Florence Kelley's Speech

Killing two birds with one stone is exactly what Florence Kelley does in her speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention on July 22, 1905. She argues against unfair child labor laws by utilizing emotional appeal, using rhetorical questions, and employing repetition. Kelley does this in order to convince her audience if women had the right to vote there would be better child labor laws. Kelley’s utilization of emotional appeal invokes a number of different emotions onto the audience. For example, Kelley states “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to

She asks a number of questions throughout the speech, specifically Kelley asks “If the mothers and teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?”(lines 55-58) Kelley asks this question to assert the argument of women’s suffrage. Kelly argues that if women had the right to vote there would be better guidelines for child labor laws. Kelley also asks “ Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised?”(lines 59-62) Kelley takes this opportunity to emphasize the importance of women fighting for their rights to vote. This rhetorical question acts as a call for women to fight even harder for their rights, because now Kelley introduces the idea that they are fighting for their rights in order to save their kids. Ultimately Kelley uses the child labor argument as a segue to her women’s rights argument, she argues that if women could vote there would be better child