is only one way by which the woman can gain equal suffrage," said Panken. "It is not by going into a little suffrage party, or by asking the franchise from the capitalists, or by asking it from the legislature. There is only one way, and that is to demand it, and to fight for it if necessary.
"The women have got to have suffrage. Only a mother knows what it means to have her children working in the factories, to see them lose their youth and happiness, and to see them die before their time. And the women will have to fight the capitalists before they will get it, for the capitalists' know that the granting of the franchise will mean the death of their class.
"And the women are able to fight for it. It was the women that killed Paganism in the first century. It was the women who led in the French revolution. It was the women who led in the Commune. It was a woman that gave the signal which caused the death of Alexander II. in 1832. It will be the women that will gain for themselves the right of suffrage.
"Many people say that all people are born equal; that all have the same opportunities; that there is no capitalist class, and that there is no working class. We know that the only way which these statements can be made into facts is by concentrated action of the working class. The only people who can help the workers are the workers themselves. It was the working class which convened in 1830 for the establishment of the public schools. Public schools were then established. Many conventions were afterward held by the workers to demand favorable labor laws, and in all cases labor laws were established. It's the working class that can do things, only they do not know it."
Dr. Konikow made an address in German, and Mme. Alma Webster Powell rendered several vocal selections.
