The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-27
Su&ragists Ask Committee to
Report Favorably on a Con-
stitutional Amendment.
Dr.. Anna H. Shaw Among Speakers.
Congressman in Delegation Asking
for Enfranchisement of Sex.

|
| frage yesterday morning The meeting
was held under the auspices of the
| American National Woman Suffrage AS
| ISOLATION to urge the adoption of a Con-
stitutional amendment making the wom-
en- of the country equally responsible
with men in affairs of government. The
| Senate office room in which the meeting
| was held was crowded to its capacity,
the halls were filled. and to those wait
ing in the corridors came repeated
sounds of applause as the speakers
| scored the injustice of holding women
as a class in perpetual tutelage.
| Members of the committee before
which the hearing took place themselves
several times joined in applauding the
I speakers.
An eloquent plea for the political free
| dom of women, entering into all the gen.
eral aspects of the proposed reform, was
made by DIR. Anna Howard Shaw. presi-
| dent of the A. N. w. S. A, closing the
| hearings before the committee on behalf
Of submitting the constitutional amend
ment.
DIR. Shaw's Argument.
DIR. Shaw. in part. said:
I'VE shall keep coming back to you
in Congress with our demand for equal
suffrage. Our children and our children's
children will come to you, until this
country shall have become. not a democ-
racy in name. but a democracy in fact.
I'VE are not afraid of the women who
are going up and down the land fighting
| against our cause. The pity of it is that
there are just enough of these good
women, who. by holding out their skirts,
act as screen for the proprietors OF
dens of vice. of gambling houses. and
other evil men, who are the real oppo-
nents of woman suffrage.
President Wilson and Secretary of
| State Bryan who have spoken and writ
ten so eloauently and forcefully of the
principles of Democracy, have never an
nounced themselves in favor OF woman
suffrage. Why is It?
II would be in favor of woman suf-
frage if it did nothing but harm. be-
cause the only path to good government
is just government.
There has been much talk of the num-
Der of illiterate votes which would be
added to the electorate by the enfran-
| chisement But, OF the "A, 000, 900 posi-
| be women voters in this country, only
| 100000 are illiterate. a percentage OF
| literacy far better than the men can
| show
DR.. Shaw presented the speakers to the
| committee.
Others who spoke were Mrs Helen III.
Gardener, Miss Helen Varick Boswell
president of the Womans National As
ISOLATION; Mrs. William Kent. wife OF
Representative Kent of California; SEN
ator Shafroth of Colorado; Representa-
tive Bryan of Washington; Mrs. Harvey
w. Wiley, Clifford Pinchot. Mrs. p. P.
Claxton, wife Of the United States Com
missioner of Education: Senator Brady
| of Idaho. and Mrs. Robert La Toilette,
| wife of Senator La Toilette OF Wisconsin.
A magazine article by Mrs. Rosamond
Sutherland was read to the committee, as
| Mrs Sutherland was unable to attend
| the hearing.
Quotes the President.
| Mrs. Helen H. Gardener. in her adj
Dress quoted recent utterances of Presi-
| dent Wilson. Secretary of State Bryan,
| and William Randolph Hearst, with good
| effect The value of these utterances i'll
determining the positions of these three
| men to the women's cause" Mrs. Car
dener said, hinges upon the question:
| do they consider the women to be
people,?
After quoting the Secretary of State
on fundamental principles, as the Sec
rotary understands them, Mrs. Garde-
| ner said:
Are women individuals? Are they
people? Did our Secretary of State
really mean these words at their par
| value?
| THE arguments against woman suf-
| frage are. in point of fact, arguments
| against self-government. They are the
| arguments which have been used by
king to serf in all the ages past-with
woman now the disqualified unit. in
stead of labor or poverty or any other
| lower class"
IF government is to rest upon suf-
! frsge at all, that is. upon the expressed
1 Mill Of nod a king
\ right who is to decide that you are
born with that divine right to vote
| Ito express yourself in civic affairs)
and that / was born without?
Where and how did man get that
right and where and how did woman
lose it? How did one type Of human
units get the right to decide that an
! other type should not have liberty or
| conscience?
IF it is divine right what par
ticular streak of divinity has been dis
| covered in men that is not in women?
IF it is not a natural inherent, hui
| man right, then they say 1T is a con-
ferred privilege" Who confers it? On
what basis? Where did they get it to
| confer? Is not special privilege in gov
eminent the ultimate analysis Of wrong
and outrage? Is 1t not the one basic
| outrage that progress has tried to fight
and to destroy since history began?"
Clubwomen Are Defended.
| Miss Helen varick Boswell followed
Mrs. Gardener and made vigorous de-
\ Tense of the clubwomen. who, she said,
were accomplishing a great deal of good
| for the country. In speaking on the
bearing of the clubwomen's work to
equal suffrage, she said:
81 am what is called a clubwoman and
| il is growing to be a profession and a
noble one The vast majority of club
| women today are coming out openly in
support Of the effort for equal suffrage
! because they, as a part of public opinion,
have been stirred on the vital questions
| of today, have found that every such
question affects first the home, whether
| it be called a question of tariff of the
| suppression Of vice, of vocational guild
| ance. of sanitary conditions for work
people. 1t all comes back to the kind OF
| laws we have and to the kind of people
! who are administering the laws, and the
4 clubwoman sees that she must not only
do her share as a citizen in educating
the public and extending the knowledge
of the needs for reform legislation, but
she must be able directly, with the men
| in whom she believes, to vote for the
laws or against them, that are proposed,
\ and for the men or against them who
are nominated for the position of ad.
| ministrator for those laws"
/ Mrs. william Kent spoke upon what
the vote has accomplished for the State
of California and what 1t means to the
women there. Mrs. La Toilette showed
that economic problems affected by the
actions of the State were of lust as vita I