The Green Forest tribune., 1916-02-25
EQUAL SUFFRAGE CHAMPIONS WORKING HARD FOR FED-
 ERAL LAW TO AID CAUSE.
SENTIMENT IS FAVORABLE
Congressmen in Both Houses Heeding Pleas and Threats From Skirted Leaders in Washington and in the Home Districts All Over Nation.
By GEORGE CLINTON.


 the question of woman suffrage, no matter what their opinions may be as to the wisdom of granting the vote to the women of the land. So it is that woman suffrage is still a prime mat ter of interest and perhaps concern in the congress of the United States.
 There are many woman suffrage champions in this city today. For some reason or other they have strengthened their hopes recently until they have taken on the sem blance of actual confidence, that in each of the three national conven- tions next June there will be resolu- tion indorsing the movement for which many of the women have been fighting for so many years.
 The women with the suffrage cause at heart have been working in Wash ington for the last three years harder than perhaps anybody supposed it was in women to work. There have been rows in the suffrage camp as witness the trouble between the National Suf- frage association and the Congress sional Union, but the end sought has been the same in all factions, and the driving has been along the same road.
 Women to Win Finally.
 Congress will vote again this year on the proposition to submit suf- frage amendment to the states. There is little chance that it will carry by a majority necessary to put the reso- lution into effect, but if the happen ings of last year can be taken as a symptom it Is probable that the vote will be heavy enough to supply req son to the women for thinking that is on stable basis.
 What makes the women so certain today that Democrats and Republic ans, and, of course, ProgreSsives, will sanction their cause by inserting suf- frage blanks in their platforms? 5One by one many of the leaders in con- gress have been announcing fealty to votes for women. Most of the Demo crats from the Southern states have declined to sanction suffrage, -iDut tie tie president pronounced in favor of it sometime ago, although he said that it was matter for the states individ- ually to settle
 Public announcement of some of the leaders, the women say, are not the only things upon which they are building faith in their ability to get what they want from the national conventions. These women have been working away on the sympathies and perhaps the fears of senators and rep resentatives in congress, but they also have been working away back in the home districts where the women lead CTS now in Washington have lieuten- ants zealously preaching and trying to induce the converts to let their rep resentatives in Washington know of their conversion.
 The women in Washington seem to be sure that as a result of all this the delegates to the national conven- tions will feel the impulse of the movement and of the alleged change in the thoughts of members of con gress and will be ready to urge or, at any rate, to agree, that suffrage blanks shall be put into the platforms. It must be understood that this is only setting forth of the views of the women, who, it must be admitted are extremely optimistic. The fact re- mains, however, that the change in the sentiment in congress toward the question of suffrage is marked.
 Congressmen Are Listening.
 It may be tha, great many of the members of congress of all parties are no more favorable to suffrage than they were some years ago, but there are several states now in which the women can vote, and as their field of operations increases in size the in- fuence of the movement is felt more broadly, and so some of the congress- men who are good politicians perhaps think that it is wise to give the move ment more careful consideration to- day than they gave it in the past.
 Once on a time it was quite the thing in congress to send suffrage resolutions of all kinds to the com mittees on judiciary, who promptly shelved them and would have been willing to forget all about them were it not for the fact that the suffragists kept asking for action. Action, how ever, was never forthcoming. The judiciary committee of the house a year ago finally got tired of bearing the blame for smothering suffrage resolutions.
 The suffrage resolution will be al- lowed to go before the house again this year and rule for it's consid- eration will be supplied by the house committee on rules, which has a ma jority in it that do not believe in the suffrage cause. The change of the attitude toward suffrage is shown by this forthcoming action of the rules committee. In the years past when a committee was antagonistic to thing it stood out against its submis- sion, but now since suffrage has be-