Republican farmer., 1918-10-04
PASSAGE OF THE
 SUFFRAGE BILL
 URGED IN SENATE
President Wilson Makes Personal Appeal ill Sen
 ate for Votes for Women.

4Or us pdSSdBe as a WET measure.
 The President addressed the Senate as follows:
 Gentlemen of the Senate:
 '"The unusual circumstances of world war in which we stand and are judged in the view not only of our own people and our own consciences, but also in the view of all nations and people will, I hope, justify in your thought, as it does in mine, the mes sage have come to bring you.
 T regard the concurrence of the Senate in the constituonal amendment proposing the extension of the suf- frage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are en- gagged. I have come to urge upon you the considerations which have led me to that conclusion. It Is not only my l privilege. it is also by duty to apprise you of every circumstance and ele- ment involved in this momentuous | struggle which seems to me to affect its very processes and it's outcome. It Is my duty to win the war and to ask you to remove every obstacle that i stands in the way of winning it. T had assumed that the Senate would concur in the amendment be- i cause no disputable principle is in volved, but only a question of the method by which the suffrage is to | be extended to women. There is and | can be no party issue involved in it. Both of our great national parties are | pledged, explicitedly pledged to l oF Fo, oP the country. Neither party, there fore, it seems to me, can justify hesi- tation as to the method of obtaining it, can rightfully hesitate to substitute Federal initiative for state initiative, If the early adoption of this measure | is necessary to the successful prose- cution of the war and if the method of state action proposed in the party | platforms of 1916 is impracticable within any reasonable length of time If practical at all. And its adoption is in my judgment, clearly necessary to the successful prosecution of the war and the successful realization of the objects for which the war is being fought
 That Judgment, I take the liberty | est for reasons which I shall state very frankly and which I hope will seem as conclusive to you as they seen, to me.
 This is a peoples war and the peoples thinking constitute its at mosphere and morale, not the predi- lections of the drawing room or the political considerations of the caucus
 If we be indeed democrats and wish
 to leave the world to democracy, we
 car; ask other peoples to accept 1T
 proof of our sincerity and our abilitS
 to lead them whither they wish to b:
 led nothing less persuasive and con-
 vincing than our actions. Our pro
 fessions will not suffice. Veri1catior
 must be forthcoming when verifica
 tion is asked for. And in this cast
 verification is asked for-asked fol
 in this particular matter. You asl
 by whom? Not through diplomat:
 channels; not by foreign ministers
 Not by the intimations of parliaments
 It is asked for by the anxious expec tant, suffering peoples with whom w are dealing and who are willing to pu
 their destinies in some measure in oul hands, if they are sure that we wis., the same things that they do.
 T do not speak my conjecture. I
 is not alone the voices of statesmen [ and of newspapers that reach me anC
 the voices of foolish and intemperatt : agitators do not reach me at all Through many, many changes I have
 been made aware with the plain | of inc fa1I- i,ol, , ing, upon whom the chief terror an6 suffering of this tragic war falls. They . are looking to the great, powerful, ia
 nous democracy of the west to leat
 them to the new day for which they , have so long waited; and they think , in their logical simplicity that democ racy means that women shall play
 their part in affairs alongside mer
 and upon an equal footing with them
 If We reject measures like this in iy
 norance and defiance what a new az,
 has brought forth, of what they have seen, but we have not, they will cease
 to believe us; they will cease to follow or to trust us.
 They have seen their own govern
 ments accept this interpretation O. democracy - seen old government! like that of Great Britain, which dit 2 not profess to be democratic, promis,
 readily and, as of course, this justice to women, though they had before re fused 1t, the strange revelations of thi war having made many things new = and plain to governments aS we'll @;
 to peoples.
 Are we alone to 4cfuse to learn tn,
 lesson? Are we alone to ask anC
 take the utmost that our women cal / give-service and sacrifice of ever,
 kind-and still say we do not see wha
 title that gives them to stand by ou Il sides in the guidance of the affairs O = their nation and ours? We have mad, partners of the women in this war 5 shall We admit them only to part nership of suffering and sacrifice ant
 toll and not to a partnership of priv i!ege and right?
 This war could not have beel
 fought, either by the other nation
 engaged or by America if it had no
 been for the services of the women
 services rendered in every sphere t not merely in the fields of efforts i q which we have been accustomed t d sec them work, but wherever me ), have worked and upon the yer l. skirts and edges ot the battle itself - We shall not only be distrusted bu e shall be destroyed should we not ,en t franchise them with the fullest pos q sIble enfranchisement., as IL is nov E 1 certain that the other great free na tionG will snfranchise them. We car