Now whenever there is large use made of any article under the sun, the reasons for its extensive use simmer down to three; First, the article must be something that practically everybody needs; Second, the marketers of the article must spend a lot of money in advertising the article and making the public think it wants it; or, Third, the article must carry with it some great interest and attraction that makes people want it.
The first kind of article is usually one of the necessities of life. The second is in a greater or less degree usually one of the comforts of life. The third kind is neither a matter of physical necessity nor of physical comfort; it is usually something that feeds the mind, diverts the mind, or kindles the emotions. Obviously the manufacturer of the third kind of article must mind his P's and Q's or he will not sell his product at all.
Newspapers, periodicals, and magazines, of course, come under the third class. Now while a good daily paper and a good weekly review of events have become almost necessities for the mass of mankind, a propaganda paper is neither a necessity nor a physical comfort, and for its circulation it must depend to a great extent for financial support on making itself so interesting and attractive that a larger number of people than the already converted, the reformers, will want it.
How then shall a propaganda paper make itself so interesting and attractive that those outside its fold will want it and want it badly enough to pay for it and read it—when there are so many attractive and interesting publications to read in busy days?
The problem solves itself if the paper records news of vitality, of heroism, of martyrdom, of stinging injustice in connection with everyday life,—if the doings within the movement are vital and challenging and kindle the imagination.
[Illustration: Mrs. Fredrikke S. Palmer, Staff Artist]
One of the biggest "strikes" in the recent history of the Woman's Journal has been the addition of Mrs. Palmer to the staff. Her drawings, contributed gratis, have attracted country-wide attention, because of their artistic quality. Mrs. Palmer studied art in Christiania, Norway, and is the wife of Prof. A.H. Palmer, of Yale University.
[Illustration: Mrs. Oakes Ames, Staff Artist]
One of Mrs. Ames's cartoons brought down the disapprobation of Ex-President Taft but the approbation of a great many suffragists. Mrs. Ames is treasurer of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and wife of the director of the Botanic Garden of Harvard University.
But women's lives are full of just such vitally interesting matters. There are such glaring cases of inequality before the law, such abuses and atrocities in women's working world today, such humiliation and insinuation in the personal life of womankind, simply because of sex, that, were the half of it told, the suffrage movement would take on such proportions as even the leaders do not dream of.