Sign: "Woman Voter Monthly Magazine 5 cts."

I posted once about a woman who opposed women’s suffrage, but how were men who supported female voting treated? The above classic photo shows the NYC headquarters of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage in 1915. Just two years earlier, an article in the New York Times provided coverage of the organization’s ill-fated attempt to spread its message of equality to London. An excerpt:

“Riotous scenes attended the attempt of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage to hold a meeting in Hyde Park this afternoon. The police gave the League permission to use a truck as a platform, and the overturning of this truck by the crowd ended the proceedings.

Laurence Housman, 1915. (Image by Bain News Service.)

The meeting, as usually, started in an orderly manner, but when Laurence Housman, the poet and playwright, attempted to address an audience of some 10,000 he was greeted with hisses and catcalls, and his speech was interrupted by a fire of heated comments from his hearers. Other speakers had even less success, the interruptions taking the form of clods of earth and other missiles. One youth had an ingenious idea for annoying the speakers. By means of a piece of a mirror he reflected the sun’s rays upon their faces, causing such discomfiture that they were obliged to turn around and address another section of the crowd.

Later one speaker made an allusion to ‘ignorant hooligans.’ The crowd took this as a direct application to themselves. Angry cries were raised, and an ugly rush was made for the truck. The police made valiant efforts to keep back the excited crowd but were practically powerless. The speakers made hasty exits from the vehicle, but one of them had not left it when the truck was captured. He took a flying leap just in time, for a half second later the wagon was completely overturned after a desperate heave by the protesting audience.”