Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-24
SUFFRAGE DISPUTE
ST|RS COMMITTEE
Idaho Representatives SIM
pIe Little Bill Starts
"Something.'
SUFFRAGISTS AND ANTS
IN VERBAL SKlRMISH
Swagar Sherley Talks Law and Miss
Price Tells Committee Why
Women Shouldn't Vote.

mer and tongs again today. this time
before the House committee on the cleo
ton of President, Vice President and
representatives in Congress, on the bill
by Representative French of Idaho to
permit women to vote for senators and
representatives. AS usual, during suffrage
and antl-suffrage arguments, the discus
sion went far afield of the particular bill
in hand and covered the Constitution,
Susan B. Anthony, feminism and politics.
Sherley Is Ready.
During the course of the talk Repre-
sentative Swagar Sherley of Kentucky
happened to hear Representative French
talking about cases in which he, Mr..
Sherley. had argued Mr.. Sherley, total
ly unprepared. leaped into the arena and
without the slightest hesitation gave cita-
ton after citation to the committee.
name, date, law book number and all.
while the anti-suffragists applauded until
their gloves were near the splitting point.
Miss Lucy Price of the District of
Columbia Association Opposed to Wom-
an Suffrage made one of the clever
est arguments against votes for
women" yet heard in the multifarious
sessions. and she took the opportunity
to walk all over the so-called "femin-
ist movement" grinding her sharp lit
tie heels into the PROSTATE form of
identity and social equals" etc,
while the growls of the friends of the
movement could be heard all over the
large caucus room in which the oc-
casion was staged.
Makes Legal Argument.
Representative French, author of the
bill under consideration. made legal
argument all the way through, claim
ing that sex has nothing to do with
qualifications for citizenship and tha,
the House can regulate the qualifca
tions of voters for congressman.
1t was following him that Representa-
tive Sherley told the committee that he
had argued in cases involving the right
of the federal government to impose or
force suffrage upon states, and brought
from his legal memory long array of
famous old cases of the reconstruction
days, when there were murders and out
RACES of all sorts attendant upon negro
attempts to vote.
Gave No New Rights.
1T has been settled said he in oppo-
sition to suffrage, that the right to vote
comes from the states. The fifteenth
amendment gave no new rights. It SIM
ply prevented the states from denying
the right because of three things-race
color or previous condition of servitude -
He also criticised attempts to pass laws
without proper consideration OF their
constitutionality, saying that it was a
vicious practice to unload the RESPONSE
bility upon the judiciary and one which
was nothing but piece Of cowardice.
Miss Price Asks Questions.
Il have heard much about the eman-
cipation of women said Miss Lu, y
Price, in opposition to suffrage. "but l
have not heard what it is that women
are to be emancipated from. Is suf-
frase the best thing for this country? p
that is the question. In the states where
only men vote the very things which
women are most interested in are han
died in the best manner by the state
legislatures The particular laws which
women want to see passed are passed in
the states where women don't vote" Miss
Price referred to the granting of votes
for women in the several states as
'thrusting suffrage on people who did
not want it" She also said that it does
not need women to get the best laws
passed: it needs the arousing of public
opinion, and that women could form a
part of public opinion very well without
voting. She said the only suffragist who
appeared before a certain state legisla-
ture in regard to laws for the benefit of
women, special rest rooms for woman
employees, wage regulations, etc, had
dealt wage-earning women a heavy blow.
This woman said that suffragists do
not want these special privileges for
women, but want women and men abso-
lutely equal
Rev. Olympia Brown Of Racine. Wis,
president of the Federal Suffrage Asso-
citation, headed the suffragists.
Speak for Suffrage.
Mrs Clara Berwick Colby, looking
straight into the eyes of a prominent
manufacturer of ice skates, said:
you must be all lawyers, you take
so much interest in the constitutional
points" She then traced the history of
womens rights all the way back to
Magma Charta. showed how women held
office and voted under Anglo Saxon GUS
tom, and how women voted in the col
onies under certain conditions:
Women helped ratify this Constitution
why not give them some rights un-
der it?''
Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary of the
National Association Opposed to Wom-
ans Suffrage, spoke of the advance of
womans suffrage as the spread of the
contagion,' and declared that the ma
jority. of women in the country are abso-