Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-01
ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE
Hearing Before the Senate
Committee.
SENATOR WARREN'S BILL
Urged by Rev. Olympia Brown and
Mrs. Belva Lockwood.
STRONG ARGUMENTS PRESENTED
Why Women Should Vote for Mem
bers of the House of
Representatives..
STRONG ARGUMENTS PRESENTED


There were present Senator Bacon and
third member of the committee, was not
present.
The bill before the committee was advo-
Gated by Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine,
Wis, sister of former Senator Brown of
Utah; Mrs. Belva Lockwood of the District
of Columbia and Mrs, Amelia V. Petty of
Lakewood n. ].
The speakers strongly urged that the
committee, if it could do more, in order
to promote womans suffrage should report
to the Senate Senator Warren's bill, lin
ORDER as Miss Brown expressed it, that
senators may discuss this subject
The advocates of woman's suffrage were
then surprised when Senator Bacon in
formed them that it was not necessary to
report the bill in order to permit a discus
sion of that subject in the Senate. Senator
Bacon declared that it was well known that
the bill could not pass the Senate at this
time. SO that no substantial benefit could be
secured should it be reported, because, he
explained, any senator might by introduce
ing resolution of three lines in the Senate
speak on wonians suffrage long he
pleased.
Rev. Olympia Brown.
The first speaker at the hearing today
was Rev. Olympia Brown, who in a schol-
arly manner outlined the great fight that
has been made in favor OF this movement.
She said that it had been on trial in Wy
onIing for between thirty and forty years,
and in Colorado, Idaho and Utah for many
years. 1t had been adopted by most of the
countries of Europe and Endorsed by the
best speakers and most distinguished men
in the civilized world.
Statesmen, historians and literary men,
she said, agree that there is no ground
upon which men hold the right of suffrage
that does not apply with equal force to
women.
She said the only question before them
was a practical one which related to the re-
moval of the barriers against the right of
women to vote.
The changing of the Constitution by
means of sixteenth amendment prohibit
ing states from DISTINGUISHING citizens on
account of sex would" she said settle
the whole question, and for many years
we have sought such an amendment. The
late lamented Mrs Stanton insisted upon
this as the only solution of the problem,
and as citizen she appealed to that great
body, the Congress of the United States,
which has been intrusted with the guard
ianship of the liberties of the whole peo-
pie and she scorned to make her appeal to
any inferior body
The difficulties in the way of achieving
the right to vote had, she said, caused
women in favor of the suffrage to seek
other means. She said the election of fed
eral officers ought to be under the control
of the federal government.
That power" she said, was given in
section of article of the Constitution,
which provides that Congress may at any
time by law make or order SUCH regula-
ton meaning regulations made by state
legislatures for the election of representa-
tves."
This was authority, she believed, for au-
thoriZing Congress to provide that women
should vote for members of the House OF
Representatives.
And this office of representative pro-
vided for by the Constitution, she sad,
Ial nv of he
That women are people no one can deny.
The dictionary definition of people Is first
all human beings-under the same govern
ment speaking the same language, being
of the same blood the same tribe or the
same state Women possess every htt.i-
butte of a human being.
Still further the Constitution, she said,
provides each House shall be the judge
of elections and returns and qualifications
of its own members" OF what value would
this power be if the House had no right
to interfere with or change the regula lions
made by the legislatures of the different
states in selection? The purpose of this
section was evidently to secure to the Con-
gress of the United States the ultimate
control of the election of federal officers
to the end that the right of suffrage
might be preserved to the people. And this
is necessary to the integrity, the dignity
and the permanent existence of this branch
of the government. A government with
out citizens, a citizen without vote,
Legislative body without power over the
election ofits own members, are absurdties
which were never contemplated by the
trainers of our government"
Concluding. Miss Brown said:
THE fact of sex should have no more
to do with the right TO vote than should
the color of the hair or the eyes. Qualified
citizenship is the only question. The ego
tsm, the assumed superiority of men, is
both amusing and pathetic. Not till the
equality of women-mothers wives sisters
is recognized and their help In the great
problems of the social order is welcomed
can the world reach higher"
She assured members of the committee
that once they should take a stand on this
question they would be astonished "a the
number of people who would approve their
course, and at the power that would come
to them.
looking on waiting to help you in this
work
Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood
Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood delivered an
able address on woman's suffrage In favor
of the passage of the Warren bill She
said that Senator Warren. who introduced
this bill, comes from a state where wo-
men have been voting for ten years with
out disturbing the order of nature or of
civilized society. The bill. she said, is SINH
lar TO the one that was before the COM
mittee in the last Congress. The advocates
of this legislation she said had been talk
ing to Congress for the last twenty-five
or thirty years on this same question, so
| by this time. The legislatures OF four
| states have granted this right to women,
| and in two of them women have been yot-
| ing for the last twenty years
The old order" salad Mrs. Lockwood
| that drew the great distinction between
| men and women has been almost radically
| changed by the very advancement that has
| been made In our civiliza ton 1t has lifted
| to a great extent the drudgery from the
| shoulders of women so far as domestic and
/ household duties are concerned by the in
| PRODUCTION of labor-saying machinery much
! of which was invented by women but more
| of 1t applied, so that women today have
become a great economic factor in the
| world of work, and are employed outside
| of their homes to large extent
"F'our-fifths of our public schools. a great
| lever that has moved the people of the
| United States onward and upward, in cfvi-
| lization and culture. are today being taught
| by women while you could number on your
! fingers the higher institutions of learning
| in this country that have not their corps
| of women as instructors. They are not