Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-28
Incompetent to Deal
with Nations Affairs
as Said in Cam
paign
Slump on Appropriation Bills a
Striking Illustration - Jones
Case Shows Democratic Sem
ators in Revolt Against Adj
ministratiOn

Washington, d. CT. July 2.-(Spec-
ial)-The equal suffrage cause makes
a great advance with the Wilson ad-
ministration in Secretary of State Bry-
ans declaration for 1T. The women
have waged a relentless campaign be-
fore Congress all winter and spring.
Every few weeks a delegation has APP
peared before Senate or House to
present petitions or urge action upon
pending bills. While the sum total of
achievement as far as legislation for
woman suffrage is concerned, has been
nothing, there is not the slightest
question that the women have inn
mensely strengthened their demands
before the country by what they have
accomplished before Congress. The
Senate, 1t will be remembered, gave
majority some months ago for an
amendment to the Constitution which
would allow women the right TO vote,
but it was not the required two-thirds
majority. 1t was not questioned that
quite two-thirds of the senators fav-
ored votes for women but many of
these senatorial friends Aieved suf-
fraee should be granted by the states,
rather than by the nation.
Washington believes equal suffrage
for nearly all the states is not far
distant but that it will come by the
action of the states themselves. En-
ceptions will be in the South. where
people are more conservative on mat
ters of woman's rights. But the agita-
ton at the Capitol in recent months
has served to draw attention to the
suffragist cause generally and decid-
eddy to its advantage. President Will
son has received two big delegations
of women. who We're asking his assist
anee. He declined it on technical
grounds, one of them being that the
national convention at Baltimore did
not commission him to favor votes for
women.
Several states are voting Ihis au-
tumn on the question of woman suf-
frage and Nebraska, the home Of Sec
rctary Bryan is one of them, The Sec
retarS. as first man in Wilson's cabi-
net, declares for suffrage because he
wishes 10 take his stand on tins issue
in his home commonwealth. Inevita-
bly, this action will be interpreted as
indicating a friendship on the part of
the administration for woman suf-
frage. There are other members of the
Wilson cabinet. who favor equal suf-
frage and the women already can
count on strong sympathy for their.
activities in the Presidents official
family. Secretary of the Interior
Lane is from California, where women
vote.
The national conventions in 1916 will
be called upon to adopt equal suffrage
suffrage states and by 1916 there will
be several more. Indeed this autumn
the leading issue in some states is
over this very question of whether
women shall be permitted to vote. The
Western states have been foremost in
granting the privilege but the cam
paign has been waged vigorously in
the East.
July days fly by at Washington with
the administration getting deeper into
the tolls. Possibilities of a mighty
rupture between the President and his
party in the Senate multiply. In their
hearts Democrats of both branches
are rebellious against the White
House. Expediency. with Congress
sionai election ahead, alone restraints
them from walking off the reservation
for good and defying the President to
do his worst. 1t was supposed at first
that only three or four Democratic
senators would refuse to vote for the
confirmation OF Thomas D. Jones as
member of the federal reserve board
Hitchcock, O'Gorman and Reed were
the leaders Of the Democratic revolt
1t was thought unlikely the insurrec-
ton within the Democratic party
would extend beyond them. But it did
In fact the opposition to Jones, NOM
mated TO fill one Of the most import
art of1ices the President has to be-
stow, became ominous, so much so
that the President dropped nearly all
else and is devoting his energies TO
the fight to get Jones confirmed. The
administration was defeated.
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