Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1913-07-31
URGE SENATE TO
give Them A
BALLOT
THOUSANDS OF WOMEN BEARING
LARGE PETITIONS ASKING FOR
ACTION ON WOMEN SUFFRAGE
AMENDMENT BESIEGE The SEN.
ATORS.
MANY SPEAK IN
WOMEN'S FAVOR

Washington, D, G., July 2l,-'Votes
for women was the demand today
from delegations of suffragettes from
every state in the Union who besieged
the senate chamber and bombarded
the senators with petitions bearing
thousands OF signatures, urging con-
sideration of woman suffrage amend
ment
The siege of the senate followed a
demonstration in the course of which
hundreds of women paraded from
Hyattsville. Md, through the country
roads and the city streets, down Penn
sylvania avenue and through the capt
Itol grounds. Members of the senates
women suffrage committee, which has
already fayorably reported the suff-
rage amendment met the petition
bearers and rode to the capitol with
them.
! Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the
/ Legislative committee of the National
american Woman Suffrage Associa-
| tion, officers of the association and
the senate committee headed the pa
trade. At the capitol it disbanded and
/ d cloud of femininity fluttered into the
senate wing. The dignified hush of
the imposing marble room just off the
senate chamber was shattered by the
demands of women from various
states, that their cards be taken to
their senator's. The pages We're busy
for the better part of an hour, hurry
| ing senator's from the chamber to
meet their constituents" armed with
ipetitions.
After the petitions had been pre-
scented, the delegations focked to the
galleries, where seats had been re-
'served and the woman suffragists or
the floor Of the senate took charge of
the demonstration. Senators Owen,
Ashurst, Poindexter, Jones, Works,
LANE, Smcot C'apn Thomas Slaf-
roth and Hollis made brief addresses
endorsing the petitions.
Senator Chamberlain of Oregon. all-
thor of the Womans Suffrage amend
ment now before the senate, made an
address of welcome.
eve welcome You TO the National
capital as the representative of hun.
dreds Of thousands of patriotic men
and women of the United States" he
said. "You are the bearers of petitions
to congress praying that justice shall
be done to the women of the land.
II extend to you cordial welcome
as the bearers of a message from the
PEOPLE of the whole country to the
congress of the United States and |
express the hope that your mission
may be successful beyond your hopes
and expectations"
Senator Clapp said, 'The time is not
far distant when the American people !
will confer on the American woman
the only weapon by means of which |
she can peacefully defend herself and
her children-the ballot"
For more than two hours the suff. |
rage demonstration continued. senator
after senator presenting petitions. !
When the time came to take up the |
tariff debate, Senator Simmons, in
charge of the bill, secured an agree.
ment that it be laid aside until the
suffrage petitions remaining could be |
received.
Practically every senator was arm.
ed with bundle Of the petitions
bound with the yellow ribbon of the
suffragists.
Senator Smoot, presenting the Utah
petitions, attacked militancy in the
fight for suffrage
Suffrage should be given not to
the Pankhursts and the militant radi
calls among our women" he said, "but
to those who follow in the womanly
footsteps of the American pioneers
for suffrage, Mary Ellen Foster, Susan
Anthony and others
Senators Jones of Washington, /,
Thomas and Shafroth of Colorado,
Iallinger, Poindexter and Works, OF
California, and Ashurst followed
Senator Poindexter declared the
movement for woman suffrage was
part of the general tendency of the
age toward enlarging the participa-
ton of the people in the government. ,
He declared it was difficult to con- !,
,eive of legal objection to the right :
Of women to vote, saying that the rea- !
son that men had superior. physical
strength no longer was a high enough ,
principle to substantiate the objec. ,
tion of women voting.
Take man like Jack Johnson"
said the senator, who at one time
was the champion prize fighter of the ,
world. If the highest privilege, the !.
highest right which a citizen can ex- :,
arcise is to be based on physical su- :.
periority, l suppose he would stand !.
very high I'm the state and in the esti-
nation Of the people"