The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-09-07
WAR HAS proven
WOMAN'S WORTH
WHEN CONFLICT Is OVER WON.
EN- WILL DEMAND THE PLACE
SHE HAS MADE FOR HERSELF:
SUFFRAGE IS STRONGER THAN
EVER
(By Associated Press

| ~ SoSidtCu TTeSS.
Auiahtic City, N. j., Sept. Mrs.
carrie Chapman Gait, President of the
National American Woman's SufYrape
Association. in her address before the
anuual convention af the Association
mere today pictured the suffrage move.
ment as having reached a crisis which
mean that "The Women's Hour Has
struck" Earnestly. she exhorted the
women not to lose heart but to recoe.
nize the present opportunity which "if
seized with vigor, enthusiasm and
Will, means the final victory of our
great cause in the very near future !"
She said. in part:
THE great war will bring untold
changes In its wake; 1t presages a
total change in the stxtus of women.
In Europe. from the Polar Circle to
the Aegean Sea women have risen and
taken the places made vacant by men.
and In so doing they have grown in
seif-respect and in the esteem of their
respective nations. Indeed, Europe ia
realizing as it never did before. that
women are holding together the civil
lization for which men are fighting.
A great searchlight has been thrown
upon the business of nation-buildinp
and 1t has been demonstrated in everv
European land that it is a partnership
with equal but different responsible.
ties resting upon the two partners
THE war will soon end and the
armies will return to their native
lands. To many a family, the men
VIII never come back. The husband
who returns to many a wife will eat
no bread the rest of his life save Of
her earning.
What then will happen after the
war? Will the widows left with fam
lilies to support cheerfully leave their
well-paid posts for those commanding
over wages? Not without protest!
'The economic axiom, denied and evad.
ed for centuries will be embalzoned on
every factory, counting house and
shop; Equal pay for equal work.;
and common justice will slowly hut
surely enforce that law. The Euro.
pean woman has risen. She may not
realize it yet but the woman door.
mat" in every land has unconsciously
hlcnmn -iov,
become accustomed to her new dig
nifty by the time the men come home.
She will wonder how she ever could
have been content lying across the
threshold now that she discovers the
upright jamb gives so much broader
and more normal vision of things.
In Great Britain. which was the
storm center of the suffrage move
ment for some years before the war.
hundreds Of bitter. active opponents
have confessed their conversion to
woman suffrage on account of the war
services of women. Already. three
great provinces of Canada, Manitoba,
Alberta and Saskatchewan. have given
universal suffrage to their women in
sheer generous appreciation of their
war work. Even Mr. Asquith, world
removed for his immovable opposi-
ton to the Parliamentary suffrage for
British women, has given evidence of
change Of view. Some months ago.
he announced his amazement at the
utterly unexpected skill. strength and
resource developed by the women and
his gratitude for their loyalty and de-
votion. A public statement issued by
Mr.. Asquith in August. was couched
in such terms as to be interpreted by
many as a pledge to include women in
the next election bill
"The significance of the changed
status Of European women has not
been lost upon the men and women
of our land; our own people are not
so unlearned in history, nor SO lacking
in National pride that they will allow
the Republic to lag long behind the
(Continued on pSga a