New Britain herald., 1916-08-11
WOMEN FIGHT AT
 FIRST CONFERENCE
Selection Of Resolutions Commit tee Brings Out Sharp Differences

Colorado Springs Col, Aug. H.
 Sharp differences regarding the man.
 her of selecting resolution commit
 tee to draft a statement of the elec-
 ton policy of the Womans national
 party developed at the first formal ses-
 sion of the national conference here | today. A substitute motion that the
 committee consist of twelve members
 instead of five as first proposed and
 that the members be selected by each
 state instead of by the national chair
 man was lost by vote of forty to for ] ty-tWo.
 An amendment intended as a com promise was immediately passed in- creasing the personnel of the commit l tee to eleven-one from each suffra SC 1 state represented and the original mo- tion was then passed unanimously. Miss Anne Martin, national chairman, 1 announced the selection of Mrs. Will liam Kent of California as chairman and said the names of the others 1 would be selected later.
 | Freedom For All | Until all the women of the United | States are free, none of them are free,
  of Wilmington, Del, in speaking here today at the conference of the Ma l tional Womans Party. Mrs. Hilles, herself a democrat and the daughter of the late Thomas Bayard, secretary of state under Cleveland and this cOuntrys first ambassador to Great Britain, asserted that there had been "gross injustice" shown by the pres ent house judiciary committee toward the Susan B. Anthony amendment and the efforts Of the women to have it giv en a fair trial.
 After recitirg how, at the first hear ing of the congressional union before the committee, "the chairman and some of the members treated the Wo- men to a sort of inQUisitorial hearing, characterized by ill-breeding, discount esy and gross injustice" and how la ter through a political deaI' the suffrage amendment was Jumped to- gether with the prohibition and sev- enteen other amendments, contrary to all parliamentary procedure Mrs. Hilles said:
 ''The sooner the women of this country, more than half of whom are unrepresented in government, aWaS- en to the fact that this is the kind of
 
 vital interests are subjected the soon- CT will there rise, as indeed it has ris- en, a tide of action that will put an end to such tactics. Individual liberty IS the essential basis of free govern ment, and under our form of govern ment both political eXpediency and pO- litica1 justice demand the national enfranchisemert of women. Until all the women of this country are free, none of them are free.
 "Tho hopeless task of state refCrCn- dumS has taught women the futilitN of such action and the necessity for con ccntration on the federal amendment. Undoubtedly enough states arc now won to enable the most skeptical Ob- server to see that the political power already in the hands of women them selves is sufficient to win freedom for all wOmen."
 Saws Women Have Balance of Power.
 Declaring that only a small turn over of votes was needed in any of the twelve western woman suffrage states to change the result of the presidential election in November, Mrs. William Kent, of Kentt1eld, Cal, wife of Representative Kent, national chairman of the Wilson non-parti- san league, last night told the repre- sentatives of the woman's party that they held in their hand the power to secure a federal amendment enfran- 1 chisine the women of the nation.
 '"The time has come for the fulfill | ment of this dream which many years | a 20 came into the vision of Susan B. 1 Anthony and a few other women but ! which gradualy spread until today it ! is the desire of vast majority of the | women all over the United States" | said Mrs. Kent. "The women today i have the political power to demand | their rights and they propose to see | to it that justice be extended to every 1 woman in the United States.
 "Only/a a small percentage of the l more than 100000 women votes in the west will be sufficient to determine l election results at the polls in Mo- 1 vember. Not all of these women 1 will vote with the woman's party, | some of them dividing along old party l lines. Many women will remain i away from the polls: so will many 1 men. That will not alter the result | and does not change the important 1 political fact that those voting with the Woman's party for the best inter est of the federal woman suffrage will have a balance of | power vital to the interest, not only of the political party desiring our sup port but vital also to the cause of woman suffrage in the United States The women of the west will not fail in their duty to themselves and to the other women of the nation. Let us fulfill now the task so WOrthily be- gun by those before us who have worked to bring about the passage of a national amendment enfranchising Women.'
 Calls Congress a Failure
 Indifferent to the opportunity which was offered it to make record for itself 9 f11O6 dem