The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-28
CONNECTICUT
 SUFFRAGE NEWS
(By A. c. Porritt. }

Mrs Ernest Tho mpson Seton, vice president of the Connections Woman
 Suffrage Association, has just recently returned from a short visit to Cuba On her return to this country she had it forcibly and disagreeably brought to her attention that the United States penalizes women who commit the crime
 of marrying a. foreigner, by depriving them of their citizenship. Such wona7 en, although they may be American
 born and of the purest American an- cestry are henceforth aliens. unless
 and until their husbands consent to
 naturalize and thus to carry their wives back into American citizen ship.
 Mir Ernest Thompson Seton, al- though he has become so thoroughly identified with this country, in the
 minds of the readers of his delightful books, is an English subject He was
 born at Shields in the county of Dur ham, and his first residence when he crossed the Atlantic was in Canada He and Mrs Seton were married in 18s6 but even after marrying an Amer 1 ican wife MT, Seton has been reluctant to give up his British nationality and as a woman has no citizenship in the 1 eyes of the law apart from her flus- band. Mrs. Seton is powerless either
 to retain or regain her status of IAmerican citizen. Hence when on the |
 to land at a port in Florida, she found
 that she was not allowed to do so. She must proceed as an alien to a
 port designated for the entrance of inn
 migrants and moreover she had to an- swer all the long list of questions l which is put to the men and women who come to this country from Europe
 Tor Asia Had it been discovered that she was suffering from any contagious disease or had she been poor wom- an and therefore in danger of becom- Ting a public charge, she might have been debarred from landing and de- ported-no to her native country, for
 that is CaliTornia-a state where wom- en are really citizens and have the
 vote-bl1t to the country of her hus- band.
 l Mrs Seton felt rather sore when she landed over this treatment by the United States government of American women q was born in California ? she said in recounting her claim to be an American, T am a property hold Ter and an income tax payer The sit nation is rfdicu1ous-a relic of the time when women had no legal existence
 When we get our breath after we gain the vote, one of the first mat ters for us to tackle is this disfran- tchisement and standardization of free
 born American citizens, provided the fsex be female, as a penalty for getting married" It is curious fact that Ilsome Of the most earnest of the suf- l frage workers are suffering from the same discrimination against their sex. Mrs. BIatch is a British citizen. and
 Miss Inez Mu1ho1IaTd married a Hol- lander and is now d subject of Queen WfheImina. No good American can
 wonder that these women resent being forcib1y thrust out of their own na-
 ton. especially when like Mrs Seton
 and Mrs. B1atch, they remain residents
 of the United States and continue to pay their taxes here.
 All over the United States there is a movement for the organization of Junior suffrage leagues. The sufbra4 gists usually make it a principle not l to accept as members any children or ] young girls, and this exclusion has
 been highly unpopular with many of