The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-26
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
WashinEfon, d. O.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Iv.-In other Countries.

United States is not the only country
which is considering the enfranchise-
nfent of its women. Woman suffrage
is now a world question. Premier
Lloyd George has pledged the parlia-
mentary vote to the women of Great
Britain, and a measure to that effect
has already passed the house of COM
mons by a vote of to l. A woman
suffrage measure is now pending in
the French chamber of deputies; the
Italian premier has promised suf-
frage to the women of Italy on be-
half OF his party; Hungary is pledged
to enfranchise Hungarian women, and
the matter has even been debated in
the German reichstag.
In Canada the government has CIV
en- suffrage to women as war meas
ure, extending the parliamentary vote
to all women who are mothers, wives.
widows. sisters or daughters of SOL
diers-and there are few Canadian
women who cannot meet one of these
qualifications. The city of Prague in
Bohemia is considering a new fran
chise plan which includes woman suf-
frage. The women of Sweden, having
long enjoyed the right to municipal
suffrage, are now promised full suf-
frage by the king. Albert of Belgium
has also promised it to the women of
Belgium as one of his first acts If his
kingdom is ever restored to him.
Everywhere in Europe the women
are gaining the confidence of nations.
In Finland, where women have had
the ballot for several years, they are
taking an important part in the organ
ization of their government necessi-
tated by the Russian revolution. The
Socialist party leads by large major
ity in the Finnish parliament, and
among its members are many women
deputies. A woman is a member of
the Finnish national committee on
education; another woman, formerly
factory inspector, is member of
the committee on labor. and a woman
deputy is member of an extremely i'm
portant committee which considers>al
bills before they are introduced into
parliament.
In the belligerent countries women
are being relied on more and more.
At the beginning of the war, Great
Britain let 1t be known that the wo-
men would be allowed to help, but
within limitations for the government
had had experience with a certain
type of woman in the Boer war which
it did not want repeated. Then few
society women, thrilled by the oppor-
tunity of anew sensation, had follow
ed the armies into South Africa, where
they had made themselves as orna-
mental and as useless as possible, and
had finally been ordered home by a
British general
The Boer war was not such long
time ago, but women-even- society
women-have made tremendous prog
ress since then. The British govern
ment was not long in recognizing the
difference. In the first year of this
war women were put in charge of
hospitals after men had failed; women
entered munition plants to I'LL the
places of men at the front; they or
ganized themselves into bands of
| workers and titled the fields, made
clothes and repaired shoes, until
British men could no longer ignore
the value of the women's services.
To win the war, the British women
neglected their own cause, which was
to win the parliamentary ballot.
Since 1869 single women over 81 had
been permitted to vote in municipal
matters, but a married woman was
denied this privilege. it being taken
for granted that her husband would
represent her Laws unfavorable to
women have not disappeared as rapid
ly in Europe as they have in this
country, so that the women of Great
Britain have fought for the ballot not
so much as right, but as the means
by which they might remove legal in
justices.
The feminist movement originated
in Europe at the same time that it
did in the United States, the anti
slavery convention at London in 1S49
providing the necessary jolt Up to
that time the women of Europe had
not realized that their exclusion from
the ballot was the result of any de-
liberate intent. But when American
| women delegates were refused admit
| lance by a convention of men, who
| had depended upon their co-opera-
ton in the abolition movement at
home, the European women suddenly
realized where they stood. From that
| -
of women was inferior to that of men,
and that the basis of that inferiority
was the ballot. And it is significant
that the date of this convention
marked the beginning of women's or
CARNATIONS in nearly every country
| in Europe.
Woman suffrage became world
wide movement. At Washington, in
1902, the first international woman S
convention was held for the purpose
of discussing the extension. of equal
| suffrage. 1t was attended by women
representatives from Canada, Ger
many, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden,
Australia, Chile, Russia and this coun-
/ try. An international committee was
| formed to keep in touch with suf-
| frage questions in every country and
! two years later this committee held a
| meeting in Berlin, where the first
J International Womens Suffrage ALI
/ dLC0 NdS eSldOllSHSu. InTu TINS ALL
ance, of which an American woman,
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait, is now
! president, suffragists keep in commu-
nication with each other all over the
| world.
| Meantime, in several countries
| women had won the ballot. In Fin
| land, Norway. New Zealand and Aus
tralia women now enjoy universal suf-
frage, and in Denmark, Iceland and
Sweden they had the municipal fran
chise. No sooner did the women of
! these countries come into power than
they started the enactment of laws
! protecting women and children and
| the repeal of the ancient laws I'M
! favorable to them. Thus in Finland
it was necessary to abolish a mans
right of guardianship over his wife;
to establish certain rights of mothers