New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-29
The Women's Campaign

chance of reversal, as direct consequence
of the war, vast numbers of human
beings have achieved conquests of liberty
and right upon a stupendous scale.
20 The one hundred and fifty millions of
onfranchised Russians stand out as the
most striking figures upon this new hori-
ION. Yet less sweeping revolutions in
other nations are likely to have not less
important results and to add at least
equal benefits to the future wellbeing and
growth of mankind. England has seen
revolution in Parliamentary attitude
which seems destined to advance the cause
of the working classes of the British
Isles long group of decades toward JUS
tice and fair participation in the wealth
Of their land Here in America, last to
enter the war, we are but just beginning
to feel the impulse of our great under
taking, and the last days in the Senate
are our first sign Of that new appreciation
of national unity and individual duty
which are already remaking the nations
of Europe.
The swift onrush of the cause of woman
will always be ranked high among the
liberating gains of the war. The Pro-
visional Government of Russia has al
ready granted the vote to women, and
this decision is certain to be made perma-
nent in the constitution of new Russia.
In England the lifelong opposition of such
great Parliamentary leaders as Mr.. AS
quith has vanished, and the reform bill
now pending in Parliament, with every
prospect of success, will enfranchise the
hulk of English women. In Canada, at
cur gates, the provinces of Alberta, Sas-
katchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia
and Ontario have given the vote to women
since the outbreak of the war. Backward
and ultra conservative Quebec, relatively
little stirred by the war, is the chief
Canadian unit still protesting against the
change. Broadly speaking, Canada has
taken her stand with those other great,
self governing commonwealth Of the
British Empire, Australia and New Zea-
land.
At such a moment in the advance of
women the world over the women of New
York State are gathering this week at
Saratoga to open their campaign in be-
half of the constitutional amendment to
I Re voted upon in November. In the
larger sense, that campaign has been UNI
Ger way ever since the Great War began
and the extraordinary place and work of
women in the fighting nations first be-
came a matter of record. The democracy
i Of America could not be insensibe to the
great movements of liberation in other
nations. Already before our entrance into
the war it is safe to say that the cause of
women was advancing with great strides
in every community in America.
To the record of American women since
April the sufragists at Saratoga can
point with justified pride. We have not
vet sent sufficient of our manhood into
camp to require the entrance of women
into industries upon the same scale as in
England and France. But their readiness
end ability have already been demon
strated in shop and factory. In the activi-
ties of the Red Cross, of the Liberty Loan
sale. in the food campaign, notably in the
rel in which women could lend hand,
the response Of American women has been
superb.
And in the forefront Of each of these
movements here in our own New York
have stood the women who are suffragists.
Wisely and periodically the suffrage
leaders Of New York abandoned the bulk
Of their formal campaign for the vote and
turned the whole of their great organza-
ton, numbering a half million women in
this city and million in the state, into
war activities. What it meant TO have
the assistance of the trained and organ
lied women Of suffrage the men who CO.
operated with them in the census work
have testified. All that the suffragists
now propose, we understand, in the re-
naming weeks before Election Day is the
minimum Of appeal required TO inform
the voters Of the issue impending.
II Is not too much 10 say that the war
has o5litersted practically every argu-
ment which the anti-sufragists put for
ward. Upon no other theory can the con-
version Of Mr.. Asquith and similar oppo-
inents Of great ability and courage be ex-
.plained. Such is, we think, the growing
conviction Of fair-minded men in every
nation. With the ground thus swept from
under them, the remaining opponents Of
suffrage nave had but one recourse. That
was 10 seize upon the actions Of those few
misrepresentatjve and unpatrotic women
who are picketing the White House at
Washington and attempt 10 magnify 1t