The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-28
SUFFRAGE AID
 IN WAR WORK
To the Editor of The Age=Herald:

To the Editor of The e-Herald: Before war was declared it was pet pastime of the opponents of woman suf- frage to decry the patriotism and loyalty ! of suffragists. But in those dark Feb- | ruary days when the war cloud first 1 drew ominously close to America g watching world did not fail to take notice | that suffragists were foremost among | all women to put their organizations and 1 it's resources al their country's com mand. Since that date it has been in- creasingly evident that 1t is suffragists who are the country's main reliance for the much needed woman power to help | further the nations war measures. Those l opponents of suffrage who were sharpest in their impugning of suffrage patriotism have had to fall back silenced by the advancing banners of the suffrage hosts. Against the far-reac ching suffrage organi- zation programmes for war service they offer nothing save the scattering work of individuals.
 Paper organizations have proved of lit tie worth for war work in war time. That the coherency and ready resources of national, state and local suffrage or ganization have been the woman power machinery upon which the authorities have mainly come to rely is shown by a brief survey of the situation.
 Women selected for national counsel have been largely drawn from suffrage
 ranks, notably Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, as head of the womens committee of the
 council of national defense
 Registration days found o calls going out from hard-pressed government
 officials to suffrage headquarters all over the country for the use of suffrage district maps and suffragist staff officers
 skilled in city and state political di-
 visions. The response was swift from the Atlantic to the Pacific. How acceptably
 this work was performed is suggested by a telegram from the director of the mili-
 tary census of Nassau county to the state census headquarters at Albany, N.
 Y. Few mistakes and little disorder,
 thanks to the efficiency of the woman suffrage party in charge
 Suffragists sprang to the rescue in the underwriting of the liberty loan, upwards of million dollars worth of the bonds having been sold by their committees and subcommittees New York suffragists raised the funds for hospital and recrea- tion units for Plattsburgh and Niagara.
 Thorough going plans for the raising and preserving of food, for the elimina- tion of public and private waste, for the protection of women's labor in time of war, and for the Amercanization of aliens form four more details of the National American Woman Suffrage. as- sociation's nationwide war service to une government.
 Where are the opponents of woman suffrage who can point to any similar record of bona fide organized worky
 Unable to maintain their challenge of the patriotism of suffragists in the face of this showing and their own deficien- cies, opponents of suffrage shift their charge to a new base. Suffragists say they. are but playing patriotism in the hope that the vote will be their reward.
 On the contrary American suffrag1sts are asking now for the passage of the federal suffrage amendment as a war measure in order that this country may escape the charge that it has bargained with it's women-so much service so much gain. Witness the lame position of Eng fish statesmen who have sought excuses for a change of front toward the suf- frage movement. Suffrage for women is part of that complete democracy so aptly named by Mir Wilson as the opJect of this war. It is belittlng to the gov ernment, not to the women of the coun- try, to withhold grudgngly what it must ultimately give. The government must not make bargain counter sale of the democracy it is sending our men to the front to give their lives to maintain. It must start about setting the world right for democracy by giving American women the franchise for democracy's sake, not for the sake of benefits received at the hands of the women. It must do this proudly in advance of the price women must pay for this war. Not shamefacedly after that price has been paid. CARRIE CHAPMAN GAIT
 New York, June 19, 1917.