# Petition from Carrie Chapman Catt of the National American Woman Suffrage Association

* related portals: Women's suffrage.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
From the National Archives and Records Administration; Record Group 233: Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789 - 2015; Series: Petitions and Memorials, 1813 - 1968; File Unit: Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary during the 65th Congress, 1917 - 1919; ARC #306662
National American Woman Suffrage Association
BRANCH OF INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE AND OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN
HONORARY PRESIDENT Dr. ANNA HOWARD SHAW
| PRESIDENT Mrs. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT | 3RD VICE-PRESIDENT Miss ESTHER G. OGDEN | RECORDING SECRETARY Mrs. THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH Louisville, Kentucky |
| 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT Mrs. WALTER McNAB MILLER | TREASURER Mrs. HENRY WADE ROGERS | 1ST AUDITOR Miss HELOISE MEYER 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D. C. |
| 2ND VICE-PRESIDENT Mrs. STANLEY McCORMICK | CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Mrs. FRANK J. SHULER | 2ND AUDITOR Mrs. PATTIE RUFFNER JACOBS Altamont Road, Birmingham, Ala. |
| NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. 171 Madison Avenue, New York PRESIDENT Miss ESTHER G. OGDEN | National Headquarters 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill | CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Mrs. WALTER McNAB MILLER HEADQUARTERS 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D. C. |
April 10, 1917.
Hon. Champ Clark,
Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Washington, D. C.
My dear Sir:
On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I write to ask that a Committee on Woman Suffrage be appointed in the House of Representatives as in the Senate of the Congress of the United States. We make this request because the Judiciary Committee, to which constitutional amendments are referred, is and always has been so occupied with other important questions, that it has never been able to give the consideration due to this measure, supported by so large a portion of our people.
May I remind you that the national governments of Great Britain, France and Russia have promised woman suffrage in the near future; and that the greater part of Canada has already established it within a few months. The leaders of these governments have announced that the vote has been or will be given to their women in recognition of the devotion, sacrifice, skill and endurance of women in their varied service to their country under the strain of war. Our Republic stands upon the threshold of what may prove the severest test of loyalty and endurance our country has ever had. It needs its women; and they are ready — as fearless, as willing, as able, as loyal as any women of the world.
You have had a long and successful political career and that means that you know men and women. You know that both work better when their hearts bear no sense ​of being wronged. You will realize that our women will feel a less exalted patriotism, a less unselfish spirit of devotion, a less spontaneous desire to serve, if they are forced to carry a conviction that the monarchies of the world have been more just to their women citizens than this Republic has been to us.
Mr. Speaker, the women of our country appreciate the fact that you are yourself an advocate of our cause, but we do not presume upon your interest when we ask for a House Suffrage Committee. We ask it because the world is calling to the Congress of the United States to make better time if it would hold its place as Leader in the march of world democracy.
As a small concession to this world-wide movement, we beg you to recommend to the House the establishment of a Woman Suffrage Committee.
Very truly,
President.
CCC-S
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse