Senator Margaret Chase Smith Hits the Campaign Trail (1964)

Well, they ought to be probably pretty close. This flat rich prairie land is a new part of the country for Margaret Chase Smith, and she hopes to see a lot more new country before November. A 12-hour workday like this is no novelty for her. Having answered almost 1,700 Senate roll calls, she is known on Capitol Hill as a one-woman task force who can outwork, outthink, and outmaneuver a many a man. John F. Kennedy called her a formidable political figure. First job said, an Amazon warmonger hiding behind a red row. Yet for all of her self-reliance and efficiency, she is feminine and consider. She's careful to get the little girl's name just right before signing the autograph book. Like all politicians, she knows that children have parents, and that the children themselves grow up faster than you might think. More mileage, more towns, more coffee, more people, more handshakes, and then, at the end

of the day, the inevitable political chicken dinner. After the waiters have stopped rattling the dishes, Margaret Chase Smith stands up and tells the folks exactly what she thinks. If I had my way, Governor Rockefeller, Ambassador Lodge, Mr. Nixon, Governor Scranton, Governor Romney, and Governor Stassin, would all be on the ballot here to give you the widest possible choice instead of sitting this one out because of the apparent strength of Senator Goldwater with the Republican Organization of Illinois. I'm going to ask another subject, which is where is the proper place of a woman. It's a question that's often asked of me.

The quizzes have asked this question defiantly, ambitiously, hopefully, and just plain inquisitively, but it has been asked so many times in so many ways, and by so many types of people that have necessitated, my answer has had to transcend the normal and understandable prejudice that a woman might have. My answer is short and simple. Woman's proper place is everywhere. This is the granting of suffrage to women. The only differential between men and women as citizens has been the availability and acceptance of leadership. Some claim that the availability of leadership to women has been unfairly limited. I have no sympathy with this view because it is only those who make the breaks who get

the breaks. In other words, to increase the availability of leadership, women must by their own actions create and force that increase the availability. And what do these observations have to do with the answer to what is the proper place for women? For this, America, the peace leader of the world, has granted the greatest opportunity to the women, and America's peace leadership stems directly from the influence and participation of American women in shaping the decisions of this country. Margaret Chase Smith of Skohegan Main is no erratic, hopeful suffragette on the Equal Rights Ticket.

The significant point about her is that she is a qualified, experienced, hard-working, Republican politician.