Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-08-29

women throughout the United States
for Is years. She was a member of
the original group which secured the
passage of the Juvenile court law in
| Illinois, and organized and financed
the operation of the court during its
early days. To her interest has been
due no little of the success of the
| playground system of Chicago, a sys-
tenn copied by various other cities
since it's inception. She was also
one of the originators of the civic
music movement and the champion of
the small park and beach improve
ments for Chicago. Her interest in the
passage of the woman suffrage act in
/ Illinois was an important factor to-
ward its success.
! When it is recalled that Illinois has
| enacted more legislation during that
! time concerning the welfare of wom-
en- and children than has any other
state in the union, it will be realized
/ that Mrs. Bass work has been extern
sive as well as vitality important.
! The mothers pension bill, the law
providing for the care of the feeble
minded, and numerous other special
! measures owe their creation to her
unseIfish labors in behalf of the wards
! of the state who were unable to plead
/ their own causes.
THE first step in the organization
J. of the women voters of the suffrage
! states" said Mrs. Bass, lis the pre-
/ sentation to them of proof that the
| democratic party has been even
/ friendlier to the cause of woman suf-
/ frage than the republican party has
! been. The proof of the friendliness is
to be found in the history of the suf-
{ frage cause, and any one who claims
the contrary makes the claim out of
republican partisanship and not out
of any honest interest in suffrage
"The cause of woman suffrage be-
came a live issue in the United States
about twenty years ago For the 20
years that it has progressed the re-
publican party was in power. During
that time the suffrage lobbyists in
Washington failed to receive even
courteous treatment from the men in
power.
When the democratic party came
into power four years ago the suf-
frage committees in congress became
for the first time important commit
tees Before that time they had been
merely nominal When Senator
Thomas of Colorado assumed the
craftsmanship of the senate commit
tee on suffrage, he asked for and re-
ceived as members of his committee
men of national importance who were
interested in the advancement of
woman suffrage. thus insuring to suf-
fragists not only personal curiosity
but genuine friendship for their cause.
The Congressional Union, seeking
the passage of the federal amendment
for universal suffrage, claims that the
democratic party fails TO favor women,
and now wages a campaign against
the party because the democrats dld
not pass that measure.
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait, presi-
dent of the National American Suf-
frage association, from which the
Congressional Union seeded after the
association deemed it inadvisable to
accept the unions recommendations
on congressional policy, is authority
for the contradiction of the Congress
sional Unions statement. Mrs. Gait
has said that the 'anti-party policy is
a monkey wrench thrown in the ma
chinery of suffrage evolution and
contrary TO the long established and
tried policy of suffrage non-partisan-
ship which neither endorses nor OPP
poses a political party. Mrs. Gait
herself has said that the unions pol
lev is futile and foolish. particularly
as the massage of the amendment re-
ouires a two-thirds vote OF congress.
a majority which no party has con-
trolled since the time of the recon-
stTuCtion.'
I'm 1912 women voted in II states,
all west of the Mississippi river and
all originally republican strongholds.
Eight of these states. Arizona, Colo
RADIO. Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon and Wyoming, went demo-
cratic California and Washington
went progressive. Titan alone went
republican. If women with experience
! in suffrage testify by thelr votes 10
the fairness of the democratic party
| to women. is not their testimony
worth whileg
I'm 1915 Woodrow Wilson. presi-
dent of the United States, went TO New
| Jersey TO vote for woman suffrage.