The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-05-09

WHICH buC WUulCn VI w lSCOnS1A dIO
enfranchised, as they are likely to be
within year or two, disappointment
is in store for some women eager to
avail themselves of their new oppor-
tunity. These women, if foreign born,
will learn, for the first time perhaps
when they attempt to vote, that they
cannot vote because they are not ma
tura1ized citizens.
If native born and married to foreign
ers they viii learn that they cannot
vote because their husbands are not
citizens and that married women may
not chose their citizenship but become
automatically of the citizenship of
their husbands.
Indeed some Wisconsin women, as
women of other states, may learn these
lessons at almost any hour. The presi-
dent of the United States has issued
a proclamation that the regulations of
enemy alien men shall apply equally
to enemy alien women, a perfectly pro-
per provision. But by virtue Of other
laws on our statute books an American
woman who marries German or Aus
trian also weds German or Austrian
citizenship and thus becomes an enemy
alien, subject to necessary regulations,
of registration, of being barred from
certain zones, turned out from the Dis
trict of Columbia, even possibly in
termed.
She may be passionately devoted to
the ideals and the government of the
United States. The law presumes that,
if married, woman is not sufficiently
capable Of the sentiment of patriotism
SO that she is entitled to choose her
own country-just as a few years ago,
under the old common law of Eng
land, a married woman was not con-
sidered capable of holding or manag-
ing her own property or collecting her
own wages even though she earned
them.
The war brings this question of the
citizenship of women acutely to our at
tention, In this country and in other
countries where similar conditions pre-
vail. In European nations, where
there has naturally been much inter
marriage among peoples now hostile to
each other, women are learning the un-
fairness, the cruelty, of this conception
of womanhood, under which a woman
is considered capable only of loyalty
to her husband, not to her country.
European women are demanding that
women though married may choose
their citizenship.
Women of the United States are
making the same demand. A bill is
now pending in Congress which pro-
vides that an American woman married
to foreigner may retain her own
nationality or she may renounce her
nationality in a court competent to
grant naturalization. Wisconsin peo-
pie will be interested in the fact that
this bill as drawn by Mrs Ellen
Spencer Mussey, sister of the late Rob
ert G. Spencer of the Spencerian Bust
ness College and aunt of Edward w.
Spencer Of Milwaukee. Mrs. Mussey
is very distinguished woman, law
yer practising in the Supreme Court of
the United States and having served
for many years as attorney for the
Norwegian and Swedish legations in
this country. The measure permitting
American married women to choose
their citizenship is supported by great
organizations of women and was pre-
sented in Congress n May, 1918, by
Rankin.
It is a curious fact that under the
old common law conception of woman
hood. the single woman was fairly
intelligent and responsible being. her
capacities being blighted only by mar
rage. This conception prevails in the
laws now in force. The
single woman may become naturaHzed
just as man becomes naturalized, by