TLS, two pages, 7.5 x 9.5, The Outlook letterhead, February 18, 1913. Letter to Maud Nathan, in full: "The other night we had too much speaking at the Progressive dinner. We should have cut down by one-half the number of speakers, and if possible have cut down the number of subjects touched upon. I had to refuse a request from Teddy Robinson to introduce another matter, and it would have been quite impossible to introduce the question of those concerts. Now may I ask very warmly that you head the Suffrage Committee in the Progressive Service? It is, in my judgment, essential that we have at the head of that committee a women who is known as much more than only an agitator for suffrage for women. She must be a convinced suffragist, eager for the cause; but she must also be identified in the public mind with other movements—that is, she must embody our principle, that we are for suffrage because women are not merely entitled to it as a right, but are entitled to it as a means of rendering more efficient service to the community as a whole. Now, my dear Mrs. Nathan, you embody this principle. I earnestly ask that you will accept the head of this committee. The chairmanship of this committee if accepted by you will make you one of four people who are directing the policy of the popular government department of the Progressive Party. I need hardly say to you that there are few if any positions of leadership in our party so important as this, and I am tempted to say that there are none more important. Earnestly hoping you can accept, even at the cost of considerable personal inconvenience." Roosevelt makes a few handwritten emendations to the text. In fine condition, with some very light soiling.
Among the political reforms proposed by Roosevelt during his 1912 campaign was a call for woman’s suffrage. A long-standing champion for women’s rights, Roosevelt introduced a bill for corporal punishment for domestic violence, and then, as police commissioner of New York, inserted women in executive and other positions within the New York City Police Department. Although it would take several more years before suffrage was instituted with the Nineteenth Amendment, the role and voice of Roosevelt’s progressive Bull Moose party aided much in its momentum. Maud Nathan, who ultimately did accept Roosevelt’s invitation to serve as chairwoman, was the longtime president of the Consumers’ League of the City of New York, where she cracked down on illegal practices and unfair working conditions in retail stores across the state.
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