Mohave County miner., 1916-12-09
SWEDISH WOMEN MUST WAIT AT LEAST FIVE
 YEARS ID CAST VOTE
IFrom wsdnssdaye Daily MinsrI

Sweden, the only one of the Scandina- vian countries in which women do not enjoy the same right to vote as the men, must at best wait some five years before complete enfranchisement of it's women, but that the goal will uld- mately be reached not only here but in other 'backward countries is the firm conviction of the National Swedish Woman's Suffrage association which has just concluded it's annual eonven- ton.
 Reports made at the convention showed a greatly increased interest in the movement throughout Sweden. There are now nearly 17,0o0 women enrolled in the association and some 200 branch organizations. Particularly gratifying to the leaders was the re- port of great growth of interest among the country's clergymen, as well as among men generally. Mems associations for woman suffrage were formed during the year at Kristian- stad and Malmo, and some of the best known Swedish men are beginning to interest themselves actively in the movement.
 Most of this progress is the work of only IA years, although efforts to im- prove the position of women generally were begun at an early period, Sweden standing in the front rank of Euro pean countries in this respect. It was not until 1902, however, that a definite organized movement to secure votes for women was begun. The impetus for this was given by a man, Burgo- master c. A. Lindhagen of Stockholm. Burgomaster Lindhagen, who was a member of the second chamber of the riksdag, presented a woman suffrage bill in the lower house. It was de- feated by III to 64.
 The first notable victory was in 1906, when both chambers of the par lament decided to petition the govern ment to investigate the subject of wo- man suffrage. This report was sub mitted to the riksdag in 1911. In the meantime (1907) universal franchise had been granted the Swedish men, and the first use they made of it was to elect liberal government, in which K. A. Staaf was premier. Staaf pre- sented a woman suffrage bill in 1912 as a government bill, and it was sup ported by the constitutional committee of the riksdag. The upper chamber defeated it 86 to 5S, but the lower against.
 A further unavailing effort was made this year to induce Herr Ham marskjold, present premier, to make a government measure of the bill. A change of the nature proposed involves an amendment to the constitution, and hence must be adopted by both houses of two successive parliaments. The riksdag session early in 1917 will be the last session of the present parlia- ment, and, although conditions have apparently not altered since the last unsuccessful attempt, the women see themselves compelled to make another effort to secure the passage of politi- cal equality measure. The bill will probably be presented as a Social Democratic party measure. But even in the unlikely event of it's passage, woman's suffrage could not come into effect in Sweden until the autumn of 1921, so there is still a long fight ahead.
 At least two of the principal ob- stacles are the opposition of the men and the anomalous as it may seem-that the women already enjoy the communal franchise.
 Their possession of the communal franchise obliges women exercising 1t to be regularly enrolled with their party. The conservatives oppose woman suffrage. That means that the conservative women are faced with the choice of breaking away from their party or else of opposing suffrage for themselves, and thus far the part call and incidentally their allegiance to the men of their families-has proved the stronger.
 The fact that of all Scandinavian countries, Sweden is the only one where the women do not enjoy the same right of franchise as the men, is due to a variety of causes. The Fin nish women secured the vote mainly as a result of the important part they took in their country's struggle for liberty more than a decade ago. Their enfranchisement came in 1906. The Norwegian women took an active part in the events leading up to the sep | J