The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-30
PRESIDENT GOES
BEFORE SENATE
TO PLEAD FOR THE.
BILL.
Says Extension of Fran
chise Is Virtually Neces-
sary as War Measure
OTHER NATIONS
LOOK TO AMERICA
Cannot Continue AS Leader
in Democracy Without
Justice to Women e

Washington, Sept 30.-President
Wilson today stepped into the breach
Of the senate fight over the woman
suffrage resolution and in personal
address in the senate chamber asked
for it's passage as war measure.
The President addressed the senate
as follows:
Gentlemen of the Senate:
"The unusual circumstances in a
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 peoples will, i hope, justify in
your thought as it does in mine, the
message I have come to bring you.
Il regard the concurrence Of the
senate in the constitutional amend
ment proposing the extension Of the
suffrage to women as yitally essential
to the successful prosecution OF the
great war of humanity in which we
are engaged.
"My Duty to Win War" ]
II have come to urge upon you the
considerations which have led me to
that conclusion. 1t not only is my
privilege, it is also my duty to ap-
prise you Of every circumstance and
element involved in this momentous
struggle which seems to me to affect
its very process and it's outcome. 1t
is my plain duty to win the war and
to ask you to remove every obstacle
that standsgin the way Of winning it.
Il had assumed that the senate
would concur in the amendment be-
cause no disputable principle is in
volved but only a question of the
method by which the suffrage is to be
extended by women. There is and
can be no party issue involved in it.
Both of our great national parties are
pledged, explicitly pledged, to equal
ity of suffrage for the women Of the
country. Neither party, therefore, it
seems to me, can justify hesitation
as to the method Of obtaining it, can
hesitate to substitute fed
eral initiative for state initiative, II
the early adoption of this measure is
necessary to the successful prosecu'
tion 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 prosecution of the war and the
successful realization Of the objects
for which the war is being fought.
THAT judgment I take the liberty
of urging upon you with solemn
earnestness for reasons which shall
state frankly and which shall hope
viii seem as conclusive to you as they
seem to me.
Is Peoples War.
This is a peoples war and the
peoples thinking constitute its at
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
can ask other peoples to accept in
proof, Of our sincerity and our ability
to lead them whittier they wish to be
led nothing less persuasive and con-
vincing than our actions. Cur pro-
fessions will not suffice. Verification
must be forthcoming when yeriflca-
ton is asked for And in this case
lis asked for-asked for in
this particular matter. You ask by
whom? Not through diplomatic chan
nelg; not by foreign minister's; not
by intimations of parliaments. 1t is
asked by the anxious, expectant suf-
fering peoples with whom we are
dealing and who are willing to put
their destinies in some measure in
our hands, il they are sure that we
wish the same things that they do.
is NOT Conjecture.
''I do not speak my conjecture. 1t
is not alone the voices of statesmen
and of newspapers that reach me and
the voices of foolish and Incorporate
agitators do not reach me at all.
Through. many, many channels I
have been made aware that the plain,
work a-day folk are
thinking upon whom the chief terror
and suffering of this tragic war falls.
They are looking TO the great, power
full famous democracy of the west to
lead them to the new day for which
they have so long waited; and they
think in their logical simplicity that
democracy means that women shall
play their part in affairs alongside
men and upon an equal footing with
them. If we reject measures like this
in ignorant defiance of what new
Continued on Page 50