Jamaica Plain Anti-Suffrage Association

It is a cliche that history is written by the victors. Bulger's Variant on that theorem would say that history is also written by those who care enough to do the work. Thus, it should be no surprise that Mrs Thomas Allen will not be noted on any Women's Heritage Trail. Still, there she was, with 800 like-minded souls. That's history too.



Boston Daily Globe October 26, 1915


Antis Have Rose Supper.

Mrs Thomas Allen Attacks Votes for Women Before Gathering of 800 Persons in Jamaica Plain.

Nearly 800 members and guests of the Jamaica Plain Anti-Suffrage Association sat down to a "rose supper" in Eliot Hall, Jamaica Plain, last evening. Roses formed the feature of the decorations of the tables and the waitresses, younger members of the organization, wore distinctive caps with red the predominant color.

Mrs Elmer E. Hudson, chairman of the committee in charge, introduced Francis Balch, who acted as toastmaster. Mrs Thomas Allen of the Women's Municipal League and a prominent antisuffragist, delivered the address of the evening, "The Anti's Point of View."

"Voting," said Mrs Alen, in part, "is not a right even for men. That has been decided by our eminent jurists. Ex-Judge Cooley says: 'Suffrage does not exist for the benefit of the individual, but for the State. It is a regulation which the State establishes as a means of perpetuating its own existance.' Ex-Chief Justice Marshall decided that the granting of the franchise in the practice of Nations has always been regarded as an expediency and not an inherent right.

"All of the women that I know who would be of use politically in our State are now working as hard as they can on the boards of institutions, on the boards of charity, in their church work, and last but not least, to my mind, in the much derided home of the modern woman. We feel that our value in public work as nonpartisans is much greater than if we were affiliated with any political party."