The Henson Journals

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Wednesday, October 23rd, 1912. Washington.

I wrote letters to Raleigh, Reggie Still, & Carissima. Also to Jim in India.

It gave us much satisfaction to find that both the Ambassador & Mrs Bryce are strongly opposed to female suffrage. Their visit to Australia, where the folly has already rooted itself, has not convinced them of its wisdom. They think that it makes much less difference than might a priori have been supposed, & that it probably increases the force of organized Labour as the working women vote with their husbands. I asked Mr Bryce what was his opinion of Weyl's "The New Democracy", and he said that he thought it was too pessimistic.

We walked into the city, & viewed the White House & its surroundings. The tameness of the grey squirrels in the public gardens is delightful. On little fellow actually came up & touched my hand, but I had nothing wherewith to justify & recompense his confidence.

After lunch we motored for a little way into the country, & then Mr Bryce & I got out of the motor & walked in spite of the rain for more than an hour. He tells me that Sir Roger Casement is a Roman Catholic: that he (Bryce) received from him last week a letter saying that, to the best of his belief, the maltreatment of the Indians in Peru is proceeding as much as ever: that the Peruvians are an entirely discreditable set of people.

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He gave a very unfavourable account of the Roman Catholic Church in South America; & said that its influence was declining. But there was no Protestantism of any kind, & the R.C. Church would be supported in opposing the entrance of a Protestant mission. We talked of the religious situation in Australia. He said the country did not give him the impression of being religious. There was a tendency to multiply divorces. I inquired whether in that respect matters were improving in America; & he replied in the negative.

Captain Grant, the new naval attaché, & his wife came to dinner, both very pleasant people. Mr Bryce told me that Freeman had once told him that his first doubts of the Tractarian theory were suggested by a discussion in which the salvation of the Swedes was represented as rendered doubtful because a consecration in the Swedish succession was held to be of doubtful validity. Speaking of the disquieting signs of the time, he said, that there was practically no criminal justice in the United States: that the tendency in this respect was distinctly downward: & that this opinion was held also by President Taft. He said that the Australians made a great hero of Captain Cook, to whose memory many monuments had been erected. He added that it was a great misfortune to the Australians that they had no heroes of their [143] [symbol] own, & took practically no interest in English history.

He said that it was very unfortunate that the Italians & other European immigrants into the States forgot so soon and so completely their language & national traditions.

He said that the influx of aliens – a million yearly – was a very grave fact, and extremely difficult to handle. The employers of labour encouraged this immigration, because the aliens were the cheap labourers, & enabled them to keep down the price of labour: & their numerous compatriots in the country would not readily consent to any measure of exclusion.

He said that the habit of excessively lengthy speaking was very general in America especially after dinner; & that no regard was paid to the claims of other speakers. We discussed the liquor legislation of this country. Mr Bryce spoke contemptuously of the total prohibition laws, & gave some illustrations within his own knowledge of the ease & frequency with which they are violated. The only justification for them, he thought, was the fact that they served to keep the negroes from obtaining liquor, as they were too ignorant to understand, & too poor to use, the means by which liquor was introduced by their white neighbours. The contemptuous saying is current in some 'dry' states: "The women have their law: and the 'boys' have their whiskey."

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Issues and controversies: female suffrage; Putumayo