Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-01
TYRANNY OF MAN
FLAYED BY WOMEN
Club Issues Stirring Declaration
of independence as Token
of Rebellion
MRS. F0LTZ READS DOCUMENT
Fifty Women at Meeting Cheer
MadIy as Right to Vote
Is Expounded
MRS. FoLTz READS DOCUMENT

Almost on the anniversary Of the
date on which the historic Declaration
of Independence of 1875 was given to
the world, fifty enthusiastic women
members of the Votes for Women club
met last night in the Bryson building
and approved a new Declaration of In
dependence. 1t does not declare inde-
pendence of mentor 1t was admitted
that men must be used to get the
franchise for women-but 1t recltes a
long train of tyranny, usurpation and
oppression on the part of man.
Mrs. Clara Shortridge Foltz presided
at the meeting, made the principal
speech and read the declaration. She
is president of the club, an attorney
and an eloquent speaker, and her ad-
dress aroused great enthusiasm. MISS
Mary Foy and Miss Rose Ellerbee made
short speeches.
When in the course Of human events
it becomes necessary for one sex or
people to demand for themselves the
political privileges which nave long
been monopolized by another, and to
assume among their fellow creatures
the equal station to which the laws OF
nature and of natures God entitle
them, a due respect for the opinions OF
mankind requires that they should de-
clare the causes which have impelled
them to separation.
We hold these truths to be self-eYi-
dent: that men and women are created
equal. endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights; that among
these rights are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure
these rights, governments are instituted
among men and women deriving their
Just powers from the consent OF the
goYerned that whenever any form OF
government becomes destructive OF
these ends it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish IL.
All experience hath shown that
women are more disposed to suffer
while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed.
But when by long train of usurpa-
tions and abuses he has compelled
obedience to obnoxious laws on the one
hand and denied the most important
privileges on the other, it becomes their
duty to provide new guards for their
future security.
THE DECLARATION
Great has been the patient sufferance
of the women Of the United States, and
great is the necessity now which con-
strains them to demand an alteration OF
the system of government which i'm
poses laws and penalties upon soVer-
eign people without according them
the right of personal representation.
The history Of mans absolute gov
erning power in these United States is
a history of repeated usurpatlon and
injustice. Our brothers have refused to
pass laws the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good, and have
utterly neglected measures of vital i'm
portance to the people at large.
They have refused to enforce laws al
ready on the statute book necessary to
the safety of persons and property.
They have allowed large sums of
money to be embezzled and lost to the
government and have failed to bring
the criminals to justice
They have denied us all voice in
legislation and declared themselves In
vested with power to legislate for US
in all cases whatever.
They have levied taxes upon our
property without our consent and they
have denied us the privilege Of personal
representation.
They have given our colored brethren
the elective franchise, notwithstanding
their want of both educational and
property qualification, and have denied
it to us; and they have invested the
foreigner-Who has no knowledge OF
nor sympathy with our republican sys-
tenn Of government-the privilege of
voting upon all questions which equally
concern women.
They have denied us an equal chance
to serve the state by making our sex
a disqualification to holding elective
Offices.
In most of the states of this Union
they deny to women the right to act as
executrix or Administrative, often COM
pelling women to put their property In
the hands of strangers and involving
them in ruinous expense.
They have enacted a law of success
sion to property for women and a more
favorable one for themselves.
They have excited domestic insurrec-
tions among us by refusing us an equal
control of the joint accumulattons OF
the marriage community.
They have refused us in any case a
right of trial by jury of our peers.
Processing the utmost regard for us,
they nevertheless class us with idiots,
insane persons, criminals and China
men.
At every stage of these expressions
we have petitioned for redress in the
most humble terms. Our complaints
have been laughed at and our petitions
have been disregarded.
We have warned our brothers from
time to time that we would not submit
TO Lnelr uIWaIrdlldDle JurlSulCllOl.
We have appealed to their native JUS
tice and magnanimity, and by the ties
of our common kindred we have asked
them to disavow their usurpations
which inevitably work hardships On us
and are of no benefit to themselves.
They have been deaf to the voice of
Justice and consanguinity.
We therefore, as the representatives,
of the politically unrepresented women
of the United States, in conference as
semhed, appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the world for the rectitude of
our Intentions, do in the name and for
the benefit of the women of these
United States, solemnly demand that
women be made politically free and in
dependent; that henceforth they stand
as the political peers of their fellowmen;
that all political distinctions between
men and women be wholly abolished,
and that henceforth they be recognized
as co-laborers with men, with equal
rights with them to engage in all acts
in which free and independent people
may of right engage.