The labor standard., 1919-03-01
93.OOO CONNECTICUT
 WOMEN SIGN FOR
 POLITICAL FREEDOM
Walls of Woman Suffrage Head quarters Literally Covered With Genuine Documents - No Duplication of Names

With Genuine Documents - l No Duplication of Names
 HARTEDRD-Ninety-three thous' and signatures of Connecticut womer are on exhibition at the headquarters of the Cnecticut Woman Suffrage Association in this city. These sigma lures are all the names of women who having read the sentence at the heac of the petition sheets, "We, the under. signed, believe in equal suffrage fol men and women (not having signed 9 similar book) have enrolled them selves as believers in the cause od woman suffrage"
 First Inspection
 The first public inspection of the signatures was held at Suffrage headquarters Thursday afternoon February 27, when newspaper repre- sentatives from all over the state were invited to inspect the signatures which the suffragists claim to be genuine and honestly obtained. To insure such a result the suffragists have insisted that the signatures sheets should all be signed by the women who obtained them.
 For Political Freedom
 Thousands of these sheets, neatly numbered and arranged on huge paste board placards, according to the sen atorial district to which they belong, lined tie room, which was devoted to the inspection. The walls were liter ally plastered with the white cards, which proclaimed that thousands of Connecticut women are asking for po- litical freedom.
 Fair Comparisons
 Cards which the newspaper men re- ceived when they came to look over the signatures gave the exact num- Der of women enrolled in each of the eight counties of the state, and called attention to the fact that in many of them, the number of signers exceeded a majority of the number of men vot- ing in the 1916 gubernatorial election, which was considered normal voting year. No comparison is made with 1918 for, it is pointed out, that the of men voting was noticeably 1essened because of the war.
 Signatures Guaranteed
 Tie Statement also declared strzat instructions had been given that the signers must all be women of voting age and possible citizens. As tes- timony to the kind of women who have been securing the signatures, a letter from an editor who had sent his re grets at being unable to be present, was quoted, which said: T am conf dent that as far as my town is con- cerned the signatures are genuine, for the integrity of the women appointed to secure them is above reproach.
 No Duplication
 Miss Mary Elizabeth Hutt, execu- tive secretary of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, who has had charge of the campaign since De cember, told many interesting incl dents concerning the work.
 "Often," she said, "I. have been called to the long distance telephone to hear some woman anxiously say that she had just signed the paper, and had been thinking it over, and won dered if she hadn't signed twice, not at all seeming to realize that it would mean going through thousands of names to discover if she had made that mistake. I presume few of them have signed twice, but we intend to take care of that by having a few hundred extra, which we do not count at the final counting, in order to pre- vent giving credit to duplicates. Some times sheets come in with an asterisk before the name. A note at the foot of the page explains that these two names are in the same handwriting because the daughter signed for her mother before realized what she was doing.'"
 Old Argument Silenced
 When asked as to the ultimate pur- pose of the signatures, Miss Hut said: aOur primary purpose is to silence the age-old argument Women don't want it. Of course, you realize that this is not the end of the canvass. We intend to go on until we have a large majority of the number of votes cast for governor in 1916. Already Holland and Litchfield have such majority, Windham having a majority of over thousand. We ex- pect to take the 93,0OO signatures to the hearing on the Presidential Suf- frage Bill, which comes up on Tues day, March 4, at 2 p. m. We want the legislature to know, how the women of their communities stand on the suffrage question
 of Women Who Believe
 in Woman Suffrage.
 Sigma
 Total Vote lures
 County. 1916. Filed. Hartford -.....-....--.... 5O,295 2O,2O2 New Haven .. 63, ,368 25,156