‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Suffragists

Votes for Women Must Precede World Peace, He Declares.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas, the apostle of international peace, talked to the members of the Woman Suffrage Party and their friends about peace and woman suffrage last night at a big meeting in the Metropolitan Temple, Seventh Avenue and Fourteenth Street. He spoke in his native language and, sentence by sentence, his words were translated by his nephew.

There is no difference in the physical or intellectual value of men and women, he said. It is only a difference of education which has made an apparent difference and there will never be universal peace, he added, until there is equal suffrage.

“If the educator is imperfect,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as he was translated, “the educated must also be imperfect — even man. The mother is the first educator of men. It the mother is imperfect, alas for the condition of men.”

Congressman William S. Bennet said he had always been a suffragist and he also believes in peace. He wasn’t sure that women would do much to bring about international peace or a millennium — being human.

“I don’t think we could dismiss our police force immediately,” he said.

Miss Elizabeth Freeman spoke and a resolution was passed with a unanimous “aye” asking the protection of Mayor Gaynor and Commissioner Waldo for rescue workers, men and women, the case of a recent attack on Mrs. Rose Livingston in Chinatown being cited.