The Washington herald., 1915-01-31
mo COMPROMISE
WOMEN'S Slogan
Congressional Union Member
Tells Why Fighting Is
Forced.
NO FAITH IN CONGRESS
Lawmakers Would ship Over" Leg
islative Double Cross. Miss
Perry Warns.
NO FAITH In CONGRESS
BY EMILY KIRsHAw PERRY.

Two years ago, in January. the Con-
gressiOnal Union was started in Wash
ington as an affiliated member of the
National American Woman Suffrage As
sOciation, and in January. a year ago, ii
started out as an independent organiZa-
tlon. 1t has the honor Of having given
Washington and the Capitol at Washing
ton more real dynamic shocks than they
had ever received before in their quiet,
well-ordered existence. and 1t has kept up
the process of galvaniZation ever since.
The Sd of March. 1918. marked the birth
of live suffrage interest in this hitherto
sleeping city. There had. of course, been
clubs. small and large. which held their
monthly or semi-monthly meetings at the
hOmes Of some OF the members. There
had been educational classes held, in
Esperanto. French embroidery. etc. in
connection with these associations. and
many very good speeches on the neces-
sity and ethical righteousness of grant
ing the franchise to women had been
given at different parlor meetings.
But these meetings. somehow. never
got before the general public, one reason
for which was perhaps the lack of neces-
sary space to accommodate more than a
small section of said general public in
said parlOrs where meetings were held.
In fact, as 4 very candid Washington
woman has said many times. openly.
why, this city was dead asleep until
the Congressional Union came here and
started its onslaught on Congress and
on public opinion in the District. Many
of US have been suffragists for years,
having very strong convictions on the
subject, but we Just seemed to lack in
itiative enough to start any widespread
propaganda throughout the country un-
til this organization came"
Union "Started Things"
This same woman. at that time pres
ident Of one of the most fiOurIshing of
the above-named suffrage clubs in this
city. added enthusiastically:
Il think the men and women in this
city owe the founders of the Congress
sional Union debt of gratitude they
can never pay.
This organization not only saw
that the old, time worn, conservative
methods of winning suffrage State by
State, and presenting annual petitions
to Congress for the enactment OF the
long wished for Susan B. Anthony
amendment to the United States Con-
stitution had ceased to be sufficient; il
was brave enough to come out in
the open and say:
These methods are not enough to
Win suffrage we must use more di-
rect methods il we mean to win be-
fore another fifty years. Concentra-
tion is the keynote to business and
political success all over the globe
We Will concentrate on this amend
ment to the United States Constitution,
using the strength we already have Of
one-fifth of the Senate. one-seventh OF
the House, and one sixth of the en-
the electoral vote through the nine
States where women already vote on
equal terms with men. We shall or
ganize so far as possible strong SEN
timent for the constitutional amend
ment IN every State in the Union. and
work toward that end. One Constitu-
tion is infinitely more easily amended
than thirty-eight constitutions With
all the suffrage strength we have,
focused on this one amendment we
must surely win in less than one
fourth the time necessary to go
about the long drawn out. expensive
method of State by State work. This
has, of course, only been made possi-
BILE since the winning of the nine suf-
frage States"