Imperial Valley press., 1920-06-21
MEN DENOUNCED
BY MRS. Gait IN
GENEVA ADDRESS
The american Suffrage Society
President Addresses World
Body ia Switzerland; Amer
lean Mole Roasted Properly.
CBy Associated Pressl

of the International Women Suffrage
Alliance, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait,
president of the American Woman
Suffrage Association, addressed the
congress On the progress OF the move
ment throughout the world. Mrs. Gait
said in part: il.
For the sufragists of the world a
few facts stand forth with great clar-
itv. The first and greatest is that
the political liberation of women was
tossed up out of the war chaos like
an isolated mountain when the world
was in the making. War, the un-
doubted original cause of the hun1iil-
ating, age-old subjection of women
the world around, war, the combined
enemy of their emancipation, war has
rendered to the women of many lands
their political freedom. Strange, be-
wilderiug fact!
sThe Latin and Oriental countries
still hold out but that will not be for
long. Runlania, the first Latin coun-
trv to extend the vote to women, mas
already lead the way. the others will
follow. I believe no country IN
Europe EXCEPT Turkey now is without
a woman suffrage association. Women
VIII SUOI NOlS WHtlCNCA iiiCil w. L ~
while all these old barriers are swept
aside in many lands and men and
women enfrsnchised, the task is not
vet completed in the countries where
women have labored hardest and
where the principle of democracy has
longest been unchallenged.
There must be millions of. women
in Europe who never hoped for the
political liberty and who are now
dazed by its sudden coming. The
women of Norway, Denmark and
Iceland have long been enfranchlsed,
but Germany has outstripped all other
nations in the recognition of the prin-
ciple of equality, with 1877 women
serving on city councils and 81 as
members of the national parliament.
The president Of the German Nationa!
Suffrage Association comes to this
congress as a member of the city
council of Dresden.
1T is not for me to interpret the
sentiments of the women of other
lands but with authority | may say
that there are millions of suffragists
in the United States who have been
fairly stupified with astonishment a
these almost .unaccountable events
! AS all the world Snows the United
States of America has been dedicatea
from the first to the principle of sell
government. No other nation has
made the same pronouncements.
.sNo other country has repudiate1
its constitution, principles and history
in. it's denial of votes to its womer
and that is why the extension OF
suffrage to the women of all Europe
has so humiliated the women of tht
United States. Women of the Unltec
States are not less glad that womer
of other lands have won the vote
! but they feel that they have beer
BETRAYED by their own nation.
ut was in the United States tina
Lthe first woman suffrage convention
was sheld and the first organized woman
suffrage movement in the world be
/ gun. That was 72 years ago. Hat
men been reasonable or logical. they
would at once haye responded to th'
appeal of 1913 with the Conslsten
answer, Since we are governmen
Of the people, and women are people
they must be included in all govern
mental functions But men are
neither reasonable nor logical; mei
are exceedingly emotional and sentl
mental. The race is too near Its cav
days to be otherwise.
$50 liberal has the United State
been in the matter Of man suffrag
! that Is of the 48 states once alloWe'
men to vote who inconsistent in per
hitting an illiterSte non-tax-payiin'
alien to vote while denying tha
privilege to Americana born, inte'li
| gent paying women.
at has been familiar sight Of
election days when a question o
1Woman suffrage has been pending t.
tsee refined ladies', college graduate
and women of Importance, standln
100 feet from the polling place making
their appeal to voters, while men un
able to speak English, the language o
the ballot, unable to read in an
language, uucouth and untralnes
marched pat them to cast vote
against their enfranchisement.
|"IncfediDIo, you say. 1t Isl. as
toundine and unbelievable. 1t stag
lsgers and dumbfounds one. Shoul'
I you ask. why is it, | answer. ther
I are excuses but no defense In
great bare, bald fact is there. Fo
I 10. years. in a land wherein no NAL
lever made a sacrifice for vote
! Women have given their all to gail
III, and their country has not yet pro
icfaitned tier. task completed.
DIS it not clear that the time ha;
passed for women to work for The
enfranchisement Of women alone
Why should not the Internationa
/ Woman Sufftag Alliance give wa,
to an international Suffrage Alliance
sending forth its propaganda fol-, tn
enfranchisement Of men as well a
women? And why should not me
!. and women Of democratic vision unit
in this copppssop aim? Most countrle
have hadn iaiea g leagues to af
twonlan siffragaj sWhy not unitel
lpef's ara, w6f1et1'b league to aid TN
entranahise1rssns Z, r,ss Ok Ok both men ah'
I women "a sHfer e ]
7 NAYa)MT MCKINLEY