body in favor of woman suffrage, and talked at length with such
leaders in the movement as Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe,
Anna Howard Shaw, and Jane Addams. All this time Bok had kept
his own mind open. He was ready to have the magazine, for whose
editorial policy he was responsible, advocate that side of the
issue which seemed for the best interests of the American woman.
The arguments that a woman should not have a vote because she
was a woman; that it would interfere with her work in the home;
that it would make her more masculine; that it would take her
out of her own home; that it was a blow at domesticity and an
actual menace to the home life of Americathese did not weight
with him. There was only one question for him to settle: Was the
ballot something which, in its demonstrated value or in its
potentiality, would serve the best interests of American
womanhood? After all his investigations of both sides of the
question, Bok decided upon a negative answer. He felt that
American women were not ready