There has been a lot of talk surrounding the Catt issue. Much of it is falsity presented in a fashion to make it appear truthful.

An educated opinion is the only kind of opinion that can withstand debate, so let’s look at some facts.

Carrie Chapman Catt’s statements have been taken out of context. “White supremacy will be strengthened by women suffrage” is a statement that has been thrown out frequently to incite discord on campus.

What is not mentioned is the previous statement to Catt: “Objection that women suffrage will increase the Negroe vote.” (“Woman Suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment, Carrie Chapman Catt,” Chapter 4, p. 5).

Catt’s “racial” statement was not made as one of opinion but as rebuttal to an objection to women suffrage.

On page seven of the same text, Catt discusses how different races, religions and nationalities have been able to vote, as long as the voting persons were male, through “various extensions of the voting privilege.”

Certain statements in this paragraph could be construed as racist, discriminatory or any number of things by the trigger-happy reader.

However, the statements are not as frequently construed.

The different races, etc. were used as examples of discrimination against women in the voting process.

These are just examples of Catt’s words taken out of context, but the list can go on and on.

The point is you can interpret almost any statement to mean almost anything if you refuse to pay attention to the context in which it was used.

This is exactly how the September 29th Movement and, specifically, Milton McGriff operate.

It reminds me of statistical regression wherein you provide only the positive statistics that will help your cause no matter how much the negative statistics outweigh the positive.

McGriff relies on name calling, “President Martin Jischke Chapman Catt” (Daily, Sept.16); unsupported generalizations, “… organizations like BSA and APAAC have as much voice as [Jischke] deigns to give them” (Daily, Sept. 16); and statements taken out of context and segmented to fit his purpose,”… of nearly a million illiterate Negroes …” (Daily, Oct. 9) to further Movement causes.

Neither McGriff nor the Movement is interested in providing factual information of Catt’s racism because there is none. They would rather insult our intelligence.

One other thing McGriff is good at is putting words in other peoples’ mouths. I ask interested parties to review McGriff’s opinion article in the Oct. 9 Daily in which he discusses the material about Catt available at Catt Hall.

In the beginning of McGriff’s article he mentions a disclaimer that he thinks should be included in the Catt material.

Later in the article he uses the aforementioned disclaimer as though it were in the Catt material.

This is but one example of many, which you can find in past articles, that show that McGriff will falsify information to achieve his purpose.

Please people, do your own research before forming an opinion about the Catt Hall issue.

Don’t be taken in by ISU or the Movement. You don’t need to take my word for anything either.

All the information you need is on the Web in the Library of Congress.

Should you do the Web-browsing, you will find yourself wondering, , “How could this woman be racist when she worked in over 32 nations worldwide to promote suffrage?”

A side remark I would like to make is that Allan Nosworthy’s attempted suicide was indeed an act of terrorism.

Even if the Movement could get 200 followers, that would still be only four fifths of one percent of the student population. This number does not include faculty.

What Nosworthy did, in essence, was put a gun to his head and say “Conform to my views or I’ll shoot!” There are not very many people that support the Movement.

Force is the only way this small percentage of people can achieve their goal because their position on the Catt Hall issue does not withstand scrutiny. Any force used in this manner is likely to cause the larger population to acquire a deaf ear.

In closing, I have a quote from McGriff’s Sept. 16 Daily article: “She let her sisters of color wait until 1964 for enfranchisement.” Carrie Chapman Catt died in 1947.

I think Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, black author, professor of history and coordinator of graduate programs in history at Morgan State University, said it best during a speech at the Memorial Union: “Move on, you’re fighting a dead person.”

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Greg Conard

Freshman

Mechanical engineering